Happy Halloween! America Didn’t Force It On Anyone

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Americans, books, bullying, Great Britain, Halloween, holidays, television, The Sun

Halloween is upon us this week and children all over America will be dressing up as ghosts, witches and monsters etc. to go trick or treating to get candy and such from willing neighbours. The holiday has grown in popularity in my adopted country of Great Britain over the past two decades. However, the celebration of Halloween in Britain has brought more than its share of controversy along with it. Many Britons, especially the older generations and some on the political left, resent this ‘American’ holiday being ‘forced’ on them. Many see the practice of trick or treating as nothing more than sanctioned begging. Even the usually pro-American, Republican Party supporting UK newspaper, The Sun, has claimed that America has forced it onto the people of Great Britain. Listening to them, you might think that the US scrambled a squadron of B-2 bombers and flew them to Britain with the threat of bombing London into oblivion if it didn’t start celebrating Halloween (and the prom.)

A B-2 bomber flies to the UK with fighter escort ready to bomb London if they don’t accept Halloween.

The fact is that America didn’t force Britain or anyone else to celebrate Halloween. Most Americans don’t give two stuffs if any other country celebrates it or not. The real culprit behind the Halloween craze in the UK is children’s television. Thanks to cable and satellite TV, children get a huge range of American children’s programmes that they wouldn’t have known before those days. In many of those children’s shows, there is always one episode every season on Halloween. That’s a lot of Halloween episodes. As a result, British children get to see American children celebrating Halloween and naturally want to do the same thing themselves. Therefore, Halloween has grown bigger and bigger throughout the past 20 years.

Considering myself to be left of centre in my politics, I hear the left’s cries of American capitalism flooding Britain. There is truth in that, especially now that British supermarkets now have sections for Halloween during the run up to it and plenty of adverts on television. However, in spite of all of this, the bottom line is that the children of Britain wanted to celebrate Halloween and go trick or treating. Nobody forced them to do it nor forced their parents into allowing them to do so. People made a choice!

What gets me is that many people in the UK, especially on the left, balk at Halloween simply on the grounds that it’s American. However, if it was celebrated in any other culture, anyone who objected to its celebration in the UK would be called ‘racist.’ Many of those who would do the calling are those who object to Halloween on the grounds that it’s an American holiday. They need to remove their rose coloured glasses.

Let me clarify one thing. There is a practice by some British children that if they don’t get anything when they knock on a door when trick or treating, they throw flour or worse things at the house. Let me say that this is not an American practice. What has happened is that this practice has been confused with the unofficial “Mischief Night” which is the night before Halloween. During this night, windows get soaped, eggs get thrown at houses and other like things. It is not a holiday and it’s illegal. I know that in some of the towns I lived in as a kid, the cops were out in mass on this night.

Halloween is alive and well in Great Britain, like it or not. British children are looking forward to going out trick or treating and adults who embrace are looking forward to giving out sweets and might even go as far as putting on a little scary performance for their visitors. They realize how fun it is and celebrate it in good spirit. Halloween is not forced on anyone, especially not by America.

To buy He Was Weird, go to: https://www.amazon.co.uk/He-Was-Weird-Michael-Lefevre/dp/1909740942/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1509388565&sr=1-1&keywords=he+was+weird

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Why We Call It The World Series

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Americans, baseball, Great Britain, He Was Weird, LA Dodgers, sports, television, World Series

Baseball results from last week have left me rather excited because my favourite baseball team, the Los Angeles Dodgers, are playing in the World Series for the first time in 29 years. The last time was in 1988 when they defeated the Oakland A’s to win it all. I would like to watch the games but because I live in Great Britain and don’t have satellite sports television, I won’t be able to. Still, I’ll follow as best I can.

The LA Dodgers

Many people in Britain don’t understand why it’s called the World Series. After all, unlike the World Cup in soccer, the rest of the world doesn’t compete in it, only teams from the US and two Canadian teams. Some British people, mainly those on the political left who hate Americans for the sake of hating Americans, cite the name as proof that Americans think they are the end all and be all. Yes, there are many Americans who think they are but that’s not the case here.

There are several myths as to how the World Series got it’s name. One of the most popular was the belief that the contest was originally sponsored by the New York World newspaper. No evidence to this fact that exists. Some others are perpetrated by naive or arrogant Americans. Two popular ones are: “There are two Canadian teams who can play” and “If the world played in it, the US teams would still win.” Maybe so, but some teams would be disadvantaged when some of their Latin American and Japanese players went back to play for their home countries.

Simply enough, the World Series name came out of history. Back in the late 1800s and earlier 1900s when the winner of the established National League would play the winner of the fledgling American Association. it was often called the World Championship Series or the Championship of the World. As time progressed, the Championship was taken out and it was shortened to the World Series. Now remember, back then, there was no internet and news from other parts of the world didn’t come onto your screen straight away. There weren’t any televisions then either so one had to rely on newspapers and by the time a news story about an event in Europe or Asia, was made news in the US and the reverse was true too, it was already old news in the country the story originated in. As far as America was concerned, no one outside of North America played baseball. Therefore, the belief that the winner of the series could rightfully be crowned ‘World Champions’ had merit at the time. That’s all it was. It had nothing to do with American arrogance or imperialism.

Why don’t they change the name to get in touch with the modern world? I, for one, wouldn’t shed a tear if the name was changed to something like the MLB Championship Series or even something twee like the ‘Super Series.’ However, I don’t believe the name will ever be changed. If anyone tried and I think there’s a few Britons who might sympathize here, many in America would start screaming “political correctness” and even state that it’s somehow ruining the national game. Poke holes in this argument all you want, but no matter, the name ‘The World Series’ isn’t ever going to change.

Shameless book plug: I do mention a fictitious World Series in “He Was Weird.” At the beginning of the story, when Mark has his first weekend in his new town, he watches the final game between the Baltimore Orioles and Arizona Diamond Backs. I am quite sure those two teams never met in any World Series. So, that’s history for you. I’m going to cheer on my Dodgers and maybe have cause to celebrate in baseball for the first time in nine years when my local team, the Philadelphia Phillies won it in 2008.

The Phillies celebrate World Series glory in 2008.

To buy He Was Weird, go to: https://www.amazon.co.uk/He-Was-Weird-Michael-Lefevre/dp/1909740942/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1508872466&sr=1-1&keywords=he+was+weird

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

History Proves My Insanity

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Abraham Lincoln Battalion, Asperger's Syndrome, Autism, books, history, slavery, Spain, US Civil War, US history

For the past three weeks, all sorts of worry has followed since I wrote my post about the misuse of history. My biggest worry is that I came across as being a racist, which I’m not. I think my big mistake was going into too much detail and letting the facts run away with me. Maybe my opinions were too intense for some, I don’t know. What I do know is that throughout history, history has been misused by persons in order to fulfill some sort of agenda. By the left as a stick to beat people with and by the right to foster hatred and sometimes false senses of national pride.

Robert E Lee, this statue should not be torn down

One controversial point I made in that post was that I thought that statues of Robert E Lee should not be torn down. I know that he fought for the Confederacy whose cause was the maintaining of slavery in the South. It could be argued that it was because of his brilliant generalship, that the US Civil War lasted four years. He embarrassed several Union generals in the early years of the war and even his defeat at Gettysburg led to Lincoln sacking the general who won the battle. It took General Grant who realized that while the Union may lose 25,000 men and the Confederacy only 20,000, the Union could afford to lose that number while the Confederacy couldn’t. Basically, Grant wore Lee down in a war of attrition. My point here is that Lee was a great general who just happened to fight on the side which was pro-slavery. He, like so many Americans, fought for the side his home state did. Tearing down his statues does not alter that fact nor should his statue be seen as some symbol to slavery because I never saw it that way.

Abraham Lincoln Battalion

A slightly more recent historical confusion came in the form of the Spanish Civil War. For those who don’t know, the Spanish Civil War was between forces loyal to the elected government, which was left of centre and included socialists and communists and the Nationalist forces led by General Franco. History has shown Franco to be a fascist dictator, supported by Italy led by Mussolini and Nazi Germany. When the war started, thousands of men and women from many other countries came to Spain to fight on the side of the Loyalists against Franco. Roughly three-thousand of these were from the United States who formed the Abraham Lincoln Battalion. The battalion fought bravely in many engagements and many were killed during the three years they fought in Spain. One historical point: The Abraham Lincoln Battalion was the first American military unit to have full racial integration.

A few years back, I commented elsewhere that I never agreed with former US President Ronald Reagan’s comment that the Abraham Lincoln Battalion fought on the wrong side. Many people agreed with my comment but one person asked me if I would have liked Spain to have become like the USSR if the Loyalists had won. I asked him to provide evidence to this and while his response was “You’re kidding right?,” he never provided such evidence.

To me, this is another misuse of history. I have read a historical ‘What if’ that said Spain would have become a Soviet satellite state because the Loyalists had backing from Stalin and during the civil war, Spanish Communists carried out Stalinist style purges on their own side. Maybe so, we can only speculate here but my question is: “What made those Americans and others from around the world go to Spain and fight on the side of the Loyalists if they were determined to set up a Soviet state?” One argument would be that they were fighting against fascism and that was a noble cause. With the rise of Hitler and Mussolini, there was a genuine fear in the 1930s of fascism spreading, even more so that Communism. Maybe they were simply fighting on the side that they thought was right and it is only armchair historians who have put in their own conclusions on the matter based on some historical knowledge. Thinking about it can drive me to insanity. Still, I don’t think that the Abraham Lincoln Battalion fought on the wrong side. Additionally, wrong or right, these Americans sacrificed a lot to go to another country and fight for a cause and isn’t that what America is supposed to be all about?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Las Vegas Shooting- Will Anything Change?

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Americans, anxiety, Asperger's Syndrome, Columbine, Great Britain, guns, He Was Weird, Las Vegas, mass shootings, NRA, Sandy Hook, school shootings, Second Amendment, stereotypes

 

Photo From the Las Vegas Shooting last week

Now more than a week after the tragic shooting which happened at a music festival in Las Vegas, Nevada, I feel that I can finally write about it. Originally, I wasn’t going to post about it as so many people have already put in their two penneth worth of thoughts regarding the terrible tragedy. As usual, things like this send my Asperger’s mind into hyper-drive for a number of reasons. The main one is being accused of jumping on the bandwagon along with everyone else who has an opinion on it. I’m not jumping on anything, I’m just exercising my right to share my thoughts and opinions on what happened. There’s also the opportunity to use the tragedy in shamelessly promoting my book, “He Was Weird.” Yes, it’s a great opportunity but it’s too soon to do it now. Maybe when wounds have healed, I might make comparisons to this shooting and the one in my book but not now. Again, it’s just a maybe.

What strikes me is every time something like this happens, most of the same old tired arguments and cliches come out. It did with Sandy Hook, Virginia Tech and even Columbine. We get people saying, “We need tougher gun laws.” “We can’t let this happen again, yada yada yada.” Then we get groups like the National Rifle Association screaming blue murder how any mass shooting isn’t a reason to take away their second amendment rights, the right to bear arms. These are the main battle lines between the two camps and everything else is merely an offshoot of them. Still, I think most people get fed up with hearing the same anecdotes.

As an American living in the UK, I have a third anxiety to contend with. When a mass shooting happens in America, the British stereotype of how all Americans are a bunch of gun nuts come out. Opinions of how backward the NRA is and how every American has an Uzi under their beds manifest themselves. At every shooting, the UK media goes on and on about the American gun culture. What many people in the UK fail to realize is that there are as many, if not more Americans who want to control guns, want to ban automatic weapons and toughen up the gun laws. The problem is that they aren’t nearly as organized as the NRA nor do they have as much money. At least not enough to have politicians in their pockets. I’m an American, I have never owned a gun. I was issued an M16 when I was in the marines but when not actually using the weapon, my rifle was locked in an armoury along with all the others. I am certainly NOT a gun nut. In fact, one mistake I made (and yes I’m making reference to my book) in “He Was Weird” was when news of the shooting spread overseas, I didn’t have the British media make as much out of it as they would have in actuality. Silly me.

So, what to do now? I made a suggestion a long time ago which makes even more sense now, in light of what happened in Las Vegas. While everyone is debating whether America needs new or tougher gun laws, let’s start enforcing the gun laws already on the statutes. I repeat my question from that ancient post: What’s the point of having a law if it’s not being enforced? You might as well not have it at all. If gun laws are properly enforced, we might see less gun crime and fewer mass shootings. If stricter enforcement doesn’t bring about change, then we can talk about tightening up or enacting new gun laws. While mass shootings and gun crime will never be fully eradicated, their occurrences would be fewer and that for me is a good start.

https://peacefulrampage.wordpress.com//?s=gun+laws&search=Go

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Need Inspiration to Write? Go to Minehead

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Asperger's Syndrome, Autism, books, concentration, He Was Weird, Minehead, television

Last week I took one of the service users, (the new politically correct term for persons in care), on a client holiday to Minehead. Minehead is located in what is referred to in Britain as ‘The West Country’ being on the coast of the Bristol Channel in the county of Somerset. The company rented a huge country cottage that can sleep up to eleven but there was only the two of us, the client, whom I shall call Jerry and me.

While we did some fun activities during our three day stay, we went on the steam train and took a trip to the fishing village of Lynton, Jerry was quite content to spend the evenings on the couch watching cooking programmes or those about house buying, they are interests for him. Since such programmes aren’t really my thing, I had to find other things to focus my attention on while at the same time, stay with my client. Therefore, I took my writing with me.

The picturesque surroundings of where we stayed and the area around Minehead were very inspiring. I felt that I couldn’t help but to look at the spectacular views and not be inspired to write. Just looking out the windows from my bedroom or from the balcony of the cottage was inspiring enough. I can’t remember the last time I got so much writing done. I fully completed my latest short story and made some changes to the previous one. Originally they were going to be fused together but with all that inspiration, I wrote and wrote and what was going to be a very short story turned out to be something longer than what I had originally expected. That is the influence the countryside around Somerset had on me. It also helped that Jerry was content to just watch TV. I know that if it had been some of the other service users, I would have gotten little to nothing done despite the breathtaking views. For example, Melvin, who I featured in my ancient series of posts titled: “More Like Them Than I Think” would have been wanting to talk from the time he got up til the time he went to bed. When that finally did happen, I would have been so worn out, I wouldn’t have had the energy to write as I would have been mentally drained.

So, being the generous soul that I am, I am going to share my holiday snaps with you because most of you can’t get to Minehead. Maybe the pictures will give you the inspiration it gave me, although many of you have your own places that inspire and I would like to hear about those.

The view from my bedroom window

Our cottage

The balcony view

Minehead harbour

 

The view of the countryside from the steam train.

The village of Wachet. I always wanted to go here because the name reminded me of Elmer Fudd.

Wachet’s Harbour

The coast around Lynton

A shop in Minehead. I took this photo because I knew my wife would find it funny, which she did.

I hope these views will inspire you like they did me.

To buy He Was Weird, go to: https://www.amazon.co.uk/He-Was-Weird-Michael-Lefevre/dp/1909740942/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1506935981&sr=1-1&keywords=he+was+weird