the system

  It seems to me that an awful lot of people are just looking for ways to ruin the holidays. Well, to ruin just about everything really. Thanksgiving is just around the corner and I'm hearing all the stories of how terrible the pilgrims were. How white people brought all the disease and stole the land, killed the natives and all in all were just awful folks. They persecuted their own people on religious beliefs and everything. Some folks are certain they were all ancestors of Trump! 

  Yes much of what we were told about thanksgiving was just wrong. It has to be remembered that the stories being told are being told by those that survived. You could say the victors but that isn't really accurate, survivors is the closer definition. After all, if we are going to report the "news" in contemporary fashion the pilgrims were just migrants. I wonder why though in this contemporary reporting we don't recognize all of that as custom and traditions. Isn't that what the contemporary folks say in regard to our current migrants and the imposition of their customs and traditions. You are not supposed to tell the historical facts regarding any of those customs and traditions, just respect them. Fact is, Mohamed was no saint! That's just a historical reality given his life story. His story is quite a bit different from Jesus. But, that does depend upon who is telling the story.

  It looks like the grinch is replacing Santa Claus. That's the feeling I've been getting the last few years. The grinch is being celebrated for what? His recovery. Yeah, that's the story isn't it, he is a terrible guy that steals Christmas, cruel and mean, he's ruthless. But, he makes a recovery, he's a survivor and should be celebrated for that. Santa Claus is just some old fat guy using elves for slave labor and only works one day of the year. He's just in it for the glory. Not the grinch though, he has a compassionate heart, empathic and caring, all in all a great guy. Sure he stole Christmas, but he gave it back and that is all that matters.

  Many of our Christmas traditions and customs have been banned from government property. It's in the constitution! It's the first amendment, the separation of church and state. You can't be showing your customs or traditions on government property! That may offend someone that has a different custom or tradition. We certainly don't want to offend anyone. I don't know how Madison, Jefferson and Monroe overlooked that. Shouldn't that have been the first amendment, You can not offend anyone! You know, the ten commandments do not explicitly say that either, in fact the ninth commandment says you shouldn't lie or bear false witness, which if followed, may indeed offend someone. The truth hurts! Could it be that is the real intent, the reason for that omission? As far as I'm concerned I would use the defense, we've got it like that. This is America and those are our traditions and customs, we got it like that. 

  Beyond all of that it just seems to me like that is the general theme these days. Try to take the wind of everyone's sails, so to speak. Were your ancestors confederate soldiers? Well, they shouldn't be celebrated or remembered, they were all terrible people. Every single one of them fought to keep their slaves. Down with the statues and monuments. They should be replaced with those that were criminals but either turned their life around, or were killed by the police. Those people are the real heroes. Rebel flags and nooses! OMG how offensive is all that, triggering an entire demographic. It all needs to be banned. Columbus, a global terrorist really, and he didn't even discover America. A terrible person, just terrible. Thomas Jefferson, slave holder, terrible person. George Washington, same thing and he had the largest distillery in the country. 

 And we must never forget about the systemic racism in this country. If your ancestors were white Europeans, you are a racist. It was taught to you in school. You are privileged. You can't help that and you can never ever recover from that. Your only hope is to keep providing everything for the oppressed and asking for forgiveness. That's only right because you are the one that oppressed them! Never mind it was their countrymen that were selling them to traders as a commodity. Those folks aren't to blame, only those doing the buying. It's like being a drug dealer in the back alley, when they get arrested it isn't their fault, they are just trying to survive. It's the systems fault! And that means it is you, you are the system. You have nothing to be proud of.