Sunday, July 11, 2010

JUST A LITTLE QUESTION

Found a link on Face Book to a yes or no question. Should flag burning be made a crime? The comment of the person who had the link was the basic “if they don’t like it here, they should go back where they came from.” Haven’t burned a flag. Don’t have any desire to burn a flag; unless it’s dirty, raggedy and needing to be retired. And I’m not touching the whole flag worship thing with a ten foot pole. But it begs the question.

The latest ancestor I can account for stepped off the boat with rest of her bog trotting kin in 1850 at the Port of New York. Near as I can tell everybody else was this side of the pond while dinner toasters were still starting off the after dinner liquid merriment with “to his majesty” or “God save the King.” I’ve got tree branches haling from Scandinavia to Spain and Northern Italy. And from France before it was France to Byzantium and the Ukraine. Not to mention England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Under the circumstances I prithee tell me sir; where should I go?

Probably wouldn’t be any happier with my six times great grandfather Thomas Elmore, a Quaker. Seems he spent some time in the slammer in the glorious colony of Virginia. As near as anyone can tell he either didn’t pay his tithes or refused to attend the Church of England, the established church of Virginia, …..or both. Nothing like studying the times of your ancestors to remind what they had to go through to get here. And how lucky we are in spite of the problems facing us.

The poster has the right to his opinion and I have the right to tell him to “zark off.” (courtesy of the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy) Of course, I’d have the added pleasure of exiting while the target is puzzling over what I just said and wondering if the translation means what he thinks it means. :-)