REMEMBERING IN TIME: Memorial Day, ritual, and thoughts in silence

As we ponder the history and meaning of our New Old Traditions, Memorial Day is upon us. Barbecues and clearance sales! Car races and a day off from school! Apparently these things that most Americans associate with Memorial Day are the reasons that prompted Congress to pass a bill in 2000 that declared 3pm on Memorial Day as an official “National Moment of Remembrance,” suggesting you take a moment from your picnicking with friends and family to be silent or ring a bell to commemorate and pay tribute to fallen soldiers.

Taking time to think about soldiers and war can certainly complicate an otherwise relaxing weekend. Thinking about soldiers means thinking about the army, and that means thinking about war, its politics, the politics of who ends up becoming a soldier, what they fought for, and who they killed before they were killed themselves. Any ceremony or speech made on behalf of fallen soldiers will inevitably touch upon some of these issues. But the issues do not obscure the simple fact of their deaths.

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REMEMBER WHEN THE IRISH WERE BLACK? (New Old News Feed March 15th, 2010)

Top o' the mornin' to ya'.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day this week! Remember when (about 150 years ago) the Irish were blamed for stealing “our” jobs?

“They alienated themselves from Americans, sometimes forming gangs. They crowded into tiny houses or apartments, suppressing housing prices where they lived.”

Now we just call them Mexicans… Oh but this is different they all rush to say. Is it?

Plus: Israel loves building homes, the spiritual art of drinking snail mucus, the Pope in all his glory, and more!

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ISLAM, CHRISTIANITY, AND JUDAISM AT THE END OF THE DECADE

This past decade in the U.S. the Big Three players in religion took a right beating both from within and from without. These mega-institutions (either in numbers or cultural-political weight) couldn’t even agree on what pencils to bring to their secret meetings, and yet each one had their hands in enough havoc to upend the entire planet. In the midst of all the head-butting and playground antics, religious liberals decided that “interfaith dialogue” would be the decade’s rally cry and everyone (who supported Barack or Hillary) jumped on board. And while for many of us, the concept and actions of interfaith dialogue seemed more like a code for “Please help me talk down these baby-eating Muslims,” the mainstream institutions themselves just tried to hold on to what was left of their increasingly unrecognizable kaleidoscopic identities.

Here’s an overly simplistic look back at (read: Roast of) the Tri-Force of Faith in the 2000s:

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