Archive for November 22nd, 2007
Thankful down under
November 22, 2007Friends in the United States ask whether or not we celebrate Thanksgiving here and I explain to them that, no, Australians miss out on “turkey day” and a lot of important holidays like July 4th, Evacuation Day, and Sam Houston’s birthday. And hardly anybody here remembers the Alamo.
That’s a tongue-in-cheek reply, of course, and Kristi and I will be joining an American friend and her Australian husband tomorrow for a Thanksgiving feast with others, as we did last year. It will be Friday here as we start the festivities, but still Thursday in the US.
Aussies are aware of this uniquely American holiday, though. In today’s “The Australian,” the paper’s New York correspondent comments on several “things we should thank America for,” including baseball.
Although I doubt our Aussie host tomorrow will agree, David Nason calls it “a game of wonderful nuance and sublime skill that is a worthy rival of cricket,” even if it is “an acquired taste” best enjoyed with a beer in hand.
The post-World War II Marshall Plan, so different from “the Bush-Chaney cock-up in Iraq,” is another worthy gift to the world from the US, Nason says, as is Muhammad Ali, cultural and religious tolerance, freedom of speech, and freedom of inquiry.
Nason notes that freedom of inquiry “remains the most important element of the checks and balances a decent democracy needs Read the rest of this entry »