Happy (?) Thankgiving
If it’s quiet here today, it’s because I’m spending more time with the people I’m most thankful for; my husband and my son. We’re going out for an early Thanksgiving dinner today, because that’s what you do when you have one vegetarian and one non-vegetarian in the same house. (At this point, Parker counts as an omnivore because he basically eats everything.)
I have to confess, I have mixed feelings about Thanksgiving, as I do about Columbus Day. Diane has two posts over at Karmalised that pretty much explain why. I’m borrowing the William S. Burroughs poem Diane posted as my sort of statement on Thanksgiving. (BTW, Atrios has an interesting post up about Thanksgiving and Native Americans. It’s worth checking out if only because he links to some Native American blogs.)
THANKSGIVING PRAYER
by William S. Burroughs
[hear Burroughs read his poem]
“To John Dillinger and I hope he is still alive.
Thanksgiving Day, November 28, 1986″
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 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 his
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.