National Holidays

With thanksgiving coming up, I would like to comment on what I find to be a very interesting topic, national holidays. If you look online you can find all sorts of national holidays, one or more every day for things ranging from our nation’s independence to things like National Waffle Day.

From ancient Rome to modern day United

States of America, the leaders of nations have been creating holidays or making those that were already created official. In ancient Rome there were even months named after Julius Caesar (July) and Augustus Caesar (August), these have obviously stuck as they are still months today. The big question is, how do holidays become holidays? And what do they mean to empire?

Most Roman holidays had to do with worshipping the dead, as they did for Parentalia (February 13-21), or worshipping their gods, so these were very ritualistic holidays made to pay respect for the empire, those who rule it, and those who are a part of it.

Some American holidays are very easy to connect to empire, such as Veteran’s Day (November 11), a day where those who have fought for the American military are celebrated, this is a day to show thanks for those who risked or lost their lives to serve and protect the United states of America. But ot
hers, like thanksgiving and Christmas, are somewhat difficult to connect to empire.

Thanksgiving is day on which American people indulge in Turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, or whatever their family’s tradition is. Why is this holiday so important to us to the point that schools give their students a break and stores are closed or have shortened hours? Are American’s really that obsessed with food? Many presidents chartered Thanksgiving days, George Washington, John Adams, but it was Abraham Lincoln that officially established the Thanksgiving Days that we celebrate in modern times.

Thanksgiving was established as a time to give thanks for all that we have. It originated in 1621 when the people of the Plymouth colony had a feast with those of the Wampanoag tribe in order to celebrate the pilgrims first successful corn harvest. The Plymouth people had a very rough winter and lost many of their people, but thanks to a Native American named Squanto and the Wampanoag tribe, this group of people who about 10 percent of the American people can trace their ancestry back to today were taught how to farm and hunt, skills that allowed them to survive. After the successful corn harvest, both the pilgrims and Native Americans were excited, so they got together to eat and celebrate for three days. This was sadly one of the only times in American history that Natives and Americans/colonists got along.

Why do people still celebrate this holiday? Most people do not think of Thanksgiving celebration as celebrating the Pilgrims and Native Americans getting along. However, this holiday makes people think about what they are thankful for, be it their family, friends, car, food on their table, or living in America. This holiday makes people reflect on their lives in a positive manner and promotes comradery. This relates to empire because it makes the public happier and boosts the morale of the nation as a whole, this makes people happier in general and more appreciative of the empire.

Thanksgiving, the day we celebrate all we are thankful for, is ironically followed by Black Friday, the first official day for Christmas shopping and a day where people fight to buy things on sale…immediately after giving thanks for what they already have. Black Friday is when stores go “into the black” which means that they are earning a profit. Black Friday is the epitome of modern empire, focusing only on making a profit to the stores, and getting things that they didn’t have before to those who are shopping.

Thanksgiving and Black Friday show two completely different sides of empire, but they are both national holidays. Holidays promote empire in different ways to make people appreciate or think about empire in different ways and reach different people in the empire. Thanksgiving is very traditional and is meant to make people appreciate what they have while Black Friday is when people go out to gain more property and take part in that part of empire.

Unrest in the Empire after Trump’s Election

Every four years the citizens of the United States of America vote to pick the next leader of our nation. It seems as though every cycle our nation become more and more divided. In the days following the previous election it has become evident that our nation is more divided than ever. There have been protests all over the nations where people are vandalizing both public and private property (1), and in some cases burning the American flag (2), these people are chanting things such as “we reject the President Elect”. People are outraged at the fact that Donald Trump has been elected president and are letting their voices be heard.

At CSULA fire alarms were pulled and classes were cancelled due to student protests. (3) My dad drives for Uber and picked up one of the professors from the school before the protests got too out of hand. He claimed that classes were cancelled because a large amount of students walked out of class. A friend of mine that goes there told me that some classes were taking midterms that were cut short on time due to the fire alarms. These protests are out of control if you ask me.

 

Shortly after the protests started at Cal State LA some of the protesters made their way onto the 10 freeway, causing a closure that had thousands of people sitting in their cars waiting for traffic to clear up. (3) Protests also caused the closure of the 101 freeway in Los Angeles (4)….as if LA traffic wasn’t bad enough already.

Some people are outraged after seeing Donald Trump’s 100-day plan for when he takes office. (5) Included in this plan are efforts to limit the number of terms that members of congress may have and limit political lobbyists. He also wants to make a requirement that for every new federal regulation, two old federal regulations must be eliminated. Plans like this one typically do not get carried out to their full extent, especially since Trump does not have experience in politics and does not necessarily know how much he will be able to get done in this time period. His plan is ambitious to say the least, but it is the first piece of specific information that the public has been given about how he will run our nation.

In my opinion, I think that these protests are getting out of hand, I think that this large division can be seen as a sign that there must be change, otherwise we will continue in this downward spiral. In class we spoke of momento mori, or the idea that everything and everyone will eventually die or come to an end. Until the end is near, no one ever thinks that a nation will come to an end in their lifetime. I hope that the end of the United States does not come in my lifetime, but I think in order for us to continue to be the large and successful empire that we are currently, unity must come in some way shape or form.

 

I’m not saying that we all need to hold hands and sing Kumbaya, but we definitely need to close the large gap there is in our nation right now. Donald Trump was elected president, and though that makes many people upset, there is nothing we can do about it anymore, there was an election and he got the most electoral votes (6). Some are angry because he did not win the popular vote, but this has happened before and we are not a direct democracy because this would be unfair to the people of smaller states.

I think that at this point all we can do is wait and see what Donald Trump will do, we have never seen him in political office before and we should give him a chance to prove the protestors wrong to an extent. One thing that is already a good sign is that the stock market has raised significantly since Trumps election. (7) It is interesting that he is already affecting the economy and he has not even been sworn into office. It will be interesting to see how Trump’s presidency will unfold, I think that it will be different than what many people are thinking, as there is a system of check and balances and we have not seen what he is like in any political office. Let’s hope that our nation finds some form of unity over the next four years and that we don’t continue the downward spiral of separation.

Can ANYONE Become the President of the United States?

                   

In Empire, the leadership of a nation can determine whether it will be successful or not. In the United States of America, we get to determine who will lead our country through voting for president every 4 years. This is an extremely relevant topic as the next leader of this powerful nation will be determined this coming Tuesday, November 8, 2016. There are several candidates, but America has a two party system, so the only two that are really being talked about are the Democratic representative, Hillary Clinton, and the Republican representative, Donald Trump. If Hillary gets elected she will be the first ever female president of the United States.

 

Something that I find interesting about Presidential elections and the office of president is that though anyone fulfilling the requirements to become President can theoretically become president, in all honesty, it is very unlikely for someone without money or fame to become president. In order to become the President of the United States you must be born in America, or have a parent who is an American citizen at the time of your birth (you must be a “natural born” citizen). You must be at least 35 years old. And finally you must have lived in the United States for at least 14 years.

With those requirements it seems as though ANYONE could be the President, just as we were all taught in elementary school. However, as we grow up we begin to realize that maybe not ANYONE can be President. There have only ever been 9 presidents who did not have college degrees, and the last one served from 1893-1897, so nowadays, if you want to get in the Oval Office, you’re going to need to get your degree, especially in today’s society where you need a college degree to get most jobs. So now on top of the formal requirements you should have a college education if you’re considering running for president.

 

Another thing, running for President is very EXPEN$IVE! For instance, as of October 19, 2016 Clinton had raised $1.3 billion dollars while Trump raised $795 million, which are both incredibly large amounts of money. Not to mention, they aren’t quite finished yet. Also, that’s only the two big remaining candidates, there were several other candidates who all spent millions on the election as well and didn’t even make it past the primaries. If someone doesn’t have millions of dollars or doesn’t have a way to raise these vast sums of money, they can kiss their hopes of becoming president goodbye. Without the money it’s hard to get your name out there and to get a team of people behind you to help campaign and get your message to the people. To review, you need the basic requirements, plus a degree, plus access to A LOT of money… doesn’t seem like anyone can be president, huh?

Not to mention, there have been several presidents that were related to other presidents, one of which (Hillary Clinton), is running now. Such as George Bush and his son George W. Bush who were both presidents, his other son, Jeb Bush, ran in this election, but didn’t make it past the primaries. Hillary Clinton is married to former president, Bill Clinton, so if she becomes President, she will not only be the first female president, but she will also be the first President to have been married to another President. Being related to another President is not necessary, but it definitely helps.

 

The next time you hear someone telling a child that “anyone can be President” just remember that not ANYONE can be President. There are so many informal requirements to becoming President that without connections in some place or other it would be nearly impossible to become the President of the United States. And in all honesty, though some things, like having money and connections, shouldn’t limit someone from being President, being arguably the leader of the most powerful empire in the world, there should definitely be some limitations on who can and can’t take the office. You wouldn’t want someone who has a below average IQ making decisions about how this nation will run. You wouldn’t want someone who doesn’t know what a nuke is and what it can do to be in charge of the military. This is exaggeration, but basically, the Presidential office should be limited to those who are fit to run it, not those who have enough money to scrawl their name on every building and billboard in sight.