Dear America,
I felt truly thankful yesterday, Thanksgiving 2014. My son and my daughter came to the house for dinner as did my father-in-law with his significant other, and as did my brother-in-law with his family, including a niece in college, another about to go and a nephew who seems to be finally coming into his own. We are all healthy and possessed of sufficient creature comforts that we have no complaints; we are well fed, well clothed and warm, all with prospects for the same as of next Thanksgiving. Similarly, most families in the nation celebrated their good fortune, and the day was a success for tens of millions of us, at the expense of course of several million turkeys. But there were still millions of us for whom Thanksgiving was just another day with less than they need, many who couldn't afford a turkey for Thanksgiving, much less to feel satisfaction about the lives they lead or their prospects for next Thanksgiving. And speaking of turkeys, much of the suffering in our nation is a function of what our Congress has or hasn't done for those people with less than they need...for them or to them.
There are, for example, the long-term unemployed whose unemployment compensation ran out late in 2013 while the Republican House of Representatives and the filibustering Republicans in The Senate hemmed and hawed about extending their benefits, overtly stalling in early 2014 by making untenable demands until it became apparent that they had no intention at all of granting the extension that they purported to be considering, not matter what conditions were met by the opposition. Then there is the resistance to the Medicaid expansion created under the Affordable Care Act that could get several million Americans covered for medical care that they cannot afford now...also not in the offing because Republican governors or legislatures--and I must point out that all those states where Medicaid has not been expanded are controlled by Republicans--are electing not to participate. And of course there is immigration, which is favored by a majority of the American people who realize that the participation in our economy, if nowhere else in American life, of undocumented residents of this country is a sine qua non for our Thanksgivings in that they tend to do the jobs that American citizens won't. More than fifty years ago there was a documentary called "Harvest of Shame" that made that point clear, and those of us who were around at that time remember, as should the Republicans in Congress who not only failed to act on reform that would allow such workers to stay here but have been threatening The President because he acted administratively to at least partially ameliorate the hypocrisy entailed in the prevailing anti-immigration policy. There are the military men and women abroad still fighting two wars--Afghanistan still and Iraq again--that were brought to us by a Republican president who was trusted by our federal legislature to exercise good judgment before leading us into those wars. No doubt they and their families are thankful to the Republicans. As to the future, there are the millions who will die of asthma, emphysema and various cancers because our Republican politicians resist as a matter of principle...a virtual religious tenet...any effort to control the industries that pollute our air and water, as the Republicans have vowed to do now with regard to new EPA regulations mandated by executive order to control mercury and other heavy metal pollution from coal fired power plants, even though switching to gas is now not just feasible but good for the American economy because we can produce so much of it here.
But perhaps I shouldn't be bashing the Republicans and their friends in business and industry. Maybe I should be thankful on Thanksgiving for Black Friday shopping, during which people have been seriously injured, and yes even killed, because of the worst in us...the manifest selfishness...that it evokes. And maybe the employees who missed Thanksgiving with their families yesterday because they had to work in retail stores should be thankful for the extra chance to earn a few more hours of minimum wages that aren't as worthwhile as they were even fifty years ago. I know that the CEO's of those retail stores were thankful for their Thanksgiving dinners at home with their families...while the undocumented immigrants served them their turkey. And of course, the USO served turkey dinners to our troops overseas as well, so what do they have to complain about. All in all, Thanksgiving yesterday was a success as it is every year. At least it was at my house, and at yours too, I'm sure. But what if next year the Republicans figure out how to take even more from the common folk? What if next year, we are among those other people? If we are, don't look at me. I didn't vote Republican.
Your friend,
Mike
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