A Time For Family And Friends: A Wish, A Thought and A Thanks

Merry Christmas to those who celebrate the birth of Christ; Happy Holidays to Everyone and Best Wishes for the New Years.

When the  country was established one of the greatest ideas of the Founding Fathers was the way to deal with the issue of religion. It was the recognition that you have to stay out of a person’s thought process. I should be able to believe X and practice the doctrines of X as long as they don’t impede the ability of others who believe and follow the practices of Y and Z.  However, there are some things that you are not allowed to do no matter what you believe which may endanger the public health and welfare of all.  These founders recognized they could not have created a country if one religion was going to dominate over others.

I do have to think that one thing they could never have foreseen is that the nine justices on the highest court of the land would be members of religions that were not present at the founding. These are my thoughts around Christmas where many celebrate the holiday and many others don’t and we have the constant Christmas wars with some wanting more displays of it and others finding offense in the displays. Fortunately it is played out in non violent ways and is quickly forgotten a day or two after Christmas except for the ongoing court battles.

Whitey’s spending his second Christmas in his later years in jail. An article in the Globe today talks about the police concentrating their efforts to crack down on the drug dealing in South Boston. It still thrives despite Whitey’s absence from the scene. Drug dealing and addiction is one of those things that rears its ugly head and survives no matter who is around.  We’ve seen that in our war against drugs where one leader of a drug cartel is taken down and within 24 hours there is a new leader. I suggest blaming Whitey for the drugs in South Boston, which existed before his rise to power and still continue today 18 years after he left the scene, is another one of those media created fictions that enhance Whitey’s status.

Blogging will be light for a couple of days.  Thanks to all who have read and participated in the blog. 2013 should be an interesting year.  When I pick up I’ll start in 1965 and try to break down the next 30 years into some segments.