Posted on 11/18/2007 7:25:07 AM PST by nuconvert
Mark Steyn: World should give thanks for America
November 17, 2007
Speaking as a misfit unassimilated foreigner, I think of Thanksgiving as the most American of holidays.
Christmas is celebrated elsewhere, even if there are significant local variations: In Continental Europe, naughty children get left rods to be flayed with and lumps of coal; in Britain, Christmas lasts from Dec. 22 to mid-January and celebrates the ancient cultural traditions of massive alcohol intake and watching the telly till you pass out in a pool of your own vomit. All part of the rich diversity of our world.
But Thanksgiving (excepting the premature and somewhat undernourished Canadian version) is unique to America. "What's it about?" an Irish visitor asked me a couple of years back. "Everyone sits around giving thanks all day? Thanks for what? George bloody Bush?"
Well, Americans have a lot to be thankful for.
Europeans think of this country as "the New World" in part because it has an eternal newness, which is noisy and distracting. Who would ever have thought you could have ready-to-eat pizza faxed directly to your iPod?
And just when you think you're on top of the general trend of novelty, it veers off in an entirely different direction: Continentals who grew up on Hollywood movies where the guy tells the waitress "Gimme a cuppa joe" and slides over a nickel return to New York a year or two later and find the coffee now costs $5.75, takes 25 minutes and requires an agonizing choice between the cinnamon-gingerbread-persimmon latte with coxcomb sprinkles and the decaf venti pepperoni-Eurasian-milfoil macchiato.
(Excerpt) Read more at ocregister.com ...
Mark has a touch of Dave Barry going on there.
The US constitution has worked so well I’ve always wondered why other countries haven’t simply copied it. Is it true Britain has no constitution?
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Mark Steyn
I know America was, and is, far from perfect, but I liked those days. I’m sure my memories of them have only been made better by the passing of 60 years, but standing every morning while a bugle played the call to colors and the patrol boys raised the flag in front of the school were part of what made my youth what it was, and therefore what I am as an adult.
It’s interesting, and depressing, that it takes a French President or an Brit to say the things about America that its leaders used to profess half-a-century ago.
God bless America, and the men and women who serve to protect and defend her in God-forsaken countries half-way around the world. Whether in Iraq or on board the two navy ships that already on station to help the victims of the latest storm in one of the poorest nations on Earth, they are there and have been there for over 200 years.
Words cannot express the disdain I have for the Pelosis and Kennedys, Reids and Murthas of the world who talk of respecting the troops but whose actions speak anything but respect and support.
There, I feel better.
B U M P !
God bless America.
Actually, Mark Steyn is a Canadian ....
Britian has the Magna Carta and Common Law.
Mark Steyn has an amazing eye for perspective.
“Great article. Every time I go to Europe or any part of the world on business, I get more and more convinced by the superiority of America on every level and I cannot wait to get back home.
God bless America.”
How true on so many levels. I actually get excited on the landing back into the US for just the same reason. In Europe one is reminded of the intractability of their system, culture and economic rigidity. And of course for the unfortunate areas, the grayness of communism hanging over.
When I land back in the US I am reminded how fortunate I am and how lucky we are to have such a country or a Republic. And as we enter Thanksgiving, those famous words, if we can keep it.
Let’s all do our best no matter our disagreements to keep our Republic!
Best we should wonder why nobody thought to copy it for Iraq.
Amen.
Exactly my question. I am sure they thought about it but they didn't do it. Deep down I think America's political leadership is ashamed of America. Words cannot express the contempt I have for those people.
It’s difficult to be sure, but I think this may be Mark Steyn’s best column ever.
When I went to college, my major required me to take a course called Western Civilization. As I remember it the teacher was not particularly good, but the content and premise of the course was. When I read Mark Steyn, I think that is his major theme, Western Civilization and what is good about it and what it is threatening it. He is great and reading his column is like being educated on Western Civilization. Today’s students should be required to read Mark Steyn for the purpose of the study and the understanding of Western Civilization.
I believe that the Founding Fathers knew that the death penalty would be exacted in America. They did however pass the eighth amendment to the Constitution.
That of no cruel and unusual punishment to be enacted. In short get it done and over with.
I visualized the terror of the 59 men who had signed the death warrant for King Charles 1st in 1649. Thanks to Wikipedia, I traced the fate of some of these men. Hanged, drawn and quartered. They were cut down while still conscious and disembowelled. Three men fled to the New World. Whalley, Dixwell and Goffe.
The long arm of the new King(1658), followed them to Connecticut. For years emissaries from London, tried to identify and sieze them. How lucky they were. Governor Leete took the chance of being charged with treason and helped hide the men. People remained closed mouthed and spurned rewards.
All men died in the new land. They must have blessed America with their dying breath.
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