Thanksgiving 2008

It’s that miserable time of the year. Right wingers are miserable
because Obama will be president. Lefties are miserable over Bush
being, for 54 more days, president of our once magnificent country.
Never has so much utter failure and sheer disaster been dumped on an
incoming president. The excitement of the election has subsided into a
relatively moderate mix of anticipation and anxiety.

Thanksgiving is upon us with its own familiar and familial mix of
anticipation and anxiety.

Corporate America is desperately hoping there’s enough consumer cash
left in our pockets to give them a profitable shopping season. I
wouldn’t want to be them right now.

The collapse of the unregulated greed-fueled economy has shifted
everyone’s expectations for the coming year. Hopes for a happy and
prosperous new year are deflating into a nervous desire for simple
survival. We all have a sick stirring of dread in our collective gut
about the remaining effects yet to be felt from the ruinous Bush
Administration policies of pillage, plunder and scorched earth.

And so now in this setting Americans are expected to celebrate
Thanksgiving. The only thankful soul I’ve seen so far, other than the
Decider eagerly planning to “refill the old coffers” with his
retirement speaking engagements, is the turkey pardoned by Sarah
Palin. Yet, why do I think his pardon will not be honored?

Somehow I still have to feel a sense of thankfulness.

For one thing, I’m damn thankful I was not one of those early pilgrim
settlers. They went though almost as much hell as they inflicted upon
the native tribes. No, I wouldn’t care to trade places with them.

I’m also very thankful I’m not a “liberated” Iraqi. Those poor souls
have suffered more than their share.

I guess that makes me thankful to be a citizen of the collapsing
empire that has finally come to realize the consequences of unleashed
corporatism and its over-extended projection of power.

If you’re the kind of person who can’t stand to be bored, you can be
very thankful. We will not be bored witnessing the events of the
coming years. I’ve come to understand how much I would be happy to
simply be bored. I guess that’s some small insight I could be thankful
about.

I am truly thankful for all the great bloggers out there for me to
read. I am also thankful for the discerning and kind readers who may
enjoy these little rants. We can be thankful we’re all in this
together and are able to share our individual perspectives. It is good
to know there are many others out there like us.

So let us be thankful for the simple things. We have home and hearth,
family and friends, and food and drink.

Let’s enjoy our brief bubble of hope before the next administration
takes the helm. At least we can be thankful that after January, we
won’t be as disappointed, angry, and frustrated as we’ve been for the
past eight years.

And finally, we can be thankful for not having to worry about having
too much money anymore.

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