Thanksgiving, Christmas and Memories

An article that I wrote for our newsletter at my Business Unit
November 26, 2008
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It is that time of the year refered to as the Holidays: the period from Thanksgiving to New Year’s. There are a number of holidays celebrated during this time. These include Thanksgiving, Christmas, Eid al-Adha, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and New Year’s Day. Some of these are celebrated by larger sections of our population than others but each serves a purpose to its followers.
Thankfulness or gratitude is an attitude that serves us well to adopt. We have much to be thankful for, not the least of which is to be living in this great country. The lifestyle and opportunities that is available to even the least privileged in the United States is a significant improvement over that in most other parts of the world. We can be thankful for freedom, peaceful elections, health, the comforts of home, our spouses, our children and extended family. Be thankful for delicious holiday meals and time to celebrate with our friends and family. We can also say a prayer of thanks for our active and inactive Service families that represent freedom in this country and all around the world at this time. I encourage you to take some time and list the things that you are thankful for and teach your kids to do the same.
In the Unites States, Christmas, of course, is the largest and most significant celebration of the holidays. Christmas is, first and foremost, a religious celebration. It has also come to include secular celebrations and economic significance for the retail businesses. Christmas has always been one of my favorite times of the year because of the celebrations, the music, the religious significance and the memories that come back each year.
Christmas is also a time to be thankful. Even though we were poor, my mother, with the resources she had, made Christmas special and significant for us. I always remember those times each year. Because I did not know any different, I thought that we had the greatest Christmas times with my seven brothers and sisters and dozens of aunts, uncles and cousins. I did not realize how poor we were since that is the only life I knew. It was also one of the two times a year we got new clothes and shoes. When school started in August we got new school uniforms and schools shoes. At Christmas we got one new set of church clothes and one pair of church shoes. They had to last then entire year. My mother never allowed us to think that we were poor and never complained about what she did not have, at least for me to hear. I now understand how she could be so thankful with so little and still find enough to share with neighbors who had less.
I remember growing up in the Caribbean and having a warm Christmas but wishing I could experience snow and a white Christmas. Now I live in Utah and wish for a warm Christmas again with a palm trees on the beach while watching the white Christmas on the television. This is the second Christmas I do not need a telephone line my mother to say, Merry Christmas. I now tell her in my prayers. The memories are just as real as before.
So in the spirit of the holidays, to all who celebrate Eid, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and those who do not celebrate, I wish you: Happy Holidays!

However for those of us who celebrate Christmas in its original form, there is only one way to say it:
Merry Christmas!

Historical Celebration...Then What?

Today, we have a new President: the first black president of the United States of America: Mr. Barrack Obama. What a great day in our history. The tears are flowing, the cheers are rising, the elation is sky high. We must celebrate that we as the people have risen beyond the negative and low expectations of the civil rights noise makers and the political talking-heads and chosen the candidate of our choice.
I am still amazed at how many people keep saying that they never believed this could happen in America in our life time. Why not? Are we so tied to the historical sins that we cannot look forward? Can we chant Dr. Martin Luther King's words on one hand while pushing the dream away with the other hand? Should we choose to live in racial isolation while claiming racial equality? Should we let mental and social mediocrity reign in the face of definite progress and racial integration?
Today is clearly a day of celebration. The voices of the self-proclaimed civil rights opportunists have been silenced by the actions of the once silent majority who now proclaim loudly with their feet and hands that 'yes, we can' elect an American to the highest office in the land without regard to the color of their skin. Michelle Obama was wrong; Jessie Jackson was wrong; Al Sherpton was wrong; Geraldine Farraro was wrong; Hillary Clinton was wrong; Bill Clinton was also wrong; all the super delegates who pledged their support to Hillary Clinton before the people even voted in the primaries were wrong. America is a country that can rise to an occasion in spite of those who still see the word through 'colored' glasses.
President elect Obama is the now the one chosen to lead this country. Whether we agree with his politics or not, he is now our president. We need to give him the chance to lead and show if he really can accomplish what he laid out over the last two years. He will soon find out, if he does not already know, that the President cannot do all the things that get people excited in political speeches. The President needs the other branches of government to accomplish the promises of a campaign that did not require judicial or congressional scruitiny and constitutional conformity. The chants of an enamored crowd or popularity polls does not necessarily make good public policy or fiscal sustainability. As the president, we must give him his full four years to at least try.
There is not enough money in the public troughs to feed every hand that is lining up for a handout. There is not enough wealth in the "wealthy ranks" to pay all the bills that his promises will generate. There is not enough money of wall street to pay all the bad loans made on Main Street and there is not enough people on Main Street who will be able to keep the homes that they could not afford ten years ago when the bail out is going to those who cause the problems in the first place.
So our new President will have to do what every good leader does when the honeymoon wears off: he will have to come to reality of what he can and cannot do alone and who he needs to get on his side to be successful. He will also learn that people who are not in business for themselves need to work to earn a living in jobs that are provided by those who own businesses and invest in the markets. I am sure that he already knows that success is not illegal and that remember that poverty is only glamorous during political campaigns.
When the earned celebrations are over, the streets are cleared and the inaugural staff is settled in, life in America goes on and we expect results and honesty from both Republican and Democratic Presidents, at home and abroad, socially and economically, whether they be black, white, male or female.
Congratulations President-elect Obama! Now, let's get something done that will out last your term in office. Maybe you can begin by getting the Congress to actually address critical issues in substantive and efffective ways between their book-signing tours and European trips.