The smell of food fills Chateau Thompson today. Amy spent a good part of the night preparing a nice size turkey and fixings. Our original plans to spend today with relatives fell through because of illness of others.
We will probably flip on the tube, watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and remember our 1991 trip to New York to see the parade and endure "Black Friday" by fighting the crowds for the first official shopping day of Christmas.
That year, a decade before the 9/11 terrorist attack that changed live forever in Manhattan and the rest of the country, the mood was festive and relaxed. Our last trip together to the Big Apple came two weeks before the attacks on the World Trade Center. We took the high-speed Acela train up from Washington, had a leisurely lunch at a favorite deli and spent the afternoon at the Guggenheim before catching the train back that night.
On 9/11 I spent most of the day at the Pentagon but would head for New York a few days later on assignment. The city remained in a state of shock and incredibly-tight security surrounded the Thanksgiving Day Parade that year. Each time I returned to New York, I noticed, with sadness, how much things had changed for the worse.
New Yorkers, like many Americans, are a hardy lot and can bounce back from tragedy but 9/11 left America scarred and those scars have not healed. When we sit down to our turkey dinners today we need to remember not only the more than 3,000 who died on that day in New York, Washington and a farm field in Pennsylvania where United 93 crashed but also the 3,875 Americans and unknown number of Iraqi civilians who have died to date in a war that many feel never needed to be waged.
As Americans we have a lot to be thankful for on this day but we also must never forget that our way of life could, and should, be much better. Complacency can be a bigger enemy than any terrorist.
I agree. The greed that’s taking over and ruining our country and our country’s reputation around the world seems overwhelming. But we can’t give in to it.
The greed and the money and the lobbyist and the big spenders, win because their money and power represents votes, and politicians will do whatever they have to do to get the votes. But we have the power of the vote too!
I encourage everyone to first take a little time to educate yourself of what’s going on in Washington. And get your information from more than one source, because that source might be so very slanted, there’s no truth left in it. Then make your voice heard, not just on election day, but whenever there’s a discussion happening on Capital Hill that your care about. Send your congress people an email or call them and leave a message. That’s your vote against those lobbyist hanging around their offices trying to convince them to vote in favor of corporate America and not in favor of the good of this country. It works! But if we don’t stop being so complacent and speak up often and loud, the elite of this country will change it forever!
In my 64 years as a citizen of this great nation, I have seen many changes. Unfortunately, I feel many of these changes have represented the distortions of greed and misuse of power. I have watched our status in the eyes of the world erode, and I despair that we have the will to change, to sacrifice, to pay the price we must, in order to regain the respect of others.
Despite all of that, I am still thankful that I can spend my time as a citizen of this great nation, and I am very hopeful that we can heal, and evolve as time goes on.