A Thanksgiving Perspective

A year ago at this time, when I was in France, I found myself talking to a young Chinese student of Western languages. We were riding on a tramway after a wine tasting, which seemed to have dispelled her shyness, opening her up to conversation. She asked me if I would be celebrating Thanksgiving in France. I responded in the affirmative, and then she said something truly surprising. She told me that she usually celebrated Thanksgiving in China. I was incredulous. “What do you mean, you celebrate Thanksgiving in China?” I asked. “Thanksgiving is an American holiday!” As it turns out, many young Chinese sit down and feast together to celebrate American Thanksgiving.

First, this anecdote illustrates the enormous soft power American culture has on China; if our commercial ties continue, Western soft power has the potential to completely undermine the authoritarian Chinese regime. But second, the young Chinese woman’s story also suggests the power of another story: the Thanksgiving story.

Consider the values enshrined in the story of Thanksgiving. Religious Freedom: the Pilgrims left Europe to practice their faith as they wished. Democracy: the “Mayflower Compact” was a sort of democratic constitution signed by all of the adult male settlers. Perseverance and Courage: The pilgrims endured the voyage across a vast ocean in a small vessel and their Plymouth colony barely survived the first winter. Peace and Friendship Between Distinct Cultures: Native Americans made it possible for the Pilgrims to survive that first winter, and in the spring they taught them how to plant Indian corn. Gratitude: In return for the charity of the Indians, the Pilgrims held the first Thanksgiving.

Sadly, the Thanksgiving story has come under attack. In the National Bestseller .  . . . .  Read More

The Maine Gay Marriage Law Repeal

From where I live in New Hampshire, I could hear the cannon fire and get reports from the front line. On the eve of battle, a friend who lives just across the river in Maine was visibly worried that the Maine gay marriage law would go down in defeat. Although separated by a state line, he and I share the same remarkably tolerant and civic-minded community. We know gay couples with relationships as long and meaningful as any heterosexual marriage. One mutual friend of ours rather recently lost his male partner after decades together. We saw him at a play-reading recently, and I was struck by his heavy heart. I suspect the Maine vote rejecting gay marriage deepened the sadness he still carries for the loss of his partner. It seems bizarre to me not to call what they had “marriage.” But this is only my opinion, values can be subjective, and maybe it’s time for us all to show little more respect for those with whom we disagree on the subject of gay marriage.

When asked why she voted for the repeal of the Maine gay marriage law, a voter replied, “I don’t feel that anyone has the right to redefine marriage.” There, in that simple quote, lies everything that is problematical about the gay marriage campaigns.  Read more.

The National Debt: A Disaster in the Making

Don’t miss this important post on the national debt by N.P. Kantelis

The House Healthcare Bill: Unserious

President Obama’s three objectives for a healthcare reform bill are – or were – that it cover every American with healthcare insurance, that it control costs, and that it be deficit-neutral. The bill that passed the US House of Representatives on Saturday night nearly accomplishes the first objective, probably fails to meet the second objective, and misses the last objective by a wide margin – hundreds of billions of dollars wide. The President should oppose this bill based on his often-stated objectives, but instead he enthusiastically supports it. President Obama seems either misinformed regarding the legislation or unserious about his objectives. “Unserious” was the kindest word we could come up with on short notice.   Read More.

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What if Obama Governed as a Centrist?

When Barack Obama was elected President last year, many public policy paths lay open to him. As a Democrat, Obama naturally did not turn to the laissez-faire right. To the far left, lay the trail of European-style socialism. Fellow travelers tugged at the President’s arm urging him to go this route, but the rocky political obstacles seemed too formidable. To Obama’s immediate left was the broad and open road of the Democratic status quo where many Congressional guides stood eager to lead the way. It must have seemed the path of least resistance, and so Obama took it .

In virtually all of the major legislative areas – fiscal stimulus, healthcare reform, and carbon-emissions reduction – President Obama picked the path Congressional Democrats liked best, allowing them to take the lead. Did he ever really consider that little-used post-partisan footpath in the center, the one that his campaign for President suggested he might take? It would have required the President to blaze the trail himself, and although a difficult journey, the view from the top could have been magnificent (Read More).