Expressing thanks and gratitude is what we do in America on holidays which beseech us to take a day, slow down, enjoy the company of family, and eat until we are in physical discomfort. With that said, here is a compilation of random “stuff” I am thankful for this Thanksgiving morning:
I am thankful for the job I have, where I actually do feel like I can make a small difference. Although many days I wonder if I am doing enough things right, and some days I leave frustrated and shell-shocked, wondering if I can do it another 10 years, I really do love it. On those special days when you see a troubled kid run back to class from a guidance appointment because he didn’t want to miss the end of the story of we were reading, or a student has the, “ohhhh, yeah, now I get it” moment, I know there are very few jobs where the satisfaction is greater…
I am grateful for my friends, who are always my source of support, laughter, and guidance. I have friendships that have lasted almost an entire lifetime, and some very new ones, and everything in-between. I know I can pick up a phone and call people I haven’t seen in 10 years and we can reconnect within minutes…
I am thankful for the still insatiable desire to learn things, to grow and change, and to challenge myself to do better, be better, and live better, even as I fall short of the mark too often…
I am thankful for my country that is suffering right now and needs to do better, but which we all instinctively know is the best the world has to offer when all gears are clicking…
I am especially thankful for the Occupy Wall Street movement, which came out of left field and has been seriously misrepresented by the right-wing smear machine (there is an actual machine; it’s parked in Rupert Murdoch’s backyard) and totally misunderstood by less than enlightened thinkers. By the way, can someone explain to me the dead silence from the right over the expression of our constitutional right of protest? I suppose the Constitution thumpers only like it when you are protesting for something they support. Not exactly the, “I disapprove of what you say but I’ll defend to my death your right to say it” crowd. No matter what happens, these people have spoken up for most of us who get that the last 30 years have been a road to nowhere for the middle class. The results are in and 30 years of Reagonomics, Clintonomics, and Bushonomics are the reason we are in this boondoggle. Reducing tax rates where the rich prosper and don’t create jobs—they actually export our jobs—is a good place to start. Oh, and two unfunded wars, can’t forget those…Thanks Bush. Reducing regulations on the financial sector caused “too big to fail” (Glass-Steagall) and financial instruments like credit default swaps thought up by greedy little minds in lavish corporate offices helped crash the stock and housing markets. Thanks Reagan, Clinton and Bush. The demonization of unions, which started with Reagan (who I will never forgive for ripping the solar panels off the Whitehouse roof that Carter had put in to model where the country needed to head…30 years wasted on energy independence–despicable) and his dismantling of the air traffic controllers union has been an American tragedy for the middle class. Thanks Reagan. Thank you so much…NOT…
I am thankful for people like Bernie Sanders in the Senate who fight like hell for the middle class…I am thankful for Elizabeth Warren, who is a shining beacon for unabashed liberal values…
I’m thankful for real reporters and news people who do the hard work on issues that people need to know about, not the ridiculous posers who are the mouthpieces of corporate and the RNC…
I am thankful for people like physicist Richard Muller who were once climate deniers and who are now coming out and saying we are in peril if we do not stop listening to corporate slaves in congress and on GOP TV and do something NOW about man-made carbon…
I am thankful for Republicans like David Frum who are starting to expose today’s conservatives as extreme and dangerous and ideologically corrupt who have, in his own words, “lost touch with reality”…need I say more?
I am thankful for Thom Hartmann and NPR who sustain me as I trek to work and home each day on a long commute. NPR, you know, that awful—egads– liberal station that conservatives despise, but keeps me aware of exactly what the hell is going on in this vast world unlike our tortured media which saturates us 24/7 with Kardashian shenanigans, “dittos”, and “no spin-zones.” This is probably why a recent survey found that FOX News viewers know even less about what is going on in the world than people who do not even watch news. Of course, if you’ve ever had a conversation with someone who gets all their news from them , you knew this already.
I am beyond thankful for my family who I am so deeply proud of and who sustain me, love me, and comfort me always. This includes my sweet, adorable, furry friends who give me so much more than I could ever give them.
Finally, I am thankful for my beautiful mom, who besides being the most wonderful mother anyone could ask for, instilled in me the core values that I try to uphold today. She was truly ahead of her time. She led by example, whether it was the charitable giving she proffered when she barely had enough to make ends meet herself, or the gift of her time to help the church or those who were hurting and in despair without any fanfare or recognition. She taught me that women deserved to be treated equally with men in the workplace when it wasn’t just a given like it is today. Young women of today need to remember that it was women like her who enlightened a very sexist and resistant country about “equal rights.” She instilled in me the idea that discrimination and prejudice against blacks and minorities was unacceptable and inexcusable. She accepted people for who they were and understood that not everyone grows up in comfortable circumstances and with equal opportunities. She believed you really needed to walk that mile in someone else’s shoes before you judged them.
What I do know is that she lives on in every person who ever knew her and loved her. And for that, I am eternally and forever thankful.
Happy Thanksgiving to all my family and friends and readers!
Blithering Idiot 