We can agree on being thankful

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, in my favorite month, every year.

It’s my time to return to my roots, to Arkansas and her Ozark Mountains, where I was born and half-raised, and where the Clintons have been abandoned for Trump.

Every year my diversifying family takes over a mountaintop for a three-day reunion, in a tradition that tops my list of things to be thankful for. We’ll come together for the love, a feast and, hopefully, a respite from the political hostilities that have come to envelope Washington, D.C.

Let’s forget the Pilgrims and the Indians and histories real and imagined and just recognize the brilliance of having a holiday to give thanks. It’s good for the spirit, regardless of where we came from.

The problem is, America is deeply divided right now, and it’s getting harder to have nonpartisan gatherings. Families aren’t as homogenous and traditional as they used to be, which means a broader range of perspectives will come to our family table.

Some family get-togethers this Thanksgiving could pit brother against sister over Trump’s boorish behavior; boomer against millennial over all this “OK Boomer” nonsense; and cousin against some other cousin over Fox verses CNN.

One wrong word and an awkward silence could follow, or a full-blown argument. Back in the old days a couple of men might take it out back if it got too hot, but nowadays we’re far too passive aggressive for that. Better to retreat to your corner and shut up about politics. Keep the TV tuned to sports only — but be careful with that, too, as there could be friction between left coast and right coast fans (and don’t get me started about the flyover teams).

And one more thing: If you really want to keep politics out of your Thanksgiving, I suggest you be careful in your expressions of thanks. That too could turn partisan in a hurry.

For example:

I’d like to express my thanks for the impeachment, and for the rule of law, and for a free press that keeps exposing the truth despite the propaganda coming out of Trump and his allies. But if I say all that, I know my Trump-supporting friends will take offense, so they’ll respond by saying they’re thankful for Trump himself — a great man, they’ll declare, as if they want to rub my liberal nose in it.

And of course they’ll be thankful for their right to bear arms, and for their one and only true God, and for their right to remain silent until election day next November, when they’ll damn well make sure we all get four more years, whether you liberals like it or not!

See what I mean? Sorta takes away the spirit of the holiday, don’t ya think?

There is one thing, however, we can all agree on. We can all be thankful for love. Love in our families. Love among friends. Love for the first time, and loving again.

On that, at least, I think we can all agree.

Tom McDonald is editor of the New Mexico Community News Exchange. Contact him at:

[email protected]