Gord's Notebook : Obama " A MORE PERFECT UNION " & Burroughs' " Thanksgiving Prayer " & The Imperfect Present

Two sides of the coin
or America's Hope vs America's Reality

First lets begin with Obama'S Thanksgiving Address

Obama: 'Coming Together to Overcome Adversity'

In a Thanksgiving address, President-elect Barack Obama recognizes the importance of family, gives thanks to our troops and talks about the strength needed to get through economic hardship. (Nov. 27)

UPDATE: Here's Rachel Maddow's Thanksgiving Message

MSNBC's Rachel Maddow is Thankful for......

MSNBC's Rachel Maddow reviews resignations and convictions of the Bush Administration and thankfully looks to the end of his rule.

Anyway its Thanksgiving Day in America. We should join Americans in giving thanks for the electing of Barack Obama as President. But America's past and even its present is still troubling to many of us outside America. Americans are free to to give thanks for what is good about America but they also need to come to grips with the darker side to their history and their present so they can move forward to make America that "More Perfect Union" Obama talked about so eloquently. But can Obama move America beyond its prejudices and racism; its Homophobia and its sexism . Can Obama move the American nation beyond its bullying attitude towards the rest of the world and accept its place as one nation among many that wish to move towards a better world. No nation can ever be perfect for there will always be some failings and more work to be done. The world, itself will never be perfect for there will always be some injustice taking place somewhere. All we can do is strive to do better.

Doing better means not invading and occupying sovereign nations under false pretenses. It also means treating people of different religions and cultures with dignity. It means not indisriminately bombing another countries towns and cities. It means treating those captured on the battlefield as you would have your troops treated if they were captured on the battlefield. It means not abusing or torturing those who are captured. It means that any country which invades and occupies another is responsible for the well being of the citizens of that country.

Barack Obama: "A More Perfect Union"
BarackObamadotcom March 19, 2008
Barack Obama speaks in Philadelphia, PA at Constitution Center, on matters not just of race and recent remarks but of the fundamental path by which America can work together to pursue a better future

And here's the otherside of the coin as it were in a poem by William S. Burroughs
see video at Youtube of A Thanksgiving Prayer
Text from Interzone.org

William S. Burroughs
A Thanksgiving Prayer

Thanks for the wild turkey and
the passenger pigeons, destined
to be shit out through wholesome
American guts.

Thanks for a continent to despoil
and poison.
Thanks for Indians to provide a
modicum of challenge and
danger.

Thanks for vast herds of bison to
kill and skin leaving the
carcasses to rot.
Thanks for bounties on wolves
and coyotes.

Thanks for the American dream,
To vulgarize and to falsify until
the bare lies shine through.

Thanks for the KKK.

For nigger-killin' lawmen,
feelin' their notches.

For decent church-goin' women,
with their mean, pinched, bitter,
evil faces.

Thanks for "Kill a Queer for
Christ" stickers.

Thanks for laboratory AIDS.

Thanks for Prohibition and the
war against drugs.

Thanks for a country where
nobody's allowed to mind the
own business.

Thanks for a nation of finks.

Yes, thanks for all the
memories-- all right let's see
your arms!

You always were a headache and
you always were a bore.

Thanks for the last and greatest
betrayal of the last and greatest
of human dreams.

And yet racism and prejudice and bigotry in all its varied forms continues in America. And what has been most disturbing is that racism and fear of the unknown during the campaign were being stoked by the conservative Shock Jocks and Hate Mongers from Sarah Palin and Sen. John McCain's racist fear-mongering campaign to the hate and venom spewing out from certain quarters in the media from Bill'OReilly to Michael Savage & Hannity & Co. & Fox News who are all still cshocked that Obama won the election. Since before Obam's victory the conservatives and the Far right have been hard at work creating a new and inventive narrative or conspiracy to explain away Obam's stunning victory. If its not ACORN they blame its that people only voted for him because he's Excotic ie Black or it was part of a far left socialist conspiracy or McCain and Palin were trashed by the Leftist Media or McCain and Palin were too centrists and not far enough to the right and on and on ...

Bad Taste, Racism or Hate Crime

From: BlackTubeChannel- Nov. 11,2008
The owners of Hercules Fence Co. in Ocala, Florida (Marion County), seem to think that just because Obama is "black", he's from the ghetto. They say their sign is a tribute to Obama... I say they are full of shit!

Since the election of Barack Obama Hate Crimes have been on the rise. In the clip below Bill O'Reilly explains the rise in Hate Crimes as due to an immigration policy crisis which then excuses those who commits such crimes as being in some sense forced to commit these crimes out of frustration. These people couldn't just peacefully protest but rather these anti-immigrant zealots go out and murder or beat people up .

I guess O'Reilly would claim that someone beating up or killing a Gay person does so because Gays by being openly Gay somehow are instigators of violence against them. It's like the Nazis who argue that Jewish people bring hatred and anti-semitism on themselves somehow or other by just being Jews by going to a Synagogue or what have you. Muslim Americans bring it on themselves according to this twisted Bill O'Reilly logic because some Muslims flew planes into buildings on 9/11 so are all Muslims or Arabs fair-game. Sometimes I fear what someone like O'Reilly or Ann Coulter or Laura Ingraham might say as they go out of their way to appeal to the most racist and bigoted and narrow minded Americans.

Bill O'Reilly distorts hate crimes and immigration

Bill O'Reilly compares two cases which are not really related. The seven men in Long Island who went out seeking a Hispanic American to beat up and kill were doing so based on their racist views against all Hispanics and illegal aliens. This fits the very definition of Hate Crime in which victims are targeted because of their skin color, race , religion or sexual orientation. Such sentiments have been fueled by the likes of Bill O'Reilly and Glenn Beck , Rush Limbaugh, Michael Savage etc.& the conservatives and the Republicans over the past seven or so years in their over-heated racist rhetoric. So as they attack illegal immigrants blaming them for many of America's problems they help to embolden others to beyond speech tto actually committing physical violence against those people who are or who look Hispanic or Mexican.

The other crime is of a drunk driver killing two innocent women. The drivers intention was not to run down these two women it was rather a matter of a man drinking and driving which is a crime. The crime is also one of manslaughter or criminal negligence. The driver happened to be an illegal alien which is really beside the point. The driver could have been an American citizen who was a professional and an otherwise upstanding citizen who's family came over on the Mayflower. His crime is the same as that of the illegal alien who drives under the influence.

So Bill O'Reilly conflates the two crimes ignoring the facts. He then goes onto argue that the fact that the governments policies on immigration, in his view are wrong that the borders are porous and that there are some 12 million illegal immigrants in America has led to not just the DUI crime but somehow to the Hate Crime in which a youth was murdered. So what in the world is O'Reilly saying that because there is frustration over immigration policies in the United States that this leads otherwise law abiding citizens to go out and murder someone who fits some racial profile and that therefore the crime is understandable. And so these killers are not completly to blame for their actions but in fact the US government is at least in part to blame for this murder. As Slim Pickens once said " What in the Wide World of Sports is he talking about. So all acts of violence committed against anyone in America who looks Hispanic or Mexican is really the fault of the government. Isn't this just a typical old fashioned racist argument.
And here's a bit by The Young Turks on conservative opposition to Gay Rights . Cenk Uygur argues that conservitives such as Bill O'Reilly and Newt Gingrich who once fought against equal rights for African-Americans or women still don't accept that every American should have the same rights as other Americans no matter the color of their skin , their religious beliefs, their ethnicity or their sexual orientation.