COVID-19 kills Thanksgiving, Democrats greater threat to American Way of Life
One week from today is Thanksgiving Day. It seems hard to consider the fact, basically because hardly anyone I know is planning to host a traditional gathering this year. Stores aren’t wholeheartedly promoting the annual festival, either. Restaurants aren’t beckoning folks to make reservations, instead offering take-it-home holiday fare of turkey, mashed potatoes and various fixin’s to whet your appetite.
In 2020, the year without a need for a calendar, nothing feels right. And the political class -- at least those occupying the blue side of the spectrum -- isn’t helping things by doing everything within their power to compel Americans to mentally abandon the coming of another terrific cultural institution, a tradition President Abraham Lincoln started during the Civil War. From History.com, “On October 3, 1863, expressing gratitude for a pivotal Union Army victory at Gettysburg, President Abraham Lincoln announces that the nation will celebrate an official Thanksgiving holiday on November 26, 1863.
“The speech, which was actually written by Secretary of State William Seward, declared that the fourth Thursday of every November thereafter would be considered an official U.S. holiday of Thanksgiving. This announcement harkened back to when George Washington was in his first term as the first president in 1789 and the young American nation had only a few years earlier emerged from the American Revolution. At that time, George Washington called for an official celebratory ‘day of public thanksgiving and prayer.’ While Congress overwhelmingly agreed to Washington’s suggestion, the holiday did not yet become an annual event.”
For perspective, Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address on November 19, a week before Thanksgiving Day and 157 years ago today. Time flies, doesn’t it?
Now, of course, Thanksgiving is as American as baseball, hot dogs, apple pie and Chevrolet (remember those commercials?). Many consider it the preeminent holiday of the year, primarily because Thanksgiving is a time when members of all faiths gather together to participate in observance without squabbling over differences in religious scripture or doctrine. It’s a secular holiday with a religious overtone. Where it could be said most of the world celebrates Christmas or Hanukkah or (place your religious holiday here), only in America is the fourth Thursday in November set aside to send the almighty thanks for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, with an extra Amen for abundance and plenty.
I remember as a child going to Grandma’s house with all the aunts and uncles and cousins and feasting on Grandpa’s hunting game conquests of the season. Instead of turkey, sometimes we’d have pheasant or duck, or anything the legendary family marksman (who I once affectionately labeled the “toughest living human”) brought to the table. The kids would play football in the yard and the adults would cook or talk or do whatever else families do when they see each other after weeks or months or even years apart. Most of all, when the time arrived, we’d sit around big tables and eat. Yum.
It’s really not that different now, just the details themselves. And full disclosure: I was born on Thanksgiving Day so there’s something to celebrate right there!
At any rate, this year won’t be the same. A call came over the weekend, a few days ahead of the travel date for what would’ve been our family’s annual get-together in California, the 26th or 27th such iteration. There, members of our extended clan meet every November to celebrate the holiday, give thanks to the good Lord for the good fortune in our lives and, more than anything else, enjoy another precious opportunity to spend hours in proximity as a family unit.
But one of us tested positive for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP, or Wuhan if you prefer) virus. The news came out of nowhere, like a bolt of lightning from the heavens on a cloudless day. Everyone’s first instinct was to inquire about the health of the person and those around him who either were similarly stricken or exposed (okay, it’s a him, but that’s all you’re gonna get out of me in terms of identity). All fine. Mild symptoms. A loss of taste and smell for a couple days. No fever. Very mild cough. The person said he’d only noticed it because of the taste thing. Got tested. Came up positive. Uh-oh.
Never once did the person fear for his life or even feel anything more debilitating than fatigue. But the possibility of spreading the virus to others with more defined comorbidities was a definite concern. Phone calls and texts were exchanged between the decision-makers. Prudence dictated that we cancel the event. Because of the pervasive prevalence of panic in this country, refunds or extensions in usage time were available for everyone’s travel outlays. It was all too easy to erase weeks and months’ worth of planning.
Such as it is in the age of COVID-19. Admittedly, the thought process was helped along by California hypocrite Governor Gavin Newsom, who last Friday decreed that visitors to his state should voluntarily commit to a 14-day quarantine. This basically meant that the authorities would be watching everywhere we went and if we deviated too noticeably from Newsom’s “recommendations” that we’d be placed on someone’s watch list and possibly be subjected to official warnings.
Quiet! Nobody act like you’re having a good time! Sit ten feet apart! Wear a mask, even outdoors! Instead of your smart phone, carry a bottle of disinfectant spray and a roll of paper towels! Don’t dare give anyone a hug!
Newsom then announced he was considering ordering a mandatory statewide curfew and “pulled the emergency brake” on households getting together. Just days ago, the Golden State authorities said members of 2-3 households could intermix, and now it’s down to… drumroll please… zero! Or, to be fair, you can still mingle with your own household, but not with anyone else’s!
What does it equal? In today’s blue state America, Thanksgiving is all but canceled. Think about what that means. The famous artistic portrayals of the first Thanksgiving depicted puritan men and women together with Native Americans, sharing a bounty of multi-cultural food. If they’d suggested a “Thanksgiving” in 2020, however, they’d get ticketed for praying. Since churches are among the most restricted of indoor environments, if anyone offered a prayer, the town elders would send in the goon squad to punish them.
2020’s Thanksgiving Day won’t be like any other. For that, we’re thankful
What will Thanksgiving Day be like without family and friends? We’ll all be at home, perhaps cooking a meal, but scaled way back to feed only a handful of people. Take that cherished recipe and cut the ingredient amounts by three-quarters or face a month’s worth of leftovers. Better buy a skinny turkey this year, too -- who can handle a fourteen pounder? Perhaps the likes of Gavin Newsom and Virginia’s Ralph Northam will force folks to initiate a new Thanksgiving tradition: Cornish Game Hens!
Or a TV dinner for each family guest, complete with plastic silverware and paper napkins. To make it extra tacky, place squeezable ketchup packets next to the paper plates. Raise a toast of sterilized water to “President-elect” Joe Biden! Cheers!
Since we can’t go to church or mingle, what else is there to do on Thanksgiving Day? College football games (if there are any) and the usual NFL events will be played to barren or mostly empty stadiums. The annual CBS “turkey leg” award will be scrubbed because the masked crew wouldn’t be able to remove their face coverings long enough to bite the thing. No sharing of wine cups! How about a bottle of hand sanitizer at every serving station!
What about watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade? It was “reinvented” to suit the times, with no crowds on 34th Street and with electronic balloon holders and talent pre-recorded. Fun! Fun! Fun! Who knows, Santa Claus should be masked and perched behind plexiglass so as to protect him from the CCP virus making its way around ol’ New York City. I haven’t heard, but maybe Bill De Blasio would let the event go forward as normal if Santa and his reindeer put on Black Lives Matter armbands and go around shouting “Say Her Name!” or “I Can’t Breathe!” instead of “Merry Christmas!”
The petty tyrants may not allow us to go to a restaurant or to each other’s homes, but they’ll definitely leave Walmart and Home Depot free to conduct Black Friday sales! This year, of course, corporate America will likely change the name of the day after Thanksgiving to “Black Lives Matter Friday” to celebrate diversity! And instead of keeping the doors closed until 10 p.m. on Thanksgiving evening, they’ll look the other way while the first hundred or so looters go in and grab their first choice of merchandise -- all they can carry!
How much longer are we, as a society, prepared to tolerate being directed to cease living our lives purportedly to save ourselves? Why should a governor or mayor feel empowered to cancel Thanksgiving -- and don’t forget, Christmas is just a month away, too. Department store Santas are nowhere to be found. No 2020 photo version of the kids sitting on St. Nicholas’s lap and whispering their wish list in his ear.
No church choirs either. No holiday parties or plays. No live recreations of the Nativity Scene. No Christmas parties with multiple households and generations. No smooches under the mistletoe. The only thing that will “feel” like Christmas is watching a Hallmark movie. What have we done to ourselves? How much longer to tolerate it?
Joe Biden lectures Trump on behavior and proper COVID-19 response
While blue state governors threaten Thanksgiving lockdowns and closures, Joe Biden gripes about the Trump administration’s response to the CCP virus outbreak and not being brought into the conversation of what’s been planned to distribute the already developed and tested vaccines.
Philip Wegmann reported at Real Clear Politics, “[W]hile the regularly exasperated politicians and cable news regulars remain exasperated, Biden appealed to Trump’s ego without going apoplectic. The sooner there is cooperation, he said, the sooner the virus can be whipped and the better it will be for the outgoing president’s legacy. Take the stimulus package that has been languishing in Congress, for instance; Biden said Trump should make the most of a lame-duck session and pass it immediately.
“’The idea the president is still playing golf and not doing anything about it is beyond my comprehension,’ the president-elect said. ‘You’d at least think he’d want to go out on a positive note, but what is he doing?’
“It was a taunt without overt contempt, an on-brand attempt to cajole Trump to better behavior, and Biden told reporters he was holding out hope that ‘the president will be mildly more enlightened before we get to January 20th.’”
You have to chuckle reading Biden’s remarks. On the one hand he’s calling for “unity” and “healing” in America, yet he continues to insult his opponent, the one who received 72+ million votes in an election he was supposed to lose in a landslide. Yes, Joe, Trump’s not doing anything but playing golf while the nation suffers. Sure. Whatever.
The vaccines were developed under Trump’s urgence and guidelines. People know it. And funded by the taxpayers. The current president has developed an action plan to distribute it. The election isn’t over and we don’t need your help. In fact, Trump is basically trying to ensure the job is done right by keeping Biden out of the process. If it were up to you, Joe, you’d give Hunter access to the first hundred million doses and he would auction them to the highest bidder.
The courts are still processing the Trump campaign’s various challenges. They may work, they may not. But either way, the election was extremely close. Trump’s voters chose him because they wanted another four years of competent leadership. Grampa Joe’s voters selected him because Democrats were able to scare everyone to death and institute mail-in balloting.
And now Democrats are using COVID-19 to kill Thanksgiving. Joe Biden will take office as the weakest president of all-time if he’s declared the winner. He and his blue state governors should tread lightly and refrain from the over-the-top rhetoric that’s caused deep divisions in the first place. Americans will only willingly give up valuable freedoms for so long. Sad, isn’t it?
2020 Election
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Thanksgiving