Thankgiving Day - a day to protest in a way which will change things

Today is November 24 in the year 2011... Thanksgiving Day in the USA.

As I type this, we have many problems. There are few jobs, and most of those left are part-time 'grunt' jobs. Far too many people are going through the pain of losing their homes. The homes are then flooding the used housing market, depressing prices. Credit is difficult to get and expensive when you can get it. There are more people on food stamps than ever before. Amid all this, some corporate CEOs are receiving record bonuses. The United States credit rating is teetering on a precipice. The government is trillions of dollars in debt, and digging deeper every day. There are protests happening across the country, some turning somewhat violent. There are reports of police brutality. Every day seems to bring another report of massive power abuse. Our soldiers are overseas fighting and dying for economic interests, in wars which seem to have no benefit for us. Our lives are regulated to an unprecedented degree, up from an unprecedented degree last year, and the year before that, ad infinitum.

And we the people are powerless to stop it.

Not.

We have the power, and today as I sit here watching the traditional silliness of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on TV, in a cold house, I plan on doing my part to change things. You can do the same.

I will be thankful.

This past year I have had many things to be angry and bitter for. In March, my wife of 24 years had a stroke from blood pressure levels of 249/188. Already unemployed, I was suddenly saddled with $27,000 in medical bills and denied Medicaid. In April, tornadoes tore through this area, demolishing everything in their path.

But I am not bitter. I am thankful.

I am thankful my wife suffered no major damage. She is improving slowly but surely, day by day. She is off her blood pressure medication, because we can't find a doctor who will see us without insurance to write another prescription, but she is still improving. Most people would worry about not having good enough medical care and start demanding state-provided care. Most people would be screaming about a lack of available credit and the terrible financial strain the bills put us under. I am simply thankful I still have her.

When those tornadoes tore through, we suffered some property damage. My wife's rabbit hutch was mangled, and there is still a huge hickory tree hanging aloft over my shop. But we were lucky; the rabbit hutch is being replaced with a rabbit run, and that hickory hasn't let go of the oaks that hold it aloft. We have figured out how to take it down safely, as soon as there is time. The threat is simply that for now: a threat. Many around here lost loved ones, entire houses, heck entire subdivisions were erased. We had damage. For that, I am thankful.

The hospitals wrote off the bulk of those bills, leaving us with still large but possibly payable amounts. With the (completely unexpected) help of some good friends, those amounts have been reduced even further, and I am making payments as I can. What at one time appeared to be an insurmountable obstacle, an end to all my dreams for the future, has become just another hill to climb to make it to the other side. For all that, I am thankful.

From July to August, I found three part time jobs: two as merchandisers and one tutoring at the college I attend. That was enough to get me off unemployment, although I now work long hours and receive little pay. At least I have something coming in now, and for that I am thankful.

This morning, I awoke to a cold house. My wife and I lit the kerosene heater we use, pulled some blankets out of the closet, and sat together on the couch to watch TV for a little while until the room warmed. She filled some 2-liter bottles with hot water and we put them under the blankets to stay cozy. We watched the people celebrating on TV and celebrated along with them.

Then I look to what is happening around the country.

OWS protesters, demanding pay whether they work or not. OWS protesters demanding a 'global democracy'. Fighting, battling, demanding, threatening. So many of the people I know locally are ambivalent about this day, claiming there is nothing to celebrate. So they don't.

Today I protest by being thankful. While others may flood bank buildings and occupy parks, doing nothing but showing their impotence and ignorance, I protest in my way. I will not be among those flooding the marketplace tomorrow morning; there is nothing there that is worth the hassle. No corporate CEO will party tomorrow night on my meager wages. No policeman will get the satisfaction of thwarting my efforts. No law will tell me what I must say or where I must go. I place myself above the fray and turmoil.

I will live as I have always lived: simply and thankfully. For if there is a conspiracy to financially subjugate the populous, it has as one of its goals to break the spirit of the people. It is intended to convince people there is nothing to be thankful for, nothing left to be happy about, nothing left good in life. And it is a lie.

I have my family's health. My wife, as mentioned, is better. I am feeling the pains of age, but still can do. My son is strong and tough like I once was. My mother actually had cancer this year, but it was cured before we realized what it was. The spot on her forehead that she had removed because of the pain was determined post-surgery to be malignant melanoma... but it was also determined it was completely removed and there is no more danger. My daughter is healthy and seems happy with married life.

I have my dreams. Through several bartering deals and bargain hunting, I have a hex-core 16G DDR3 computer loaded with the software needed for an attempt at writing apps. Through a recent stroke of simple luck, I have a TV in my shop to keep up with the news while I work. I have wood heat in that shop for the winter months, and thanks to the tornadoes, plenty of firewood this winter.

My son, during his Junior summer, took 5th place in the nation in CNC Turning this year. He now has as close to a guarantee of a job after graduation as anyone can get, and in a high-paying occupation. He is rebuilding an old Chevy LUV pickup himself to get transportation, which is almost ready for the road.

I have some income again. Yeah, it's not much... well below the poverty level, and I seem to work all the time. But when I get my degree and apply for a job, my work history sill show that I pulled myself up by my own bootstraps instead of showing me as someone who hasn't been able to get a job. And we just tighten our belts a bit to make things work. We turn lights out when we don't need them, hang clothes out to dry instead of using a dryer, shop at the cheaper stores, and make or fix things instead of buying things.

And possibly most importantly, throughout this year, I can be proud that I have not changed my beliefs when times got hard. I still do not support Obamacare; I still believe in taxation fairness for everyone, including the wealthy; I still believe in personal responsibility.

Take that BoA, Citi, AIG, and the rest. I don't need you. If you want my labor, my business, you will conform to my needs, not the other way around. If you do not, I simply will not deal with you. I will not stand outside your doors, wave signs, or make ridiculous demands. I don't need to. I don't need you. You need me!

Yeah, I'm thankful.

Are you?

TheRedneck

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More Than A Day
As Thanksgiving Day rolls around,
It brings up some facts, quite profound.
We may think that we're poor,
Feel like bums, insecure,
But in truth, our riches astound.
We have friends and family we love;
We have guidance from heaven above.
We have so much more
Than they sell in a store,
We're wealthy, when push comes to shove.
So add up your blessings, I say;
Make Thanksgiving last more than a day.
Enjoy what you've got;
Realize it's a lot,
And you'll make all your cares go away.
By Karl Fuchs

Great Post friend. I had to undergo a surgery last December and had to stay in the hospital for a week. During this time I saw people that were much worse off than I. I was going to make a full recovery, leave the hospital but I realized that many of the kids I was around (I was 16 at the time and in a children's hospital) were never going to leave. They were going to die in that hospital. I shivered, I couldn't imagine what that would feel like. I'm completely healed now and doing fine, and i'm extremely thankful for that. Now sometimes when i I hear my friends complaining about their life, about their girlfriends,little things, I smile because I realize how they have no idea how good they've got it. They don't realize how many kids would kill to have their girl problems, or guy problems, or whatever etc. They don't realize not everyone has the privilege of growing up like a normal kid, that not everyone even has enough time in this life to grow up. They don't realize how good they have it. We don't have a say on how much time we're given, only what to do with the time we are given. So use it well, and be thankful for it.


Be thankful my friends.

Thank you for putting together such a clear and succinct message about true thankfulness and overcoming obstacles by determination and will along with the serendipitous. 

Too often things are taken for granted until something comes along to show us just how bad it could really be. 

My father was recently diagnosed with non-Hogekins lymphoma and had to undergo several biopsies in order for the doctors to get a sufficient sample to test.

They kept seeing mostly necrotic cells which were not useable to get a positive diagnosis of the specific type of lymphoma he has. They decided they needed to go in laparoscopically in order to harvest a sample sizes me enough with which to work. 

He went in last Friday (after a week of previous biopsies and procedures during which time i was serendipitously on vacation for and thus able to do all the driving for him) and was released yesterday. They got he sample they needed, gave him his first round of chemo, and we're surprised at the rapidity of the response he has shown. 

This last week was the most time I've spent wih him since childhood and it has already proven to be time much treasured, even though much of that time was in a hospital setting.

He is a retired electricity plant supervisor (from a time when electricity was a public utility) and thankfully has phenomenal insurance coverage, so when the bills start rolling in, his portion will be less than it otherwise might have been. 

He has been frugal his entire life (a trait that took me a long time to be able to properly appreciate) and will thus be able to pay those bills quickly and completely. 

At one point he had a nurse whose husband used to work with him and so he was able to reconnect witha. Friend he has no spoken to in years. Again, something to be thankful for. 

Occurring simultaneously with the health issues, the city/county are coming through widening the road in front of my parents house. It's a small town of a major metropolitan area in which my family is acknowledge as being one of the original immigrant farmer families that helped to found the city. 

My dad built his house next door to his mother's house, so I got to grow up next door to my grandmother (who passed away several years ago, Christmas eve ) hearing stories about when our town was just a small farming community.  

Well, time passed, and he city grew eventually reaching the point where the road in front of my family property (an original farming homestead) needed to be widened.  And standing in the way, just down the street from my dad's property on property once owned by his uncle (another original farming homestead), of the widening was (and still is) an oak tree. 

What's so special about this particular oak tree you may ask?

It's a rare hybrid tree and is probably the second largest tree of it's type in the country, is nearly a hundred years old, and the city seal prominently contains an oak tree and it is the official city symbol. 

The tree is registered with the state under our family name, so for us it is more than just a tree.  

There was some round and round with city hall about the fate of the tree. There was even an option being considered  to merely cut the tree down to make room for the road. Eventually, after a substantial showing by numerous residents that they consider this tree part of the city's history through impassioned speaking, it was decided to reroute the road around the tree. 

Some time this last week, the work crews were in front of my dad's place, so naturally, he went out to talk to the foreman. Well he at dad grills him for a while asking all kinds of questions...after a bit of this the foreman says to my dad, "you know, they (someone at city hall) warned me about you..."

Well, this made my dad chuckle (and me too when he told me the story) and asked the foreman who he meant only to have the foreman tell him he couldn't say who it was.

My dad laughed again and said, "you don't have to tell me, I'm pretty sure I know exactly who it was..."

Yesterday I stopped by my folks' house to check in on my mom as I was on my way to the hospital when lo and behold, the work crew was again in front of their house.

So I proceeded to ask the foreman a series of questions that probably mirror try dad's and then some finishing with, " the road is going to curve to the west just past here (I indicate the end of my granmother's property line) isn't it?"

He looks where I point to and says, "yeah, we've got to stop just there while the city does new plans. We've got to go around that tree down there," and he points rather dismissively down the road in the direction of the tree.

I tell him, "yeah, I know all about the tree. I was at the city council meeting when it was decided to go around it."

He looks up at me (he was down on the road bed and I was up on my grandmother's front yard) and say, "oh."  

I smiled and thought to myself , "yeah city hall may have warned you about my dad but I bet they didn't warn you about me."

So yes, I have much to be thankful for (including and perhaps especially the ability to be a pain in the side of city hall) and hope that others do as well and are able to appreciate those things, late or small.

reply to post by jadedANDcynical

That is more than just a tree; it is a lesson in life.

Your dad wanted to keep that tree. The city wanted to cut it down. Who had the power? Your dad did, because he didn't need the city. He was there first. The foreman apparently didn't understand that, because to his mind everything belonged to the city. He needed the city. He was the one enslaved, while your dad was truly free.

OWS are enslaved by their own 'needs'. They protest the banks because they do not realize that they do not need them. The protests are not over something the banks did, as much as over something they themselves did with the banks' help. OWS is, in effect, protesting themselves. They protest their own inability to be free, their own inability to accept responsibility for their own actions and to deal with their own lives on their own terms.

Some time back, BoA announced it was going to start charging a fee for use of debit cards. A short time ago, it renounced that decision. Why? Not because of the protests... because across the country, enough people stood up and simply said "No". They didn't hold up signs and march in front of buildings; they stopped doing business with BoA. BoA needed them more than they needed BoA.

Across this land, every single day, people vote for corporate greed. Every time they make a purchase, they are, in effect, voting for profit and continuance of the company they purchase from. When I drove a truck, I realized that some companies are good, decent companies who are simply trying to make a fair profit and others are on some sort of power trip... and to this day I will only use Behr paint. Why? Because I need good paint, there are several companies who produce it, and Behr has the corporate compassion I want to continue. Sherwin Williams can go bust for all I care; their policies toward their employees and contractors are adversarial.

Think about that the next time you buy something. Your purchase means that company that produced the product, sells the product, or markets the product is going to make a profit. Profit is a good thing, as long as it goes to those who deserve it.

And back to your post, my friend, I'm glad to hear you have filled your father's shoes. Welcome to freedom.

TheRedneck