Thursday, May 22, 2014

IF I LEFT WHERE WOULD I GO?

This just keeps popping up. If it isn’t Like if you think every school day should start with the pledge of allegiance it’s a throw back to the sixties. A friend of a relative posted one of those (un)cute links on Face Book disrespecting the flag and should it be illegal.. The gist of the comments was the basic “if somebody doesn’t like it here, they should go back where they came from.”
Haven’t burned a flag. Haven’t to the best of my knowledge disrespected the flag although I’ve often wondered what flying a flag over your business has anything to do with groceries, office supplies or used cars. 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. To me it looks awfully similar to those offerings of incense to the statue of the emperor to prove you were a good Roman but hey, that’s just me. However I do have one question. Being a typical American where the bloody hell am I supposed to “go back to?”
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.” Or Queen. Some of them got here in time to be toasting Mary II and her sister Anne.

I’ve got tree branches haling from Scandinavia to Spain and Northern Italy. And from France before it was France to Byzantium, the Ukraine and Armenia. Not to mention England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales. As I said earlier, 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. Quakers don’t do the oath thing so there goes the pledge. Also 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.  It does buddy, believe me it does.

1 comment:

Lisa :-] said...

Well, you won't be going to Canada, because they don't want us there, either. Evidently they have a formula by which they take into account one's age and one's income when considering whether to allow one to emigrate there. If you're an old fart who is not independently wealthy, they don't want you to retire there and benefit from their (better than ours by a long shot) social programs. Can't say as I blame them...