Did you ever try to give a pill to a cat?

European elites often complain that Americans know nothing of the continent from whence most of them hail. They mispronounce names; they mess up the food and, worse yet, their knowledge of history is incomplete or wrong.

Imagine my surprise, then, when an email arrived in response to what I thought was a deliberately innocuous post about Thanksgiving. The thrust of the invective was to take to task the “pen of the Revolution”, one Thomas Jefferson and my initial response was to question the connection between Jefferson and the holiday just past.

As a domestic aside, I’ll make turkey pot pie tomorrow and the rest of the beast goes into the freezer.

But I digress, again, don’t I?

The fact, though, is that the deeds and times of William Bradford and Thomas Jefferson were separated by at least 7 generations. What malfeasance committed by your great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandparents do you want to own up to and flagellate about. And what difference would it make if you did either of those things.? And that brings to mind the concept of reparation to today’s black community for the obscenity of slavery.

But, again I digress because all this triggered a wider thought. Perhaps it’s all the tryptophan? And this is something I’ve thought long about and frankly, it sticks in my craw. Perhaps the following conclusions are valid or perhaps they’re not or perhaps its somewhere in between.

These United States still represent the greatest power this planet has ever seen and my tax liability is stark witness that we try to use that power for the good of all. I can hear the dismissive snarls already.

Thus, it seems to me that if we were weak, we would not be hated. If we were poor we would not be hated. We are not hated despite the trillions of dollars we give; we are hated because of the trillion dollars.

The hatred that some feel towards this country is not because it attacks their homeland; it is because it keeps their's safe.

Over 2000 years ago, the Romans learned that they should not seek popularity because it was pointless. A world power can have supremacy or be loved but not both. I contend that what is felt towards this nation is 10% disagreement and 90% envy. No man can ever truly forgive his protector. There is no loathing that any man harbors more intense than that towards his benefactor.

Clearly, we are not the first to feel this animus. As I said, the Romans responded with ruthless force of arms and so did the Spanish. In turn, the British responded with languid contempt and now America sends out Obama to apologize. Fat chance!

It used to be called the “White Man’s burden”. Now it’s more like a pill stuck in your throat.