Thanks “Taking” Day

by Philip A. Faruggio / November 25th, 2009

So, here we have all of us suckers, saps and lollipops running around to celebrate another Thanksgiving Day. Call me negative, call me fatalistic. Or call me … Candid! Each and every year there is not much to give thanks for. Unless, of course, you are one of the 1 % of us who is Super Rich. So, to all you mega millionaires out there…. Have another piece of turkey on we turkeys. To all you Wall Street top execs and CEOs, and top salespeople, enjoy those million-dollar and multi-million-dollar bonuses and salaries. On us, the turkeys. To all you War Industry AKA Military Industrial Complex CEOs, top execs and sales force, enjoy those billion dollar contracts on. Yep, we taxpayer turkeys who finance all those phony (so-called) wars and occupations. Without our hard earned tax dollars you never could enjoy such a wonderful Thanksgiving. To all you members of Congress (and Administration) who take so much from so few of those super rich corporate donors, hope you don’t choke on the meals we turkeys voted you into government to have… Gratis!

Now allow me to give real and well deserved thanks to a few out there who deserve it. Thanks to all my friends and neighbors (not many left nowadays, only a few handfuls) who stand out there with me each and every week, for Peace, Accountability in Government/Business, Medicare for All Americans, and many other progressive issues. Let me single out three such persons, two of them 80 something years of age, and the other “around the corner” to them in age. My dear friend Walt DeYoung, who has “scar tissue on his soul” from years of labor and civil rights organizing, environmental activism, and especially (to me) anti-Vietnam War and Iraq invasion protesting. Then there is Charles Barcelo, retired builder from our area, who stood up, 40 plus years ago, for black folks right here in Daytona, when Jim Crow was alive and well. Charlie risked his business and his life by being so outspoken. Now, he has devoted his time for World (and inner) Peace. Finally, John S., 81, who risked his entire career over 40 years ago to speak out against the Vietnam War. He went to prison, and still comes down and stands with us against torture and our presence in Iraq.

If only more of our neighbors would take one hour per week and stand with these men. That would be something to truly be thankful of!

Philip A Farruggio is regular columnist on itstheempirestupid website. He is the son and grandson of Brooklyn NYC longshoremen and a graduate of Brooklyn College, class of 1974. Since the 2000 election debacle Philip has written over 500 columns on the Military Industrial Empire and other facets of life in an upside down America. He is also host of the It’s the Empire… Stupid radio show, co produced by Chuck Gregory. Philip can be reached at paf1222@bellsouth.net. Read other articles by Philip.

This article was posted on Wednesday, November 25th, 2009 at 9:00am and is filed under Activism, Antiwar, Classism, Culture, Heroes, Neoliberalism, Racism.

6 comments on this article so far ...

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  1. Annie Ladysmith said on November 25th, 2009 at 11:06am #

    Here’s what i’m thankful for:
    I’m thankful i’v not yet been tazored to death,
    i’m not yet dying in a FEMA camp,
    I’m not yet starving to death by food shortages caused by the government and meant to curtail all revolt.

    i’m thankful that Red China has not yet invaded our continent,
    that there are no nukes raining down on us today,
    that those Russian nuclear subs are 200 miles off our coast and not any closer, that we havn’t yet invaded Iran and given our sworn enemies (Iran, Russia, China) a reason to nuke us all to cinders.

    I am very thankful that the US government still fears the American people, not much, but i’ll take it, otherwise we would all be in those FEMA camps already.

    I’m thankful that i’m not sick and dying from tainted ‘vaccines’, and that i’v still got a few marbles rolling around in my head, despite my late-stage Lymes, and the lack of even a smidgin of AMA doctor knowledge regarding this worldwide epidemic.

    I’m thankful i haven’t gone nuts yet living in a world so fallen and so evil, and getting worst every day, how do any of us face the horrific acts people do to others and themselves.

    Maybe if we thanked God for all these blessings we could find some healing and salvation. But, i know most of you are not interested in salvation and what you will get instead is wrath. You have already willfully determined to save yourselves and it just gets worst. DO YOU NOT GET THAT IT ONLY GETS WORST WITHOUT HIM.

  2. kris said on November 26th, 2009 at 8:55am #

    worse without an imaginary friend? maybe you are right. just don’t connect that imaginary friend with some holy book like the bible, the koran, baghavad gita, etc cause if you can’t appreciate them as what they are: fiction, then reading them will automatically make you an enemy of the people who read those other books…

    it is a strange thing, that kids seem perfectly able to create their imaginary friend straight from their imagination but adults have to go look in a book or see a priest in order to find the same thing.

  3. bozh said on November 26th, 2009 at 10:52am #

    But pursuit of happiness, peace, wellbeing, power are constututional demands and not just wishes.
    U are commanded to pursue all these qualities but ur not told how to pursue them. The HOW, WHEN, WHY were omitted! On purpose?

    Nor have u been told how u’d know u have reached it once u arrived there or caught it. I am trying to say that slave owners and warlords simply sent u on a hunt for a snark.
    Even if u joined a poker game pursuing the pot all u can do is to win the pot.
    But never ever happiness because it is a process and not an object!

    Are soldiers and generals pursuing happiness in iraq and afgh’n? Constitution says they are. And the infallible constitution cannnot be wrong .
    So, please for sake of all of us make the constitution fallible; give it a human face.
    U don’t change the constitution, u go forever on missions impossible! tnx

  4. bozh said on November 26th, 2009 at 3:41pm #

    Annie,
    How and why is iran, russia, and china enemy of america? I am not sure that these three land or empires have sworn in a ceremonial or put it in a constitution that US wld be their enemies.
    And is it for day, two, two months, two years, or forever perhaps?
    Looks to me that u too just like US warlords need enemies. China, iran, russia do not want enemies. tnx

  5. Jay Diamond said on November 27th, 2009 at 5:13am #

    Thanks Phil Faruggio for expressing your love and appreciation for the courage and tenacity in the face of oppression and evil exemplified by the fine men you introduced to us in this very meaningful column.

  6. S.L. Toddard said on November 28th, 2009 at 10:02am #

    “Each and every year there is not much to give thanks for. Unless, of course, you are one of the 1 % of us who is Super Rich”

    This is the problem with radical secular materialists: they equate material wealth with happiness, and can appreciate nothing else.