Weekend of holidaze?

You might not have been aware; but this weekend that is now concluded was loaded with holidays.

Events that I suspect most of us weren’t really aware of. And even if we did, I suspect we did things and engaged in activities that were little more than trivial.

Mexican 'Day of the Dead' imagery, combined with Star Wars visuals

FOR I’M REFERRING to Cinco de Mayo, which is a legitimate holiday honoring an event of great significance in Mexico’s history. But way too many people go out of their way to celebrate by eating “Americanized” tacos and drinking too much tequila or margaritas.

That holiday was Sunday. And I saw far too many notices for assorted taverns that make it clear they viewed the day as an excuse for drink specials meant to get potential customers into their establishments.

Where they can get them to spend more and more money while drinking more than would be advised.

Of course, if we think that is too trivial a way to spend the day, I can’t help but think it’s downright serious compared to Saturday – which was Star Wars Day.

A DAY MEANT to give all of the fans of the Star Wars films a chance to celebrate and act as though there is nothing incredibly geeky or lame about the world in which they like to indulge themselves.

Personally, it strikes me as being about as phony as the fact that Feb. 9 was regarded as National Pizza Day – which I’m sure the restaurant industry thinks is fully legitimate if it can get people to eat out at their local pizzeria (and spend money too).

Saturday got the designation as being Star Wars Day because it calls on May 4 – which fanatics of the film think is all too apropos because, in their minds, it sounds just like “May the force be with you.” The cliché phrase that Star Wars fans think is some sort of philosophy with great meaning in everyday life.

Although I’ll give proponents of this holiday one bit of praise – at least they’re not making a “special” day out of something like Confederate Memorial Day (which will be Friday in South Carolina); celebrating those who were prepared to undermine the U.S.’s existence to support chattel slavery and their own hang-ups over who “belongs” here.

BUT SATURDAY WAS a day for those people who have spent far too much time following the Star Wars films and have made a point of viewing them every chance they get.

Something that I must admit I haven’t done. I saw the original film when it came out in the movie theaters, along with the sequel. But I never viewed any of the follow-up films as being required viewing, and in fact haven’t seen the most recent of them at all. And don’t feel like I’ve had any loss in my life as a result.

So I suppose the point of Saturday was lost on me. It certainly wasn’t a holiday designed with me in mind. And for all I know, the Star Wars geeks probably wonder why I pay any attention to something like baseball (where I couldn’t help but notice on Friday when I went to a ballgame, the Chicago White Sox were selling t-shirts that combined team imagery along with Star Wars characters).

Perhaps the key to the White Sox’ rebuild into a championship-quality ball club is that they can gain a mastery of the so-called force that supposedly controls all aspects of life?

BUT WHILE I find Star Wars Day to be semi-humorous in its triviality, what came the following day almost offends me.

For the fact is that May 5 in Mexican history commemorates the events of 1862 when an insurgency movement attacked a military garrison in Puebla, near Mexico City. It was in that era when France tried to regain a colonial presence in the Americas, and thought that the uncertainty caused in Mexico following the 1840s Mexican-American War left it susceptible to being taken over.

As ridiculous as the holiday itself

Cinco de Mayo commemorates a military victory that inspired the Mexican people to think they were capable of standing up to the major world powers. The very spirit that is meant to be celebrated by those people wishing to show off their spirit of Mexicanidad. And which offends the sensibilities of those people who most approve of this Age of Trump our society is now in.

Which certainly doesn’t sound anything like the people who partook in the piñata party cruise held Sunday afternoon by the Chicago Yacht Events had in mind as they sailed around Lake Michigan,

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It’s Cinco de Mayo; What’s your point?

I don’t live these days in a Spanish-speaking enclave of any sort, yet I could – if I wished – take part Saturday in a neighborhood Cinco de Mayo party.

How many people think this is cute?

It was just the other day that one of my neighbors had their young daughter go door-to-door around the neighborhood, handing out invitations to the party they’re planning to have Saturday afternoon into early evening.

THE WHOLE BLOCK, it seems, is invited to share in a joint celebration featuring Mexican-themed food and drink, along with some music.

Did I say this isn’t a Spanish-speaking neighborhood? I may well be the lone Latino living on the block. Do I think this means my neighbors have some particular sensitivity to ethnicity and culture and history?

I sincerely doubt it.

I wouldn’t be the least bit shocked if the fact that Saturday has some sort of holiday attached to it is merely a chance for them to party – and perhaps they think it will be a novelty to offer up margaritas; along with food items that will make the servings at a standard-issue Taco Bell franchise seem to have a touch of authenticity.

WHICH IS WHY I doubt I’ll be out amongst my neighbors – that, and I do have a touch of anti-social behavior in me. If I did go out there, I’d probably be the crackpot who’d want to turn the whole thing into a history lesson.

And I don’t doubt in the least that many of the people who will be doing something to mark Saturday, the Fifth of May, probably have no clue (or any interest in learning) the significance of the date in Mexican history.

What it is is the 156^th anniversary of the date that a Mexican resistance group attacked a military garrison in Pueblo (a city located near the capital of Mexico City) and actually managed to drive the troops from the city.

Maximilian I, the Austrian puppet for France who tried ruling over Mexico

This was during the time when France (which regretted the Louisiana Purchase that sold off its North American colonies to the United States) wanted to re-establish a military presence in the Americas.

WHICH LED THE French to think they could confiscate Mexico (which had declared its independence from Spain in 1810 – Independence Day is Sept. 16) and claim it for themselves.

Cinco de Mayo pays tribute to those Mexicans who were willing to stand up for the idea of their home nation as independent and were able to beat what was back then one of the world’s great military powers.

Those modern-day cynics eager to berate Mexico for any reason they can conjure will point out that the French eventually retook their garrison, and that the conflict between the French-backed Mexican emperor (Maximillian of Austria, a French puppet) and the Mexican people lingered on into a stalemate for several years.

But in the way the United States and Mexico intertwine, the end of the U.S. Civil War in 1865 resulted in military aid to the Mexican resistance – which resulted two years later in France giving up its colonial dreams and pulling out their military. The end result was Maximillian being put before a firing squad on June 19, 1867.

U.S. OFFICIALS felt compelled to back Mexicans because the official Mexico government of Maximillian was a Confederate-supporting one – and one that likely would have sent the French military across the Rio Grande into the so-called Confederacy to fight for the cause of splitting the country they helped create some 80 years earlier.

Mexicans enjoy beisbol too

Not that I expect many people today to have any knowledge, or interest, of these events. All too many think Cinco de Mayo is the equivalent of Fourth of July and are more interested in where they can find the cheapest margarita or burrito deal.

Personally, I’d think more highly of them if they followed my lead – taking time out to watch this weekend’s series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres.

Which is being billed informally as the “Mexico Series” because the regular season games are being played at the home ballpark of the Monterey Sultans of the Mexican League.

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¿What gaffe will Trump give us come the Cinco de Mayo holiday?

The word is getting out on how badly the Trumpites managed to botch the ceremonial fluff this week related to Ireland and St. Patrick’s Day.

Which is odd because, as the Washington Post reported, so many of the prominent people allied with Donald J. Trump’s presidency are of Irish-American descent – even though Trump himself is German/Scottish-American.

It's a wonder Trump didn't dig this sign out to post at White House

OF COURSE, THEY’RE also the kind of people who go around screeching and screaming at every opportunity that they’re “Real Americans!!!!” and none of that hyphenated American talk that they want to believe is what’s wrong with our society these days. Even though I suspect the real issue is many of them don’t know what they are!

So maybe we should give them the benefit of the doubt that they really didn’t have a clue as to how vacuous they were being on Thursday when officials from Ireland were in Washington, D.C., for rituals long associated with the White House to acknowledge the long-standing ties between the two nations and to show just how far our nation has come from the days of “No Irish Need Apply.”

Then again, it would be totally in character for the Trumpites to think it all essential to snub other people. Perhaps they think it shows superiority and strength. I think it merely shows boorishness.

Then again, being a boor has been tied into the Trump persona for so long. It probably is second nature.

SO HOW BAD was the behavior? According to the Washington Post:

·        Vice President Mike Pence managed to create rolled eyes with his initial greeting of “Top of the Morning” to the Irish delegation.

·        Trump managed to recite an “Irish proverb” that no one in the Irish delegation recognized ("Always remember to forget the friends who proved untrue, but never forget to remember those who stood by you"), and it turns out may actually be a line written by a Nigerian poet -- a gaffe only The Donald is capable of making.

·        House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., made an attempt at a joke by pointing out all the golf courses Trump has owned on his properties – apparently thinking that Ireland and Scotland (where the game was created) are identical.

·        But Ryan topped himself when he tried offering up a toast, using a pre-poured glass of Guinness that had gone flat. None of that luscious foam that hard-core Guinness drinkers would insist is the mark of a real drink.

Tunisia officials showed Angela Merkel of Germany more respect than U.S.

About the only way Trump could top that last gaffe would be, if the next time he visits Chicago, he were to stop off for a hot dog and insist on no tomatoes or pickle spears, but lots of ketchup.

This, admittedly, is all trivial. But these ceremonial rituals usually are the things that are so heavily researched in advance to ensure that nothing goes wrong. Ineptitude is putting things mildly.

PERSONALLY, I THINK the Mike Pence gaffe is the worst, because this IS the man who would become president, should the fantasies of many people that Trump become bored with the presidency and resign were to actually come true!

Although the fact that Trump followed up his Ireland gaffes of Thursday with a Germany snub on Friday is purely pathetic.

For Friday was the day that Chancellor Angela Markel was at the White House. She got a private meeting with Trump, followed up with a public appearance by the two during which Trump refused her offer of a handshake.

Reports also noted that Trump wouldn’t even look Markel in the eye during the time they were together before the cameras – the moment in which the world’s eye was literally on the two.

I find this sign outside an Austin, Texas restaurant to be amusing

IT WAS POINTED out how Trump had been critical of Germany during his campaigning last year, what with the way that nation has accepted refugees from Syria. A move Trump has called “a catastrophic mistake” mainly because it makes his attempts at creating xenophobic U.S. policies on travel and immigration look all the more ridiculous by comparison.

You’d think that even someone with a limited world view of Donald Trump (be honest, those hotels he builds overseas are largely for Americans who don’t want to have to interact with foreigners when they travel abroad) would be able to find aspects of Ireland and Germany he could identify with.

TRUMP: Gaffes galore!

It makes me dread what we’re likely to get when Trump is forced to acknowledge the existence of May 5 and the Mexican holiday of that date. Maybe he’ll head back to the Trump Tower in New York for one of the now-infamous “Taco Bowls” they serve in their restaurant.

Which makes me think that for those who wish to disdain Mexico, the locals there and in Mexican-oriented communities in this country probably showed more respect for the Irish this week than our nation did.

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Lincoln lore lives on; perhaps we could include it in Cinco de Mayo tribute

It has been quite a weekend for those people who get their kicks out of dressing in period fashions and pretending they are re-enacting our history.

For it was 150 years ago Monday that the funeral services were held at Springfield’s Oak Ridge Cemetery to inter the body of then-recently assassinated President Abraham Lincoln.

WHICH MEANS IT was 150 years ago Saturday that the body of Lincoln arrived in Illinois and was on display in Chicago, before taking the final portion of the Lincoln funeral train route to Springfield – pretty much along the same route of towns that now rely on Interstate 55 for their continued existence.

There actually was a replica of the Lincoln funeral train that made the trip this past weekend, giving the historic re-enactors a chance to fully pretend they were gathering for the president’s funeral services.

I can’t say I’m the type who would feel compelled to do such things, despite my own interest in history. In large part because wearing any type of authentic period garb would result in donning itchy, uncomfortable clothing.

Besides, my own girth would make me so much larger than most people of that era. Somehow, I suspect I couldn’t pull off a convincing U.S. soldier trying to escort the presidential casket to the cemetery.

I HOPE THE people who did do such things enjoyed themselves. And that their actions help some people recall the many events of the past four years that were meant to remind us of the Civil War our nation engaged in to maintain the character that was desired by some.

Even though I’m sure there are those amongst us who could easily have adapted if the concept of secession in the name of “state’s rights” had somehow prevailed. We just wouldn’t have known better how much more we’d have as a single nation if the southern states had somehow managed to become their own nation.

We probably would be a pair of mediocre nations in the world that never would have achieved international status had our Civil War had a different outcome.

I was sort of surprised that more in the way of ceremony wasn’t done this weekend at the Calumet City/Hammond border – also known as the Illinois/Indiana state line.

FOR THAT WAS the place where a few years ago local officials insisted in erecting a plaque designating the spot of State Street and State Line Road as the spot where the Lincoln funeral train re-entered Illinois on its route from Washington, D.C., to Springfield.

Although it should be noted that the area near the Indiana Dunes was largely undeveloped then. It now has cities such as Gary and Hammond, Ind., along with Calumet City, Ill. But none of those municipalities existed back then. All of this Lincoln lore makes me wonder what can be re-enacted next.

Perhaps somebody would like to try to re-enact the events that were supposed to take place on Nov. 7, 1876 – a group of counterfeiters hatched a plot to steal Lincoln’s body from the tomb, hide the body by burying it in the Indiana Dunes and demand a $200,000 ransom AND the release of one of their allies from the Joliet Penitentiary.

Not that Lincoln’s remains ever suffered the remains of being buried under lakeshore property enjoyed by generations of future beachgoers. The counterfeiters had big mouths, talked too much, and the Secret Service wound up putting an undercover agent among the gang when they tried to break into the tomb.

THE GANG ESCAPED, but was caught 10 days later in Chicago and ultimately wound up serving a year each in prison. It’s a sordid story that I’m sure most people were never taught about in grammar school history class.

Although I wonder if the Lincoln-motivated re-enactors ought to be trying to do something on Tuesday – which happens to be the Mexican holiday of Cinco de Mayo.

That being the day when a Mexican resistance to France’s attempt to control Mexico managed to defeat a French military garrison near Puebla – thereby giving positive motivation to Mexican nationals of regaining their nation’s freedom.

A good part of the reason why they were able to do so was that U.S. support in the form of ties between Lincoln and Mexico President-in-exile Benito Juarez existed. Put a Lincoln twist on Tuesday’s celebrations and perhaps we’d have something more substantial than just a day spent drinking third-rate margaritas.

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Illinois GOP wants votes so bad, they’re willing to celebrate Cinco de Mayo (in their own way, of course)

I didn’t make it out to any events this year celebrating the May 5 holiday about Mexicans showing their national pride and ability to stand with the major powers of the world.

SANGUINETTI: GOP's "big" May 5 name

But there was one event I wish I could have made it out to – the one in which the Illinois Republican Party took a shot Monday night at praising Mexico – while also using the party at the River North neighborhood Hub 51 club to raise money for their political candidates come Nov. 4.

NOW MY DESIRE to have been there isn’t so much that I wanted to see Republican political types make fools of themselves while plopping sombreros on their heads and trying to chance “Viva Mexico!” without sounding too lame.

Democratic politicos are just as capable of being ridiculous when they do those things to try to get Latino votes.

What caught my attention was that their Cinco de Mayo event was being used as a political fundraiser. Yet as far as I could tell, none of the “top dog” candidates of this year’s GOP ticket were bothering to show.

Not Bruce Rauner, the gubernatorial nominee. Nor James Oberweis, who is theoretically the ‘top of the ticket’ with his bid for the U.S. Senate. Of course, with Oberweis’ past record of talking about immigration issues, his presence would have created too much potential for saying something stupid – even if he now claims he regrets that “commercial” in a decade old campaign for public office.

THE ONE WHERE he flew over Soldier Field and talked about how all the dreaded “illegal aliens” could fill the stadium each and every day?!?

Were Republicans focusing on that long-ago battle near Puebla ...

Actually, the best they could get was Evelyn Sanguinetti.

Before you say “Who?!?,” she’s Rauner’s running mate. She’s the lieutenant governor nominee. She’s also of Ecuadoran and Cuban ethnic origins, and raised amongst the Cuban exile community in Miami. Not exactly the perspective of the bulk of Illinois’ 2 million-plus Latinos.

... or consuming too many of these?

Which makes it appear as though Republicans value the governor backup as the person who goes to the events they’d rather not be seen at. Although there is the fact that Sanguinetti does speak Spanish (remember her phrases from the Election Night victory speech?).

SO MAYBE SHE was able to say something that wasn’t silly, while other Republican partisans drank margaritas and wrote out sizable checks to give Republican candidates some cash with which to campaign (so that Rauner doesn’t have to self-fund 100 percent of this year’s election cycle – even though he could afford to, if he had to).

The list of people who were hoped to attend did include some Spanish-tinged names, which makes me think Camp Rauner wants to create the image he’s appealing to some Latinos in the way that he’s trying to appeal to the African-American vote.

Which is more geared toward getting a few black people to vote for him, while many others just wind up deciding they could care less about this year’s election cycle.

Anything that cuts into the potential vote tally for Gov. Pat Quinn is a benefit to him.

IT IS THE reason that Rauner began running a series of television spots (although I have to confess to not having seen any of them on an actual television set, but only through the Capitol Fax newsletter’s website) whose common theme is that the people featured in them are not white.

SANCHEZ: Is his grudge universal?

One of them gives us Manny Sanchez, who identifies himself as the former co-chair in Illinois for Latinos for Obama, then says Rauner is, “the right, and the perfect, and the optimal” candidate for Illinois governor this year.

He doesn’t mention the fact that he was the guy who got dumped on by Quinn a couple of years ago when Quinn wanted to shift control of the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority to himself and Sanchez stood in the way.

I get the fact that Sanchez is peeved, potentially feels a grudge, and would be looking for a way to undermine the governor. He’s being legitimate when he speaks about not supporting Quinn.

WE JUST SHOULDN’T presume that his view in any way represents a sizable share of the Latino electorate in Illinois.

And Republican operatives shouldn’t presume that because the party used a Mexican holiday to try to raise money for themselves without sending the big-name candidates that the Latino electorate is on the verge of making a massive shift in support away from the Democratic Party candidates.

It’s going to take a lot more than that to win over significant numbers of Latino voters – much more than I believe the GOP would ever be willing to offer.

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