When Do We Celebrate Cinco de Mayo This Year?

President Benito Juarez of Mexico - Bryant Park New York 

Cinco de Mayo happens to fall on the Fifth of May this year. Lol

Most Americans only know of the Cinco de Mayo as a festival that Mexican Americans celebrate a little like St. Patrick’s Day.  It is a day to assert, defend and celebrate ethnic identity.

The actual date May 5, 1862 marks a surprise victory of Mexican Forces at the Battle of Puebla shortly after the French invaded and set up a puppet dictator in the form of a useless royal cousin of France’s Napoleon III.

Napoleon’s useless royal cousin, Maximilian I, was set up as Emperor of Mexico under power of a French Military force.

The French came into Mexico, within the U.S.A.’s realm of influence when the U.S. got involved in a Civil War and was not in a position to challenge the French colonial presence in the western hemisphere.

The French eventually left after being harassed in combat etc. by the legitimate Government Forces of Mexico under President Benito Juarez.

The new Emperor Maximilian I got shot by a firing squad in 1867 after being captured by the Mexicans.

Moral of the story to Maximilian. He should have gotten a real job and not been a dictator for some corporate banking thugs and gangsters who tried to steal the country of Mexico.

Feliz Cinco de Mayo!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinco_de_Mayo

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Dark Night of America’s Soul – Bin Laden’s death

I am glad that that bastard Osama Bin Laden is Dead!

It is not very Christian of me to say that.

An eye for an eye.

WWJD? (What would Jesus do?) I don’t know. He turned the other cheek and got killed by the state.

In the dark night of this nation’s soul, there seems to be a slight sliver of light, of hope, in this long chaotic morass of this new century and this new millennium. That sliver of light and hope lay in the death of a self proclaimed messiah of Islam.

Self appointed messiahs rarely succeed in the vision thing.

Divinely anointed messiahs are quite another story.

The man in the Arab and Muslim streets came no closer to moral, political or intellectual freedom under this Al-Qaeda world wide reign of terror. The turmoil in many Arab states these days reflects a desire for self determination and more freedom. The turmoil is also the result of the collapse of the dollar and the price of bread in those countries.

I, as a citizen of the United States, have very little control over world or military events let alone military budgets.

In the dark night of this nation’s spiritual soul, in its seemingly disrupted journey to moral excellence, it is hard to turn the cheek if we have a presence in 150 nations. Etc.

Perhaps out of all this political chaos comes a united global world or a more human world that fits into the vision of the Sermon on the Mount. “Blessed are they that …”

And still I am glad that that bastard Bin Laden has been served justice on a cold platter.

God forgive me.

I am only human and personally witnessed 911 here in New York City. Witnessed that event and witnessed, am witnessing the long journey of this city’s soul out of the depths of tragedy and back to something resembling normalcy.

It has been pointed out to me that celebrating the death of Bin Laden is wrong. I agree. Celebrating that death would indirectly celebrate his life – which was a poor example of simple local humanity or love of one’s global neighbor.

I also see the spontaneous outburst of joy on Sunday night in Times Square not as a celebration of death but more as a celebration as an event, a turning point, in an ever growing smaller world where everybody is truly your neighbor.

In any case I quote from the Hebrew testament for lack of my own words to match such eloquence.


Ecclesiastes 3:3-4

a time to kill and a time to heal,

a time to tear down and a time to build,

a time to weep and a time to laugh,

a time to mourn and a time to dance,

Phoenix Rising - World Trade Center - NYC

 

( 911 Memorial - foreground - under construction )

[click on above photo to get expanded image]