Thursday, November 25, 2010

Much to be thankful for

Since mid October, I have gone from fighting what I thought was a common cold to fighting subsequent ear infections, pneumonia, bronchitis and now............ an asthma attack. Easy breathing has been anything but for the past 6 weeks.

I spent yesterday in an urgent care facility getting a breathing treatment, a steroid pack and some super duper antibiotic that cost me $100.

None the less, unlike Angelina Jolie, I intend to celebrate big today; since there is much to be thankful for.

I'm thankful that somewhere in my family tree some Irish immigrants' lives were so horrible in their home country, they opted to flee their homes under indentured servant contracts for a better life.

I'm also thankful that those immigrants found out when they got here, that those contracts they worked under would be worse than slavery. See, unlike a slave, an indentured servant was not property for their master to keep in running order for life. As a result, those masters didn't give a crap if they beat, raped, worked those servants to death since they would just be gone in five years anyway. Kind of like renters treating their homes over owners.

I'm also thankful that those "servants" ran away into the hills of Appalachia where they took their Irish culture with them.

I'm also thankful for having the knowledge that most of the Europeans that came to this country weren't rich oppressors here to pass disease and alcohol to the natives at the time. In fact, most of the people who came to this country did so out of starvation of some type.

I'm thankful that all these people came to this country out of their own hunger and creating a world where we can all have nice bloated stomachs in a climate controlled environment watching football.

But more importantly, I'm most thankful that someone had the smarts and profit motivation to "extort" me out of $100 so that I can breathe better today.

And when Angelina's willing to give all her possessions to a Shawnee nation somewhere, I'll quit believing she's less full of crap than I will be at 6:00.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Thanks Gordon. I used to like Angelina but my opinion of her just went down about 15 notches this week (on a 10 notch scale). Leave it to a Hollywood millionare liberal to take a day about giving thanks and try to make it a day about murder.

My memories of this day are about my family and being thankful that I live in a country that, at this point in history, offers more opportunity to all people than any other country ever has in the history of the world. Apparently, Angelina wants this memory to die in this generation.

People like her like to reinterpret the past and fit it into her angry view of the world. My ancestors were under brutal European rule at the time of the pilgrams. Yet she thinks that because each of us does not take responsibility for every sin committed centuries ago by people that were not our ancestors (but had the same skin color) we are somehow not as culturally aware as she is. Talk about racist. If anyone has tunnel vision it's her. She's the one that misses the big picture. Why can't Thanksgiving be interpreted as being thankful that that we don't live in the harsh world that nearly all humans once had to endure?

I really think it's not that complicated to understand though. Actors and actresses are really all about show, as opposaed to true conviction. They wear expensive clothes, drive fancy cars, and wear shiney jewelry. In the last 20 years they have developed a couple whole new categories of showcase accessories: foreign adopted children (the darker their skin, the better), and caustic attitude toward established and loved institutions. The little black kid goes well with the $110,000 tennis bracelet (containing diamonds mined by oppressed African miners) and the trashing of Thanksgiving is the fashionable thing to do as you fly off to Paris in your carbon belching private jet.

I only have one more thing to say about Angelina that I never thought I'd say: What a bitch.