A time of unity, and mockery (The Thanksgiving Ritual)

It’s a time of division in our country. The recent election illustrated quite clearly how this country is moving along on parallel tracks, some people steadfastly believing in one party’s divinity while others believe in the other party’s “correct” stance. The U.S. is a nation locked in conflict, with people looking for answers. They want them so much they follow terrible leaders down miserable paths (the only ones we’re allowed, Coke and Pepsi) and are either heartened or demolished when their chosen demi-deity is either triumphant or vanquished.

What can be done about this? Well, one can keep true to the one true faith: American mockery. 

Robert Vaughn is disgusted by what he sees.

The kind of mockery that could be found when people volunteered to hold balloons in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade dressed as clowns. The kind of mockery that ensnared one of the most dead-serious actors ever, Mr. Robert Vaughn. 

Skeptical but
undaunted.

I invite you to rewatch the moment when Mr. Vaughn, a Most Serious Thespian, read the preamble to the Constitution and was mocked by people dressed as clowns. 

Look seriously at the man from U.N.C.L.E. (stroking your chin), wiggle your nose at him, or just carry a balloon that says “Hi Mom!” But for the sake of sanity in the country, mock the serious man reading the Constitution. 

That way, things will all be all right. (And, to quote Tom Lehrer, we will all go together when we go.)