Thanksgiving

Recently, I read some websites about the very first Thanksgiving. I admit, I am not an expert on that subject in any way. I did find various facts pretty interesting. They mention that there were 53 surviving Pilgrims, along with some 90 Indians, and the feast went on for about three days. Ooh...my tummy gets bloated after three hours at the dinner table.

I was thinking about the Indians. They were Wampanoag living in their native New England lands. The arrival of the Europeans on those native lands had left entire villages decimated with European diseases of which the Wampanoag and other indigenous tribes had no immunity. The Wampanoag
 formed alliances with the English settlers in a alliance against other Indian tribes like the Narragansett.


The Pilgrims were English settlers who had migrated to Holland. The King of England had granted them papers to settle in Virginia, but they had landed and settled in New England instead. The alliance with the Wampanoag during these crucial settlement years helped the Pilgrims to gain a foothold in the new world. Later, after the leaders of the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag had passed on, the next generations found that European values and native values were a tough mix. Eventually war broke out between the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag. The Wampanoag were destroyed in these wars, although there are still descendants of this tribe living in New England today.

To this day the North American continent stands like a beacon to peoples of the world. They see the natural riches of our country. They see our freedoms and our democracy. They see opportunities to lift their families out of poverty and into respectability. They saw those things back then, as undocumented Pilgrims. And they see those opportunities now, as illegal aliens or whatever other term we choose to use for them.

I know that I have so much to be thankful for, at this time of year I do think about all that. I'm grateful for family, blessings, food on my table, and a roof over my head. I'm thankful for this great country that I live in, and the foresight of our founders for hammering out the charter for our freedoms. I'm grateful for the soldiers who have fought for our freedoms over the years, and for those soldiers fighting for us today. I know that I have a lot to be thankful for, and I guess I just don't hold a lot of rancor for those that want the same blessings and freedoms as those I enjoy.

For Another Viewpoint on this same topic, click here.

Swiss Army Knives

It must be a boys rite of passage to be fascinated by pocket knives. I had many of the standard issue ones as a boy. The Boy Scout special, a cool little Bartlett, several Buck knives too. Probably the most fascinating was the Swiss Army Knife (SAK). I'd have to admit I had a extreme fascination with the Cork Screw, the Scissors, and the Spoon blades on the SAK. It was amazing to me that one knife would even have a tooth pick. I could spend hours playing around with all the different blades. Seeing if the saw blade could take down a tree, or if the Phillips head blade could poke extra eyeholes in my leather clodhoppers.

Now, I'm not quite sure how much credence I would put in a knife used by the 'Swiss Army'. I can't remember any major European Theatre battles they kicked butt in. Aren't they the guys that wear the funny suits and protect the Vatican? Yeah, not exactly scary. I can't exactly envision Bernardo whipping out the fish scale blade to defend himself against the Rockets in West Side Story. Yes, if I had some serious knife business, I'd probably lean toward the SOG Seal Knife used by the US Navy Seals. I don't believe I had that in my arsenal as a kid though.  A switch blade or stiletto might come in handy I suppose, if the blade needs to make a real quick appearance. I did have one of those for a day or two until Mom found out and disarmed me.

Exactly how most of those blades that come with the Swiss army knife really are useful has to be a bit debatable. The toothpick, nail file, and scissors might be somewhat useful in personnel grooming, but for serious knife business I just don't picture them. And then again, if I really need personnel grooming done, I might not want to use something that's been sitting in a kid's pocket all day. Even in my light collection of boyhood knives, I don't remember keeping the SAK for more then a few months, I probably traded it for the cheap Mexican Switch Blade Mom confiscated.

Which brings me to the point. Somehow, Cell Phones remind me of Swiss Army knives. Every year they get more and more apps. 2g becomes 3g, which morphs to 4g. Gee, really...do we need all that in a phone? Really? And do we really need to be that connected?

Recently, walking around ASU, everyone I seemed to see either had a cell to their ear or  they were typing away at the little QWERTY keyboards. I'm talking dudes at the very prime of their lives, walking in a sea of pretty girls, connecting to someone somewhere else far far away.  Now that 'Text' has become a verb, I suppose 'Sex' is getting downgraded to an adverb? I'm not really against technology, my occupation is technology, and here I am blogging. But sometimes I think we may be taking it just a bit too far, we've got more blades then we need. One blade that was missing on the SAK was the castration blade. But I'm sure now there is an App for that. I'm just saying...

I wish I still had that Boy Scout Special though.

Cheers
ncas

Link to Interesting Variation on the Swiss Army Knife