Holidays.
Some I like, some I don’t.
Sorry this comes so late in the day.
Christmas is my favorite. I’m not Christian, but it reminds me of my childhood and relates to toys, hand-made ornaments, candle light, and anticipation. When I grew up in Germany shortly after the war, commercialism wasn’t a word yet. The country – everybody – was poor. My most cherished presents were made by a starving artist, a friend of my mother’s who (I bet) received very little money for crafting a doll’s house for me, among other things: the furniture – a kitchen table with chairs, a baby cradle, a tiled stove and more – was carved from wood and painted by hand. I still have the Grandfather’s Clock!
Also, I like Martin Luther King Jr. Day, because – well, he was simply one of the greatest Americans ever, he delivered the “I Have a Dream” speech, promoted non-violent resistance, opposed the Vietnam War, fought for poor people, no matter what color. Although a bill requesting to make his birthday a national holiday was signed into law in 1983 and was celebrated for the first time three years later in 1986, some states didn’t observe the holiday, and it took until 2000 when South Carolina became the last state to make it an official holiday. And that’s about it as far as the list of favorite holidays goes.
Moving on to the ones I don’t like: again, only two come to mind. Way up on top is the Fourth of July. So often, it’s a welcome excuse for people to fire up their barbecue grills and cook hamburgers, hotdogs and whatnot. For a vegan, the smells wafting through several backyards are deeply repulsive. But by far the worst of it, I thought, is the noise of the fireworks – now that I live in a city, they start way before the Fourth and go on until a week or so later. Personally, I detest loud noises. But it’s not the end of the world and I could use ear plugs if I wanted. Non-human animals can’t do this. My dog Max, who moved with me from the outskirts of a quiet village in northern New Mexico to a city in Massachusetts, was absolutely terrified by the loud, gun-like noises. He trembled and tried to hide under the covers. All the birds, squirrels, possums, skunks, rabbits, and groundhogs, regular visitors in our yard, must be freaked out as well, I fear. And for what? Just for some stupid custom nobody really thinks about WHY they’re doing it.
That’s not quite correct. A number of big cities (Boston, San Diego, Tucson, and others) have opted to replace their fireworks with drone shows. They cite air and noise pollution, debris and waste, fire hazards, and injury risks as reasons to forego traditional displays. From what I can gather, they won’t replace backyard fireworks any time soon because they’re cost-intensive, starting at $15,000 for a display with the minimum amount of drones. But there are some regular, affordable fireworks without the noise, like Silent Knight – for $14.
There’s another aspect to the Fourth of July which doesn’t sit well with me, especially during the current regime with all its undemocratic, unconstitutional components. It’s summarized with the word “patriotism”. Even progressive writers such as Robert Reich speak of patriotism: It’s “what you do for your country”, he said in today’s Koffee Klatsch. “Your country” – hmm. I’ve mentioned this before: I was born in Germany in 1946. I never learned to be proud of “my” country; I learned that quite recently a megalomaniac had declared that Germany was the greatest country in the world, and that he had attempted to take over the world, rule it all. I learned that he was utterly wrong, that his ambitions were crazy, and that Germany lost the World War that this megalomaniac had started. When I was little and we visited my parents’ friends in Holland, I learned that there were people who resented Germans, any Germans, because of the past.
When I was 16 or 17 I spent a week in Paris, together with two classmates (I went to an all-girls school; not by choice, that’s how it was then. An all-boys high school was close by). When I met French kids my age I noticed that they were proud of being French, and that’s the first time I realized that I was not proud of being German, and it wasn’t just me. It was a feature I shared with everybody else my age.
And to this day, I’m glad about this. It’s a complete coincidence where one is born, isn’t it. I’m born where my parents live, I can’t get any credit for it, it’s not an accomplishment. Of course I love Germany, the country where I grew up. And of course there are parts that I dislike, same with any other country I’ve ever lived in. I try hard to see people as individuals, not as members of a tribe or belonging to a group which leads to “Us versus Them” thinking which is full of fallacies.
Maybe I confuse patriotism with nationalism, a dangerous notion espoused by the Nazis. So I googled “Patriotism”: it’s “the feeling of love, devotion, and a sense of attachment to one’s country or state”, Wikipedia says. At the top of the page it warns that the word shouldn’t be confused with Nationalism, but further down the entry states that the concepts are closely related. There’s a useful quote by George Orwell:
“By ‘patriotism’ I mean devotion to a particular place and a particular way of life, which one believes to be the best in the world but has no wish to force upon other people. Patriotism is of its nature defensive, both militarily and culturally. Nationalism, on the other hand, is inseparable from the desire for power. The abiding purpose of every nationalist is to secure more power and more prestige, not for himself but for the nation or other unit in which he has chosen to sink his own individuality.”
From George Orwell, Notes on Nationalism.
A nationalist seeks power and prestige, that makes sense. If Orwell would have met somebody like Trump, he may have left out “not for himself”.
But there’s still something I dislike when I hear “patriotism” – it is related to the Latin word pater, meaning “father”. It somehow reminds me of the authoritarian father figure, of my German grandfather who I remember as a bully, and of some theories which attribute the German authoritarian family structure at the beginning of the 20th century as significantly contributing to the rise of Hitler’s Nazi time.
I love the United States, warts and all. I even suffer through annoying fireworks. And yet: I’ll definitely be at the next No Kings protest rally!
Oh, and the other holiday I dislike is New Year’s Eve, because it’s Germany’s big fireworks night and it was just too noisy.