Sunday, October 17, 2004
Peoples is Peoples
I can't stand ignorant people. Three cases in point:
Towns throughout the Bible Belt have protested that Halloween falls this year on Sunday, and have instead decided to hold Halloween festivities on Saturday instead. Segeral people quoted in the stories I read spoke of how Halloween celebrates "the Devil, not the Lord". Now a town in Louisiana wants to ban Halloween for 'promoting Witchcraft'.
Now it is true that the practice of celebrating Halloween does come from pagan rituals from before Christianity. But the early church adopted this practice into its religion by creating All Saints Day, the day after Halloween. And the basic message of Halloween is still to protect people from evil spirits. How is that different from an exorcism?
On National Public Radio, the topic of discussion was the National Rifle's Association's attempt to spread an anti-Kerry message to their supporters. One of their methods was a bumper sticker that played off of Kerry's nickname, the Poodle, by showing a picture of a poodle and stating "This Dog Don't Hunt".
In point of fact, the poodle is a bird dog, bred specifically for hunting. Its perfected coif was designed specifically for hunting and wading through water to bring back downed birds. So, in reality, this dog does hunt. The rifleman are confusing the image of the poodle as a pampered pet with its original intended use, and their bumper sticker loses all meaning to anyone who knows anything about dogs.
Rapper KRS-One stated in a recent interview that 9-11 "doesn't affect us the hip-hop community." "9-11 happened to them, not us," he added, explaining that by "them" he meant "the rich ... those who are oppressing us. RCA or BMG, Universal, the radio stations."
Well, KRS neglects to notice that 9-11 put this country into a recession, which cost millions of people their jobs, including people within the hip-hop community. Of the 3000 killed, there were not only accountants and executives, but office managers, maintenance and custodial workers, which certainly are not to be included among the rich. It led, directly and indirectly, to the U.S. committing itself to two wars, which affected millions as well, including the hip-hop community. To think that 9-11 only affected the most affluent in America, and no one else, is being ignorant of the facts.
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