Last year was the first time in damn near 50 years that “A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving” did not play on every station available to the general public on Thanksgiving. This year will be year two and you should be pissed.

These gems should not be pawned off or wheeled and dealed between corporate entities.

This travesty falls on all of us who used to enjoy those shows; do we say that this is wrong, or do we just accept that with their money they can do what they want?

If you are willing to accept that future generations won’t be able to celebrate the same traditions in the same manners as you, just because of private purchases, then relegate your privileges to those of the future.

As much as I enjoy “A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving,” this is a far larger, more daunting reality if this continues. What becomes of public gems that we can enjoy and are provided to the masses on a regular basis? Will they become monetized as well?

If you can buy a public treasure, what prevents you from controlling the circulation of its image or recording?

What of great American poetry that circulates today, despite it remaining within trademark; what if it finds itself inside the pocket of some corporate group, do we yield and accept?

What of art, art that provokes the mind to think and consider?  If that art is bought by entities that wish its circulation to be stunted, do we yield and accept?

What of film? A film that forces you to counter and combat preconceived notions of what is just or reconcilable. If it finds itself under new management, that hopes people’s minds stay closed, do we yield and accept?

What we need to do is not combat the legality of ownership by these means, but the ethicality. And that falls on all of our shoulders.