THANKSGIVING, OUR ONLY NATIONAL FESTIVAL

By Edwin Cooney

I consider Thanksgiving our only national festival because it's a combination of both a religious and a secular celebration of gratitude. Unlike Christmas, Hanukkah, Ramadan, or any other religious holiday, Thanksgiving Day is a day to be grateful for all we have, all we love, and all we are. On Thanksgiving, the power in "thanks" beckons us even beyond acceptance to gratitude for our gains and even for our pains.

Having been born on Wednesday, November 28th, 1945, my birthday has been celebrated eleven times on Thanksgiving: 1946, 1957, 1963, 1968, 1974, 1985, 1991, 1996, 2002, 2013, and 2019. Next year will mark my twelfth birthday/Thanksgiving Day simultaneous celebration. Perhaps I'll see that celebration in 2030, but it's less likely that I'll celebrate my birthday/Thanksgiving dual holiday in 2041, my 96th birthday —  although maybe, maybe, maybe! I don't think I'll be likely to get an ice cream cake on November 28th, 2047, my 102nd birthday, but who knows?!

One reality I learned quite early. On my fifth birthday, which was on a Tuesday, no one, me included, celebrated. I was away from home at my residential school for the blind and it seemed at that time I was always both homesick and in the school infirmary. A month later, I lost all of my functional sight. Hence, at 5, I learned that not all birthdays would necessarily be happy. The same was true for both Thanksgiving and Christmas.

I've had a whole string of happy birthday celebrations whether on Thanksgiving or not due to the wonderful existence of my best and closest friend, Roe. Yes, she's given me many, many wonderful presents, as I've attempted to do for her. What makes them so wonderful is the heart she's put into my birthday. Roe has two daughters born in the month of November and on each year’s occasion, she has still prepared my birthday presents even after coming home from the hospital! What a friend, what a lady!

My 18th birthday, one of those birthday/Thanksgiving combinations, had a rather  comical and silly twist. On that occasion, I was visiting close friends in Endwell, New York and, the night before, my friend insisted that I accompany him to a local bar to have a beer to celebrate tomorrow's birthday. But, I reminded him, my birthday wasn't until the next morning. I worried: what would we do if a cop walked into that bar and demanded to know if I was 18? Talk about naiveté!

Yes, indeed, there's something special about celebrating Thanksgiving along with my birthday six times in every 28-year calendar pattern! It's certainly not because I'm more special than anyone else. After all, everyone's birthday is not only special, but also a bit magical!

My friend's birthday is the day after Christmas. She celebrated her birthday for many years on the same day as Chairman Mao Zedong!

No, she's no Communist, but even if she were, she’d still be my best friend!

RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,

EDWIN COONEY

YOUR HOME, WHAT'S IT ALL ABOUT?

By Edwin Cooney

For over 50 years I've had a very, very, very special friend. I regard her as family more than as a mere friend!

On October 8th or 9th, her brother-in-law, his two daughters, one daughter’s husband and their four children came to visit them in New Jersey. Recently, they decided to go home and I, frankly, was quite surprised. After all, their home is an Israeli kibbutz near Jerusalem. They're a distance from the Gaza war zone, but there's still danger from Hezbollah in nearby Lebanon and eventually from Iran and even Syria. Hence, I asked my dear friend, "Why do they dare to go home?" Her response was as straightforward and practical as it could be. "They have jobs and it's important that the kids get back to school,” she said.

These are both practical and heartfelt reasons, consistent with their religious and cultural beliefs and connections. The head of the family was born here and could remain thus escaping the dangers in Israel, but he, too, traveled home and that's all there was to it!

Thus, the question: Could you or I go into a war zone even though a war zone is our home? Might we be willing to subject our families  to uncertainty or perhaps endangerment?

You and I, since our childhood, have been taught to believe that we Americans live in "the land of the free and the home of the brave." Comparatively, doesn't 21st Century Israel require its citizens by its circumstances to be braver than we? Even more, are 21st Century Americans brave or are we just demanding?

Ironically, 21st Century Americans are sufficiently afraid of Central American immigrants who only want to come here to make a living. Due to politically criminal circumstances in their native countries they long for our individual freedom and safety. We could rethink and re-regulate our laws to accommodate these frightened people, but for both good and bad reasons we refuse to sympathize with their plight.

In summation then, here's what home is all about. To you and me, our home is a place with all its cultural imperfections that must be jealously protected from all that's immoral or nontraditional.

To the Central American immigrants seeking to escape the brutalities of drug lords, home has been transformed from a haven to a hell that rich, prosperous 21st Century Americans feel justified, for our own protection, to ignore.

As for both Israeli as well as Palestinian citizens who are willing to return to the uncertainties and dangers of an ongoing, imperfect saga which they personally didn't create but were born into, home is a dangerous and uncertain destiny worthy of the bravest of the brave!

RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,

EDWIN COONEY

CAN WE MASTER IT OR ARE WE THE VICTIMS OF OUR NATIONAL FATE?

By Edwin Cooney

Next November 5th, "we the people" for the eighth time in our history on that date, will elect a President of the United States of America! Thus the question: to what extent will Tuesday, November 5th, 2024 dictate our fate?

After listening to the third Republican debate last night, it's pretty clear that the GOP is actually anxious to go to war with nations from Mexico, Eastern Europe, and across the Middle East to China. Even the mild-mannered Senator from South Carolina Tim Scott says that when there's a snake you've got to cut off its head. That snake is Iran which border's Putin's Russia! Will Putin sit still while President Scott cuts the snake's head off? Really and truly?!

Other topics during that debate was whether Nikki Haley or Vivek Ramaswamy is sufficiently anti-Chinese Communist or adequately anti- TikTok.

All of the candidates with the exception of Ramaswamy are anxious to support Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Benjamin Netanyahu's legitimate struggles against Vladimir Putin and Hamas. Apparently any effort on the part of President Biden to mediate or modify the intensity of the Israeli war is vintage 1938 style appeasement a la Neville Chamberlain.

In furtherance of additional GOP ambitions, we must destroy the laboratories within Mexico run by the cartels that manufacture the drugs poisoning our youth. One of the candidates, I believe it was Ramaswamy, asserted that our youth weren't being merely addicted by drugs from Mexican cartels, but were being murdered by them, thus justifying practically every possible measure against Mexico although no one specifically proposed war with that country.

All of the candidates apparently oppose TikTok, the 5-year-old international media giant, for being out of control. I confess I'm at sea as to what to think about that!

Sixty years ago on Thursday, July 16th, 1964, Barry Goldwater told the GOP's National Convention in San Francisco: "I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.” (Note: Ironically, moderation in the pursuit of justice is exactly what many Republicans are calling for in the case of former President Donald John Trump! They appear also to be seeking moderation of virtue as well!)

The only issue about which there seemed to be any moderation is the subject of abortion. Nikki Haley said she's pro-life all the time but that the individual states have the right to allow abortions within their borders. She further urged that pro-choice advocates not judge her for being pro-life and she wouldn't judge them for being pro-choice! Do you suppose the pro-abortion rights victories last Tuesday had anything to do with Ms. Haley's politics?

What's especially amazing about the proposals coming from this most recent Republican hollering match is that these wars will profit us, not cost us. No American troops will be sent anywhere at any time for any reason unless the Chinese attempt to capture Taiwan. If that happens, nuclear submarines will handle matters quickly, cleanly and, of course, peaceably.

As for what the debate means politically for the candidates? I'm guessing that DeSantis must win in Iowa or he's finished. Haley is looking good and she's most likely the Republican Vice Presidential candidate. Senator Scott, former Governor Christie, and Mr. Ramaswamy are politically cooked and ready to be served!

In the wake of the bombing of Pearl Harbor back on that 1941 "date written in infamy," it was observed that the Japanese cabinet was so loaded with gun smoke that it should have been obvious that war was inevitable!

SNIFF! SNIFF! SNIFF! GOP!

If we're the master of our fate rather than its victim, let's be at least a little leery of the Republican gun smoke.

RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,

EDWIN COONEY

IN DEFIANCE WE TRUST

By Edwin Cooney

In 1792, President George Washington, with the assistance of James Madison and Alexander Hamilton, composed a letter announcing that he would not stand for election to a second presidential term.  However, in view of rapidly changing domestic and foreign affairs he shortly changed his mind.

Four years later, he decided it was time to retire and prepared a second and final farewell message. Thus, on Monday, September 19th, 1796, nine years and two days following his signing of the Constitution, the president's farewell address was published in the Philadelphia Daily Advertiser.

As a good and wise leader, Washington's letter spanned a wide variety of public issues explaining and defending his administration's decisions and actions.

One matter Father George didn't have to explain or defend was his leadership of an established political party. Although he was labeled as a “Federalist," that term merely defended or explained his insistence that a strong and reliable federal government was needed to provide for the needs and demands of a free people in view of the failure of the nation's original dependence under the  Articles of Confederation.

As early as 1793, those who had come to oppose too much reliance on the federal government began to establish a political party called the  Democratic Republican Party. It was led by James Madison and Thomas Jefferson. Simultaneously, men such as Alexander Hamilton, John Jay  and John Adams began forming what was called the Federalist Party. 

By the time of his farewell letter, the retiring president saw serious flaws in the creation of political parties.

He feared that political parties, sooner or later, would bring about fundamental divisions amongst this free people that could bring damage to their well-being. Beyond regional conflicts, there could be ideological, social, economic  and even religious conflicts that would obscure the natural affection these free peoples had for one another. The establishment of political parties could serve to institutionalize rather than merely emphasize temporarily contentious public issues.

Then there was the question of who would be empowered to choose candidates for high office. Might state legislatures elect a president? Might Congress within their political caucuses nominate and even select presidential candidates?

Sadly, President Washington lacked the ideas or even perhaps the time necessary to anticipate and guide us through a nonpolitical but workable free selection of presidential candidates. Everything would be left to the Electoral College already established in Article II of the Constitution.

Now here we are in 2023, enfolded in a self-created system of dislike for and mistrust of others. Even worse, there is repulsion of others for racial, gender and even marital lifestyles.

I'm sure that most people are free of hatred for others. However, a clear majority of Americans have come to distrust and even abhor the tone and the thrust of 21st Century politics. Clearly, our imperfections have come to dominate our opinion of our very selves.

Both law and order have always rested in the hands of the wealthiest and most influential among us. Even worse, successful politicians achieve office by denigrating political incumbents. Hence, the most dangerous  aspect of the political process is that it has come to depend on government's imperfections rather than being achieved through the glory of its accomplishments. Historic figures have increasingly been known for their imperfections as much as they have been remembered for their individual assets. Thus, Washington was “arrogant,” Jefferson was a “slave debaucher,” Lincoln was an “ugly baboon,” Grant was a “lush,” Wilson was a “racist,” FDR was a “closet Communist,”  Truman was “a gangster’s henchman,” Nixon was a “liar,” Clinton was “amoral,” Obama was an “Arab,” and Trump was all about himself in defiance of all decency.

As true or false as the above may be, how can we reasonably respect, let alone love, a society dependent on 2023's electoral flavor?

We may not love America anymore, but its many benefits constitute our personal rights of which we are very righteously jealous!

It's past time to begin regretting our defiance of our first and perhaps greatest President! 

RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,

EDWIN COONEY