Thanksgiving: Memories and Hope

When I was a child, Thanksgiving was indeed a day to be thankful. There was a local high school football game, Barringer vs. East Orange, at the time considered by the locals to be the oldest high school football rivalry in the nation. I also got two days off from school. That short week was a Godsend to a boy who would rather be outside playing then stuck in a classroom. The turkey and pumpkin pie were fabulous and then there was the parade, the best part of which was the last float. That float carried Santa Claus. Seeing Santa on Thanksgiving marked the unofficial opening of the Christmas season. Yes, Christmas and a Roy Rodgers two-gun set of six shooters were right around the corner.  

            It never occurred to me back then to be actually thankful for life’s blessings. I’m a baby boomer isn’t it all about me?

I was born in post war America when times were so good that even the poor had a better life to look forward to than most of the undeveloped world. Things were so good that it was possible to take what we had for granted; freedom, security, trust in our leaders.          

            And even though my parents lived paycheck to paycheck back then, I never had to worry about having a roof over my head. I never wanted for a hot meal, decent clothing or heat when the weather turned cold. As a child of course, it never crossed my mind that not even 20 years ago, men died horrific deaths on European battlefields and Pacific islands to preserve our freedoms. Men and women sacrificed years of their lives in their prime to fight a war we didn’t start but certainly finished.

As a child I never connected the dots: The turkey and pumpkin pie that sat so reliably on our kitchen table year after year were possible only because my father stood day after day, year after year, at a printing press. My mother skillfully and lovingly prepared the meal, following traditions which in turn, she passed onto us. And I add, without irony, that I was blessed to have the same mother and father at the table every year.  

None of this is to suggest that life was better back then. Certainly the traditions of Thanksgiving live on in our memories. Possibly made better than they actually were by our uniquely human ability to edit the moments that don’t fit with the Norman Rockwell images we prefer.     

The beauty of the day is that regardless of our circumstances, we have the chance to start new traditions, create future memories and above all give thanks for our countless blessings. Another thing I’m sure I never gave much thought to as a child was who we were actually thanking on Thanksgiving. There’s a lot to choose from, including parents, spouses, significant others, employers, farmers and of course, the NFL. But nothing would be possible without God. A simple prayer to the Good Lord, thanking Him for whatever we have is the entire point of the celebration. I realize some may disagree and have no wish to argue the point. What I do know is that every Presidential Thanksgiving Proclamation, beginning with George Washington’s, makes clear reference to this very fact, pointedly thanking God.

We live in a world dramatically different than the one I grew up in. When you’ve lived long enough to know that American life today barely resembles the righteous America you grew up in, it’s natural to worry. But my Thanksgiving Day prayer will be thankful and it will be hopeful. Hopeful that our nation, reeling from decades of rapid change, will rebound and be once again a place where children can afford to take freedom, security and trust for granted.          

 

Copyright 2012, Len Serafino. All rights reserved.

 

Seriously? We need Fact Checkers?

President Washington says he loves America and will do whatever it takes to protect the environment. Yet he’s proud of chopping down the cherry tree. How many more trees will he chop down? You can make him stop. Vote for me on Election Day. I’m John Adams and I approved this message.

            Obviously, John Adams never ran an ad like this. Hardly anyone had a television in 1792. And fact checkers wouldn’t appear on the scene for another 220 years. They are a fact of life now though. With good reason I’m afraid.     

In his speech at the Republican Party’s convention last month, Mitt Romney said that Obama began his presidency with an apology tour. According to factchecker.org, the President did no such thing.   

In his speech to the Democratic national convention the President said U.S. automakers are “back on top of the world.” But factchecker.org says GM has slipped back to No. 2 and is headed for third place in global sales this year, behind Toyota and Volkswagen.

When our Presidential candidates are bending the truth or telling outright lies we all lose. There is an ocean of information for voters to wade through as they try to discern which candidate is more likely to move the nation in the right direction. It would help tremendously if we weren’t forced to distinguish information from misinformation. 

Am I the only one that’s bothered by the fact that we actually need organizations like factcheck.org and Pinocchio Tracker? If you’re running for President aren’t voters entitled to assurances that you won’t lie to us? You might think that presidential candidates would be highly insulted by the very accusation that they lied, that he or she would excoriate the person or organization making such a claim. Shouldn’t lying, at least the bold faced variety, disqualify a candidate from the race?

But that’s not the way it works in 2012, far from it. In fact, Romney pollster Neil Newhouse told an ABC News panel, “We’re not going to let our campaign be dictated by fact checkers.” He said this in response to accusations that a Romney ad suggesting that Obama was removing work requirements for welfare eligibility was dead wrong.

When Delaware Governor Jack Markel said at the Democratic National convention that Mitt Romney likes to fire people, he deliberately took the Governor’s words out of context. Romney was clearly referring to health insurance providers and the services they provide.  In fact, Romney was simply stating he likes to be able to fire people who don’t provide good service. Honestly, don’t we all? His comments had nothing whatsoever to do with taking pleasure in firing workers.

One of the most insidious effects of campaigns that play games with the truth is the way they distract us from the real issues. When Newt Gingrich called President Obama “the best food stamp president in American history,” there were charges that he was oversimplifying the issue. The number of people on food stamps rose in seven out of the eight years Bush was president, in part due to changes in program policy. It’s also true that Obama inherited an extremely distressed economy. Regardless, when the debate devolves into a he said/she said contest, there is very little room for useful debate. Is it too easy to get food stamps, just right too hard? If 15% of the population really needs food stamps, what are we going to do to solve the problem? Arguing over which political party is at fault or what the real numbers are is self defeating. If our candidates can’t even agree on facts, chances of finding a solution are obviously reduced.

Is it any wonder voters are cynical? We are being asked to choose between leaders who are cynical about voters. They ask for our trust but don’t trust us in return. Then there’s the cynical media circus. Filled mostly with partisans, they strangle the airwaves with minutiae which deprive us of facts, options and learned opinions to help us grasp the issues. The paradox of our times is that we live in an era when the issues are more complex than ever while the discussion becomes less sophisticated every election cycle.

In his farewell address George Washington said, “I hold the maxim no less applicable to public than to private affairs, that honesty is the best policy.”