So it begins: the official Christmas shopping season. (Lest you think I'm ignoring the other holidays like Hanukkah and Kwanzaa and any other festival that falls between now and January 1, I'm using "Christmas" as the generic term and not preferring that one over the others. Bite me, Bill O'Reilly.)
Actually, the shopping season has been going on since the middle of September when I got my first catalogue from Smith & Hawken or some such; I just didn't notice it among the rest of the campaign literature that was pouring into my mailbox. I piled them on the dining room table until I could make a big enough bundle to stick in the recycling tub and braced for more after the election was over.
Our family has a long tradition of giving gifts to each other, but it's getting to the point where it's becoming more a chore than a true gift, and so my older brother and his wife suggested that maybe it was time for us to all take a deep breath and think beyond the wrapping, the packaging, the search through the desk for the slips of paper with updated addresses, remembering who likes what, who doesn't eat something else, and all the little things that come when you give a material present. They sent out an e-mail to the family suggesting -- just suggesting -- that instead of the boxes and stuffing, we give each other something more meaningful: time with each other and sharing our connections. Give a gift if you like, but don't feel the pressure to have to give something that comes in a box or in a stocking or is redeemable on line.
This is not the first time we've done this. Last year in lieu of presents my parents donated to all of our favorite charities or foundations. And it felt very good. It was, I hope, the beginning of a tradition, and something -- especially in this time of economic shit hitting the fan -- that will help others who really need it.
But it's also hard to let go of the old habits, so I know that I will be out there doing some shopping... or more likely, sitting here at the computer, credit card at the ready, doing shopping without having to remember where I parked.
(Cross-posted.)
Gifting
The Virtual Pub Is Open
TFIF, Shakers!
Belly up to the bar,
and name your poison!
Drinks are on me, because
I am very thankful for you.
Bush? Never heard of'm.
Yglesias makes a note about "the effort to pull the wagon of conservatism out of the ditch into which Bush piloted the country [via] an effort to deny that George W. Bush was a real conservative." This has been going on at least as far back as 2006, and the refusal of the architects of The Ownership Society to own their fearless leader nowadays never ceases to bitterly amuse me.
Black Friday Indeed
[Blub alert, and not in a good way. I'm also going to politely request right up front that this not turn into an excuse to engage in classism because of the particular site of this event. Deadly apathy is not exclusively owned by the lower classes.]
Shaker Graham and Arkades both mentioned this in earlier threads, but it really deserves its own post:
A Wal-Mart worker died after being trampled when hundreds of shoppers smashed through the doors of a Long Island store Friday morning, police and witnesses said.People pushed right past as the emergency crews tried to revive the worker; they also knocked down a pregnant woman who was taken to the hospital for treatment.
The 34-year-old employee, a temporary maintenance worker, tried to hold back the unruly crowds just after the Valley Stream store opened at 5 a.m.
Witnesses said the surging throngs of shoppers knocked the man down. He fell and was stepped on. As he gasped for air, shoppers ran over and around him.
"He was bum-rushed by 200 people," said Jimmy Overby, 43, a co-worker. "They took the doors off the hinges. He was trampled and killed in front of me. They took me down too...I literally had to fight people off my back."
As I've said before, I've been shocked on far too many occasions in my life by the callous disregard for human life, including lives right in front of our noses. (I've been shocked on occasions by some rather astonishingly brave and wonderful things, too, but I would be lying if I said they were not decidedly more rare.) I've seen people literally step over a body stretched lengthwise across the sidewalk on Chicago's Michigan Avenue during evening rush hour—dozens of people, walking around or right over the prostrate figure of a homeless man, on their hurried way home. I stopped to see if he was okay, if he needed medical attention, if he was alive, and people stopped not to help, but to look at me with utter disgust, before walking on. And last year, a man had a stroke and fell and cracked his head open on the train platform in front of Iain during morning rush hour. Iain was the only one who stopped to help this elderly man, staying with him and trying to care for him and making sure he was breathing, alive, until the paramedics arrived.
This is why we've all got to be consciously, deliberately, vigilantly all in.
We each make a difference in this world, for good or ill. There is no neutral. There is no Switzerland. There is only saying no to the indignities one human visits upon another—prejudice, hatred, humiliation and pain—or saying yes. And sometimes there is only stopping and kneeling and laying your hands on a stranger and putting your own body in between theirs and a herd of the unconcerned.
Always, every moment of every day, we must remember that kindness really can be a matter of life and death.
[Thanks to Iain and Shaker InfamousQBert, who also sent the story by email.]
Daily Kitteh
Know what happens on Thanksgiving to naughty kittens who ignore at least half a dozen kitchen sink sprayer warnings to GET OFF THE COUNTER and STAY AWAY FROM THE STOVE and wait for Mumsy to turn her back for two seconds so they can go investigate what's cooking?
They get curly whiskers!
What Are We Really Giving Thanks For?
[This was supposed to be posted yesterday, but Renee and I had email issues. So my apologies for the delay!—MM]
by Shaker Renee, of Womanist Musings
Today families are going to gather across the nation to share a meal. (At least those who can afford to participate.) They will brave long lines, security at the airports, and lots of traffic to ensure that they are able to re-enact the national fable that we have come to understand as Thanksgiving Day. As the mashed potatoes and turkey are doled out, a few will stop to consider their bounty. Other than the 4th of July, could there be another day that is filled with more tradition, and pure Americana?
Hours of labour will have gone into preparing the feast. The stress of the travel will be forgotten as people begin to gorge themselves. It will be a day that will reach its climax when finally every stomach is filled beyond tolerance, and each face holds a smile. Satiated and relaxed, the family will retire to their respective couches to reflect upon a good time had by all.
Yes, it seems like a wonderful day of light hearted mirth and family bonding, until we begin to speak about the unmentionable; the suffering of the Indigenous community. The national myth includes happy compliant Native Americans, with no mention of the near genocide that occurred that makes them nearly invisible to this day in the social hierarchy.
We are further meant to believe that the pilgrims as people of God, held no prejudice, or ambition in their hearts. We are continually reminded of their persecution, as though that absolves them of the pleasure that they took in the near destruction of Native peoples. Only the truly God-fearing and tolerant kind, find happiness in small pox decimating a population.
John Winthrop, Governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony, called the plague "miraculous." To a friend in England in 1634, he wrote:"But for the natives in these parts, God hath so pursued them, as for 300 miles space the greatest part of them are swept away by the small pox which still continues among them. So as God hath thereby cleared our title to this place, those who remain in these parts, being in all not fifty, have put themselves under our protect."
This is not the only declaration that Winthrop would make. The thanksgiving that we partake in today is nothing more than the re-enactment of a celebration over the murder of over 700 Pequot people.'Thanksgiving' did not begin as a great loving relationship between the pilgrims and the Wampanoag, Pequot and Narragansett people. In fact, in October of 1621 when the 'pilgrim' survivors of their first winter in Turtle Island sat down to share the first unofficial 'Thanksgiving' meal, the Indians who were there were not even invited! There was no turkey, squash, cranberry sauce or pumpkin pie. A few days before this alleged feast took place, a company of 'pilgrims' led by Miles Standish actively sought the head of a local Indian leader, and an 11 foot high wall was erected around the entire Plymouth settlement for the very purpose of keeping Indians out! Officially, the holiday we know as 'Thanksgiving' actually came into existence in the year 1637. Governor Winthrop of the Massachusetts Bay Colony proclaimed this first official day of Thanksgiving and feasting to celebrate the return of the colony's men who had arrived safely from what is now Mystic, Connecticut. They had gone there to participate in the massacre of over 700 Pequot men, women and children, and Mr. Winthrop decided to dedicate an official day of thanksgiving complete with a feast to 'give thanks' for their great 'victory'....
The unspoken thanks for the near-genocide of a people is what we will all fail to reflect upon. In this way we are able to maintain a colonization that has gone on since Plymouth Rock landed on the Indigenous Peoples.
The lie is maintained from generation to generation. We use children's cartoons to inform the young that they are entitled to this privilege born of bloodshed. Schools use thanksgiving pageants, where the children are dressed as Pilgrims and Indians to re-enforce the national myth.
Though the Indigenous community has complained, time and time again about the obvious appropriation of culture, many refuse to acknowledge the legitimacy of the offense. They hold tightly to the idea that they have the right to their traditions. (Warning: Comment section is extremely offensive.)
In the name of tradition the colonization, exploitation, and marginalization continues. One would believe that after the breaking of over 350 treaties, the trail of tears, and the slaughter of untold millions, that we could socially decide that a tradition that is based in this is worth changing.
It is the denial of racial privilege to believe that one group has the right to so forcefully express their power in this manner. Though the Indigenous community represents the vanquished historically speaking, they are still a vibrant part of our society. The annual celebration of such cruelty is macabre to say the least.
If we must have a day when we gather together, it should not be in the celebration of a near genocide. There is nothing that evokes warmth and love about an earth that is filled with the blood of so many innocent people.
Today as the turkey and the ham are passed around, perhaps instead of the laughter and camaraderie, a moment of silence could be devoted to the cultures that have been forcibly destroyed, the languages lost, and the untold suffering of millions. The Indigenous Peoples of the Americas deserve at least that. If we can pause on Remembrance Day for a war that lasted four years; perhaps we can take a moments pause for a colonization that has lasted centuries.
Friday Blogaround
lol your blogaround
Recommended Reading:
Renee: Teaching the Young to Disrespect Indigenous Culture
Lisa: Anachronism and American Indians
Kevin: Am I Not Human?
Katecontinued: Use Less
Ginmar: Just Donate a Dollar
Jill: A Boy's Life
Leave your links in comments...
Happy Blogiversary...
...to Elle, PhD, one of my absolute favorite blogs in the blogosphere, with four amazing bloggers, celebrating three years of serious blog-rocking.
Elle, someday we are going to have the longest lunch in history together. That is a fact!
Mumbai Attack Resources
Matttbastard's got a great compilation of resources, information, and news sources here and will continue to update. If you've got any recommendations, leave them in his comments or here.
Jumping off the Ban Wagon
I've got a new piece at The Guardian's Comment is free America about LGB rights in the 21st century, progress, and teaspoons:
In an open letter to her brother (and conservative firebrand) Newt last week, Candace Gingrich, who is an out lesbian, took him to task for his anti-gay positions: "The truth is that you're living in a world that no longer exists. I, along with millions of Americans, clearly see the world the way it as – and we embrace what it can be. You, on the other hand, seem incapable of looking for new ideas or moving beyond what worked in the past. Welcome to the 21st century, big bro."Read the whole thing here.
Welcome indeed.
In 2004, the GOP's Federal Marriage Amendment, seeking to ban same-sex marriage nationally, failed for the first time; in 2006, it failed for the second time. It has been reintroduced this year; it will fail again – if it even makes it to a vote.
By August of 2005, only a year after 11 states banned same-sex marriage by ballot, a Pew Research poll found that 53% of Americans supported same-sex civil unions (and 35% of those supported full marriage equality). It was also a year after Massachusetts legalized same-sex marriage – and the state had had an entire year to explode, but hadn't...
(And to the Ts: I'm planning something more specific to you for CifA in future, so please don't feel forgotten or unimportant to me.)
Two-Minute Nostalgia Sublime
I never had, nor wanted, a Cabbage Patch Kid when
I was a little girl. I thought they were ugly as fuck.
Black Friday
Black Friday is upon us. The holiest of holies, that day of unbridled consumerism and conspicuous spending that makes us all Americans, no matter what country we live in. And while you're out there today stimulating the economy, like the good patriots you are, think of me. Yes, think of me and all the things I
Playmobil Hazmat Crew
Bruce of Los Angeles: Outside/Inside
EyeClops Bionic Eye
Suit of Armor
Hedwig and the Angry Inch
Tiffany Metropolis Cuff Links
Vintage Stormtrooper 12" Action Figure
Dusty in Memphis by Dusty Springfield
Pith Helmet
Acupuncture Cat Model
The Exact and Very Strange Truth by Ben Piazza
Hugo Boss Plain Toe Oxfords
Corey Haim: Me, Myself, and I
Rainer Werner Fassbinder's BRD Trilogy
UPDATED to add: Darth Vader Toaster
Terrorist Attacks in Mumbai
I've been reading with horror about the coordinated terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India yesterday and this morning, which, according to the Times of India, have already left over 100 people dead and nearly 1,000 injured, and I don't even know what to say. Al-Qaeda was immediately and reflexively presumed to be responsible, which is now being disputed; meanwhile, "an unknown outfit, Deccan Mujahideen, has sent an email to news organizations claiming that it carried out the Mumbai attacks." A bit of history:
India has been wracked by bomb attacks the past three years, which police blame on Muslim militants intent on destabilizing this largely Hindu country. Nearly 700 people have died.I wish I had something wise or reassuring to say, but I don't.
Since May a militant group calling itself the Indian Mujahideen has taken credit for a string of blasts that killed more than 130 people. The most recent was in September, when a series of explosions struck a park and crowded shopping areas in the capital, New Delhi, killing 21 people and wounding about 100.
Mumbai has been hit repeatedly by terror attacks since March 1993, when Muslim underworld figures tied to Pakistani militants allegedly carried out a series of bombings on Mumbai's stock exchange, trains, hotels and gas stations. Authorities say those attacks, which killed 257 people and wounded more than 1,100, were carried out to avenge the deaths of hundreds of Muslims in religious riots that had swept India.
Ten years later, in 2003, 52 people were killed in Mumbai bombings blamed on Muslim militants and in July 2007 a series of seven blasts on railway trains and at commuter rail stations killed at least 187.
Relations between Hindus, who make up more than 80 percent of India's 1 billion population, and Muslims, who make up about 14 percent, have sporadically erupted into bouts of sectarian violence since British-ruled India was split into independent India and Pakistan in 1947.
Two-Minute Nostalgia Sublime
It's kinda hard to believe this is considered a classic bit of
Thanksgiving hilarity, but so it is. I'll bet weed helps.
HAPPY SCHMANKSGIVING, SHAKERS!
Soft on Turkeys
From The West Wing, President Jed Bartlet emulates George W. Bush and pardons two turkeys.*
Happy Thanksgiving.
*Thanks to Shaker Hawise for the correction.
Top Chef Open Thread
Chef Tom Colicchio will drink. your. milkshake!!!
He will also show you fun and interesting new things you can do with peppercorns and capers. Special things.
Question of the Day
Who is your favorite poet?
Given that you're reading this at a blog called Shakesville, I'm going to wager a guess that you can figure out my answer.
Quote of the Day
"Malia and Sasha have already put their list together. It's mostly for Santa. They send their letter every year. But we may do some extra shopping as well."—President-Elect Barack Obama, protecting the magic and mystery of St. Nick for his daughters, lest any sound bite spoilers reach their wee ears.
Wild About Harry
So, last night, Harry Connick, Jr. was on the Letterman show, and I've been waiting all day for a video of it to come online, but no such luck. He told a rather hilarious story about the black and white roosters his family owned, respectively named Obama and McCain, one of whom got eaten on election night. I don't guess I need to tell you which one.
He was also being generally cute talking about his wife and three daughters, which reminded me that he once got Shakesville's Quote of the Day for rhapsodizing all the strong women in his life—so, since I can't find that darn video, here's the quote again with the video originally posted with it. Enjoy!
"My life is chick power. My manager is a woman, who has been with me since I'm 18, and my wife is a strong and intelligent woman. I have three daughters. My dogs are all females. Even my sister Suzanna...she just got a double medical degree; she's now a psychiatrist and an internal medicine doctor and she speaks about 10 languages. She's so impressive. I'm surrounded by strong, intelligent women."—Harry Connick, Jr.
