Stephen W. Browne

Thanksgiving is upon us again, this year in somewhat strained circumstances.

Some state governors have issued edicts defining exactly how many people you can have for dinner, and even what degrees relationship are permissible.

Reactions range from loud defiance to self-righteous scorn.

“You’ll get my turkey and dressing when you pry my cold dead hands off it!”

“If you don’t isolate and wear a mask you are murdering your neighbors!”

Doesn’t matter, they will be impossible to enforce. Some idiots may try and bust some overlarge gathering of people who will then become martyrs and dine out on the story of how they were persecuted for their beliefs for years afterwards.

I do not wish to appear impatient with my fellow-citizens. I know how many are facing financial ruin because of the lockdowns. But the fact is, we’re such homebodies we’ve hardly noticed.

I work from home and my daughter gets her school work dropped off twice a week and does it at home. We like each other’s company and we have a dog who’s ecstatic her family is home all the time.

I did have to attend a training conducted under social distancing rules with masks required, but only for a few days. It’s inconvenient, especially when it’s cold outside and you wear glasses. And
I did have to slip the mask down under my nose because I was experiencing headaches from rebreathing my own exhalations. But nothing like what people I know are experiencing.

So while I do not wish to dismiss anyone’s concerns, it might be helpful to remember that Thanksgiving was instituted in times of far greater troubles than we are experiencing.

The holiday is based on ancient harvest festivals, where people celebrated with joy and relief that they’d once again succeeded in producing enough surplus to live on until the next harvest.

The semi-legendary first Thanksgiving in the New World was celebrated at Plymouth colony in 1621 after half the colony had died over the winter.
The first national celebration was proclaimed by George Washington, that November 26, 1789, “as a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favours of Almighty God”

That was the year the government under the Articles of Confederation was formally dissolved and a new government created by the Constitution. A “bold and doubtful experiment” in Thomas Jefferson’s description which turned out far better than many expected.

In 1863 Abraham Lincoln proclaimed the last Thursday in November as a day of thanksgiving for Union victories in the midst of that terrible war.

The official date of Thanksgiving was fixed at its present date when Franklin Roosevelt signed a joint resolution of congress on December 26, 1941, just 19 days after the attack on Pearl Harbor led to America’s entry into World War II.

The next three Thanksgivings were celebrated in wartime when almost every family was touched in some way by tragedy.

I do realize how irritating it is when suffering hard times to have someone tell you it’s not so bad, that other people have had it worse, but the fact is – it has been worse.

We are living in uncertain times with no clear end in sight. Some fear this is the beginning of the end of America as we know it. But we are not lesser men than our ancestors, we can and will get through this.

I’ve got the feeling I should say something pithy and profound about the riots gripping our major cities. I’d really like to wait until I hear back from friends I trust who are actually going to have a look, but I’m afraid if I wait too long something awful is going to happen and I won’t be able to say, “Told ya.”

I’ve seen a few large-scale demonstrations. I was present at the largest demonstration of the 60s era, July 4, 1970, at the Washington Monument when Bob Hope had organized a Support America Day and Abbie Hoffmann called for a counter-demonstration.

In the late 90s I marched with the people of Sofia, Bulgaria down the yellow brick road in the demonstrations that brought down the last coalition government. We marched past the presidential residence where President Peter Stoyanov stood on the balcony and cheered us on waving the double V for victory hand sign.

And for months I marched with the people of Belgrade, Yugoslavia in the demonstrations against the second-to-last communist tyranny in Europe, past thousands of heavily armed troops. Every, single, day.

But with an estimated 17% of the city population on the streets every night I saw ZERO vandalism, beyond slogans on walls. And none of that was of the “Eff the pigs!” kind. Perhaps it was the virtue of the people and perhaps it was the presence of armed men we knew were waiting on orders to fire on the crowd.

So I’ve logged more demonstration time that most in this country. Until now at least. This has been going on for a while now and doesn’t look like it’s winding down.

Some observations, opinions, and questions.

In Portland residents report the disturbances are confined to a very small area around the federal building. A small (low hundreds) group of very violent people are responsible for the vandalism.

Opinions seem divided among people who are frantic with worry that a hastily-assembled largely-ineffective federal force means martial law and looming fascism, and those who are a tad perturbed the mob tried to barricade a lot of people in the federal building and set it on fire.

In Seattle rioters set fire to a Starbucks because it’s racist or something. A Starbucks located on the ground floor of an apartment building.

In Chicago 18 cops got sent to the hospital. Antifa types were caught on drone footage breaking away from the peaceful demonstrators, changing into Black Block clothing and passing out improvised weapons while concealing themselves with umbrellas.

Improvised weapons included frozen water bottles and PVC spears concealed as banner poles. You make a spear from PVC pipe by cutting it at a sharp angle so it looks like a hypodermic needle.

Ancient peoples do it with bamboo. It makes a big wound that’s hard to close.

Three cops in Portland may have permanent eye damage from lasers.

Commercial grade fireworks have been used in several places. The kind which require a license from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) to purchase, possess, and use. So, federal offense. And where are they getting them?

There’s been shooting. Negligent discharges and someone who got stupid and approached someone with a rifle and found out he wasn’t the only one armed.

OK we’ve seen worse but not for a while. Throughout the ‘60s and ‘70s there were about 1,700 bombs set by groups like the Weather Underground.

But it is very likely something awful is going to happen soon. Maybe from arson, maybe a Kent State type event.
What then?