Shyam Well Said!!

@shyam and everyone else, happy thanksgiving.

@Shyam : I will introduce a new word into your vocabulary, okay. It is... SARCASM! The post is directed a few people here who attack people for still liking Western food to any degree at all. Then you get all sentimental and fuzzy.

"Food is also a strong marker of memory and emotion. That is why the food I've had in Kunming means so much to me today, and always will."

I am tearing up here. But you're right. I like to sit back and recall all the times Kunming food gave me the runs or painful gas. I'll never forget those times.

Did anyone try any of the thanksgiving dinners yesterday? How was it?

My apologies to everyone else. "Yankee" needs an education. (I hope the rest of you at least get some entertainment from this.)

@Yankee: As I said before, your comments are unremarkable, in terms of their lack of originality. (I will also now add their lack of intellectual integrity.) It's also evident from your last comment that (despite your American-sounding moniker) you are basing your words on a foreigner's perspective. (If you had to check, you obviously don't know about U.S. affairs...plus, we spell "marginalisation" with a "z".)

As a real American, whose family came to America from India and Japan, starting over 113 years ago, let me add some dimension to your rather topical and narrow view of history. Colonization and suppression of native peoples is a shameful legacy of most societies in the world. Here's just a short, partial list of them:

- Spain
- Portugal
- France
- Belgium
- Denmark
- Great Britain
- Germany
- Holland
- Russia
- Japan
- Italy
- Ancient Rome
- Ancient Greece
- Ancient Egypt
- Phoenicia
- Ancient China
- Mongols (ever hear of Genghis Khan?)
- Ottoman Empire

In many cases, one colonial empire acquired holdings from another, through war, treaty, or purchase. (In the U.S., we fought Britain and Spain and bought territory from France and Russia. Our early northeastern colonies were acquired from the Dutch, by the British.)

Even before many of these places were colonized by outsiders, there was "micro-colonialism" between internal tribes and factions of the native peoples. This happened for thousands of years in pre-Columbian America, Africa, China, Europe, Indo-China, India, and all over the Middle East. Wherever and whenever this happened, there was war, killing, enslavement, expropriation, relocation, occupation, and suppression.

American society is not perfect, but I'm proud to say that we've acknowledged that imperfection from the beginning. We created the model for representative government, that the world has followed. Despite our short history (less than 250 years), we've changed our constitution and our laws to correct earlier mistakes that spanned our society. (A partial list includes slavery, female suffrage, civil rights, gay rights, universal healthcare, etc.) Have we been perfect? No way...yet the strength of our system is it ability to be dismantled and reconstructed to stay consistent with our evolving social attitudes. This includes those that pertain to our Native American citizens.

The main problem with your remarks (besides their obvious lack of historical scope, relevance, and source integrity), is the absence of understanding about the status of the Native American in the U.S.. There was a time when they were discriminated against because of color and ethnicity. Those days are long gone. The our civil rights laws changed that in the 60s and 70s. The biggest problem they faced after this period was economic and social. Decades of marginalization and separation created enormous educational, economic, social, and health problems. But, here again...the composition of our American system holds the solution to these problems. Real mobility of any kind (i.e, social, economic, educational, etc.) comes from money...and the Native Americans are beginning to rally in this area. The tribes are now capitalizing off of the sovereign status of their vast reservation lands and special minority status. They are parlaying this into wealth from gaming and federal contracting. The next generation is becoming better educated, entrepreneurial, and financially buoyant...while proudly asserting their tribal heritages. (I should also say that I know plenty of them who would hear your hackneyed, condescending remarks and tell you where to stick them.)

My purpose here is not to humiliate you, Yankee. (I think you've done a fine enough job of that, by yourself.) Rather, it is to reiterate the reasons why all of us have reason to be thankful. More than anything else, I'm thankful that I am from a society that can question itself and try to do better.

Back in 1969, the great Duke Ellington was awarded the United States Medal of Freedom - our highest civilian honor by President Nixon. He came from an ethnic group that had suffered greatly in America, but he never allowed this to enslave his spirit. In his short acceptance speech, he recalled the "four freedoms" that his good friend and collaborator, Billy Strayhorn lived by:

"...freedom from hate, unconditionally; freedom from self-pity; freedom from fear of possibly doing something that may help someone else more than it would him; and freedom from the kind of pride that could make a man feel that he is better than his brother."

There's a lesson in these words for all of us. At present, I would point out the lesson that none of us has a reason to feel better than anyone else and we should all strive to be better.

Happy Holidays all.

Ha! love the irony. post starts" "Yankee" needs an education"and ends"I would point out the lesson that none of us has a reason to feel better than anyone else ". I agree with your post in the other thread but still love the irony "Bill/Dan: I can only say that your bile in this thread + that you've written in another can only make me agree with Alien and Heller. The world has enough boorish pessimism.LOL

Shyam, less self-congratulation (you use 'we' to include yourself in things you played no part in) and fewer military invasions might balance out your point.

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