THE DAY AFTER

     So, done with the groaning and stuffed stomachs, the laughter, the family issues that always arise, the noise of a huge table, done with that and now what? Have we solved all the problems of the world yet, resolved the issues, begun a clear and new path towards an improved Thanksgiving Day next year? Probably the answer is both yes and no and for the most part, we will never be able to resolve anything unless we look reality squarely in the face and make some hard decisions.
     Who are we? What are we made of? Have we progressed at all? Have we thought out of the box frequently and powerfully much in order to solve our problems? Have we chosen our leaders wisely and well?
     Most of those questions have a resounding NO for an answer and that is a shame, even, perhaps, a deadly shame. We have not fought Mexico for lo these many a years and yet what is the Demented One thinking. First, he sends out a message that the world is a nasty place and then commends himself, patting himself on the back, claiming the country is so great and wonderful and all due to him. Barf! And then he calls the armed forces branches as a substitute for visiting those who are in war areas. What a wimp! What a fool! And then he raises political issues with his phone partners.
     Yes, he certainly is a different kind of President. First, we have never had a more virulent and poisonous leader than Trump. We have never had a President who relished being an iconoclast in the worst possible ways. He wishes to and is succeeding to a degree to turn our Constitution upside down. He has broken or challenged the separation of the three branches of government. He has ruthlessly violated so many of the ethics laws in place. He has brought back nepotism, cronyism to a terrible degree, along with incompetence, corruption and a glaring lack of care and concern for the people of this country.
     Immigration, the heart blood of this country, as well as those all over the world, has now become a destabilizing factor as countries are swamped with numbers and numbers of immigrants. Their original homelands have basically become unlivable, tormented and tortured by the environment gone crazy, mostly due to human factors, the land unable to produce sustenance, and the people within are being reduced to desperation as their children starve and the adults fight ruthlessly and yet hopelessly. And thus they take crazy chances, dangerous choices, in order to save themselves, turn away from the violence.
     But threatening to shoot them at the border, to close the border with Mexico and for European countries to shove boats back into the water for the immigrants to drown, making shivers of history run down one's back and rend the soul of memory is not the way to go. War and slaughter. Why not take the money we spend on armaments for the ragtag armies of those desperate countries, the money we give to the corrupt, the money stolen away from the people for agricultural aid, for food and water, for training - take all that and insure that it goes to the right place, that we teach for the long term rather than the short and desperate terms.
     We need to turn back the clock on all these bad decisions, on the growing hatred, on the rise of populism and nativism, on the horrific echoes of the past. And then, and only then, when we have made some progress, can we know that we are on the road to a better world's Thanksgiving Day.
     It is a bitter pill to swallow, one that might lodge at times in our throats, one that will take sacrifice and much changing of hearts and minds, but if we are to survive, if the Earth will continue to provide safety and food and shelter, then we have no choice other than to bite the bullet, throw away the bullets and do what we are certainly most capable of. Certainly we have rebuilt after planet disasters both of nature and human driven, and we can do it again and certainly, for sure, we should give thanks for that ability and not waste it on the negative answers which are actually no answers at all.