A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving
Human nature always leads us to believe that the days of yore had more promise and glimmer than they really did. We glorify the past as if present times overcomplicated living for every and any modern mainstream American family. Well, except for those disenfranchised in this country during certain periods of the calendar. We’re probably the quickest to recognize the sordid history of every and any holiday because that too matches up with our own experience in the Americas. While people throw firecrackers during July 4th, Blacks wonder when they’ll get actual equity in all institutions. While people celebrate Labor Day, Latinos and other immigrant groups wonder if they’ll ever find a path towards naturalization to continue their underpaid, over-utilized, non-union labor. While people celebrated this past weekend over turkey, stuffing, and zealotry for supposedly cost-effective early Christmas shopping, hundreds of indigenous Americans wonder whether the souls of millions of their ancestors have to wait for their histories to run through the scribes of the victor’s alleged history book.
All the while, those of many backgrounds wonder why we only have a dedicated, extended time to say thanks for the gifts we have all around us.
I’m not a fan of people trying to turn something historically negative into something positive, at least not without cleansing or dealing with the ramifications of that thing or things. However, let it be known that today, after everything I’ve seen this weekend, I’m officially happy to celebrate Thanksgiving. Yes, this comes from the very guy who only two years ago renamed this holiday Indigenous Slaughter and Genocide Day, but let me explain.
Everything I’ve learned about myself and others, the triumphs and negativity, the opportunities and shortfalls, and mainly the state of my life currently only give me hope that the road I’ve walked on leads me directly where I need to be. No minor feat on my end, I’ve kept much of this process to myself as I’ve sworn myself to secrecy about the details. It’s really easy for we pontificators, ruminators, and pseudo-psychologists to overanalyze our lives and nitpick at the unkempt and murky parts of our lives, thereby foregoing the light that calls us.
A few weeks ago, I dedicated myself to taking a step back and cleaning out some of the negativity in hopes of finding a center within myself. Now that I see it, i’ve become more energized and ready to kick butt at school. I have good family, good friends, and I can put food on the proverbial table. The same one where my now bald-headed younger brother, my mother, my stepfather, and my aunt sat with a forks and knives ready to clean up the few plates of rice and beans, turkey, pork, and Russian-style potato salad.
What’s more, the government of this land actually gave me a whole 2 days free of the hustle to pause everything and reflect like I just did.
Today, as I did a couple of days back, I give thanks for the ability to tell this all to you. Thanks.
Jose, who restarts the school year tomorrow …
courtesy of Chris Britt, The State Journal-Register
This is not my Thanksgiving
Meat cooking in the oven, parents readying themselves for the night’s festivities
My brother in from the academic institution I once attended
A mix of house cleanliness and unease over my mother’s operation tomorrow
But this is not my Thanksgiving
This is a call to attention to counting our blessings
On a day after Mumbai becomes overrun by young terrorists
On a day when over 3.5 million people were affected negatively
By the storms in Rio de Janeiro
On a day when Iraq and Afghani deaths have eclipsed 30,000
Not too casual considering the casualties
Boys in Queens throw their future away for a few shots of Vodka
Young men broadcast their suicides on MySpace
Girls gone missing, unreported, threatened, tortured,
Whose whole family is murdered for all to see
This is not my Thanksgiving
My inheritance: an undesired bailout to companies unwilling to bail us out
From their profit-mongering methods
Their poisoning of our collective consciousness
Homes stripped,
Aimless,
Hopeless
Toxin popularity on the rise
A cycle of oppression over turkey continues
But this is not my Thanksgiving
This is my prayer,
A yell out for a better Earth
Where counting our blessings becomes higher on our priority list
Than our profit count or a body count …
Jose, who sends out his best wishes to the world today, thankful for what he recieves …
A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving
My favorite Thanksgiving traditions involve my younger brother and cousin eating pernil (pork) from Mom’s awesome cooking, drinking tons of soda, playing NBA 2Ksomething, or Mario Kart, and then sitting in the living room after the adults left and talking shit. Just putrid and haterific shit. Most of it I can’t even remember, but I know most of it wasn’t even called for. Needless to say, my family traditions weren’t traditional.
Living on the Lower East Side in a time when I’d hear random gun shots fired, and darkness rarely evaded us, many of us were just thankful to live to the next day, when Chico was making murals for the deceased every 2 weeks. In many ways, I’m thankful for the difficult times growing up, because it developed my character and made me perceptive and resilient where others may have folded.
I’m thankful for family, wherever they are. As uncanny as my situation may be, we in the younger generation on both sides of my family have definitely taken the initiative to solidify our relationships with each other. I’d like to say it’s because we didn’t want to follow the example of our parents … well that’s the truth actually.
I’m thankful that I’m in the profession I’d like to be in. The opportunity to have an impact on any child academically and socially becomes too hard to pass up, especially in these days and time.
I’m thankful for my support system, especially my lady. Even though she’s got a lot going on, I know she’s someone who I can depend on when times get crazy.
I’m thankful for the opportunity to express myself, really.
What are you thankful for?
Jose, who wants some of that tasty pernil now …
by Jose on November 22, 2007 · 9 comments
in Uncategorized
In 2000, when I finally had the language to express my frustrations and quandaries about the state and history of America, I started to refer to Thanksgiving as “Happy Indigenous Slaughter Day” to commemorate the millions of indigenous people slaughtered by the incumbent European oppressors who pillaged, raped, and committed ruthless genocide amongst the many across this hemisphere (and in other continents). The history of these states demand that we appropriate the more tender (and proportionally few) moments of those events: people of different origins celebrating together after months of long and arduous travels where we can commune in peace with our families. Unfortunately, just like the day itself, that’s too far from the truth. It’s an ideal that we can strive for, and sometimes substantiate enough to mimic such joyous feelings, but the word Thanksgiving irks me some.
And I hate to be labeled as the Angry Black Latino Man (which I am, and I acknowledge in parts), but this should be a time to reflect upon why it is that we’re truly thankful and why we choose this day to do so. Are we thankful for the families that we have and if so, what role do we play in making those families a beacon of our inspiration? Are we thankful for the freedoms we supposedly have and the virtues of peace and love we hold so dear to us while men and women throw weapons of mass destruction at one another for the very same cause? Are we thankful for having something to eat and sleep at night while our comforts allow for this hapless yet conniving administration to sedate us while they continue to proliferate an underbelly of their imperialist regime?
Or is it simpler than that?
How many of us come from families that don’t have any dirty secrets about each other? How many of us don’t celebrate Thanksgiving because they’re tired of pretending to like the person sitting across from them? How many of us wish we could have people sit around a table and just eat? How many of us hate our jobs and wish this day off would never end? How many of us feel unappreciated and lonely on this day of thanks? How many of us want something to truly be thankful for?
As much as I hate to say it, just being right here right now makes me an accomplice to what we do this every arena … unless of course I raise my hand. Unless of course, I seek to change the course in my family, my friends, and the country I live in. Bring back the soldiers and let’s help the ones who aren’t as fortunate as we are right here. There’s no reason to believe we don’t all hold a stake in making Thanksgiving a holy day, and a time to truly revolutionize what’s happening in our lives.
In many ways, this musing really serves as an all-reaching prayer, hoping we all find something to be thankful for in these troubling times.
Cheers …
jose, who’s grown up a bit since Y2K …
