Thursday, December 26, 2002

Happy Kwanzaa I was reading some of the usual idiocy over at the forums at Fark.com, when I came across an article, with its not unexpected flame-war, about Kwanzaa. I started to think, even if it's a recently invented holiday and regardless of whether anybody celebrates it in Africa, what's wrong with a celebration of family values, unity, self-determination, collective work and responsibility, cooperative economics, purpose, creativity and faith. Especially when you look at the mess of commercialism that corporate America has made of Christmas (in fact, the word "Christmas" has all but seemed to disappear this year in favor of the more politically correct "Holidays"). Plus I read in the papers that a Long Island man died after he was involved in an early Christmas morning fight with his brother. Is that the spirit of Christmas? Then, on the way home from work, it all got ruined for me. I was listening to some pompous windbag politician in New York giving a Kwanzaa speech at the African-American Burial Ground in Lower Manhattan. I didn't catch his whole speech (you only get a soundbite these days) but he was demanding various things including respect (translation: money). That's when I thought, damn it, regardless of color, all politicians are jackasses. 11:26:42 PM    Go Ahead, make my day  []