Today is Thanksgiving.
Thanksgiving is a secular holiday, but nevertheless
it is sacred to most Americans.
Many of us write reflections on this day,
post memes, expressing to the world the things that we are thankful for.
That is nice.
It is conscientious, it is appropriate. We
have much to be thankful for as Americans, and we should never forget it.
A heartfelt expression of gratitude is
always welcome, even gratitude expressed in general for the many things we
receive from those we love, by whom we are loved, for the things we are given that
make our lives more comfortable, more challenging and more meaningful.
It is never inappropriate to thankful.
To express gratitude is to make one’s self
humble; it is to acknowledge our reliance on others for making us into the
people we have become.
Be humble.
Be gracious.
Be thankful.
Always,
be these and you will be in the way of the wise.
In theology there is something known as
the apophatic tradition. In this
tradition it is understood that God, by whatever name you call the creator the
universe (of all that is and all we are), that God dwells in a mode beyond
human understanding.
God is shrouded in mystery, in the cloud of un-knowing.
According to the apophatic tradition, we are not able speak in the affirmative about
what or who God is, because God, the eternal and infinite, God will not be
circumscribed by finite constructs of human thought and language.
There can be no positive assertions about
the nature of the Divine, there is only the via
negative, the way of understanding who God is by stating what God is not.
Following this tradition, I am in the
custom of forgoing the traditional giving-of-thanks, even though I am truly
grateful for my friends and compatriots, grateful for everyone in my life, for
all of those who inspire me, and who are endlessly patient with me.
I will follow the via negative, the negative way,
and express what I am not thankful for.
I am not thankful that there is no peace
in the world,
In Yemen where the Saudia Arabia and Iran
are fighting a proxy war, and hundreds of thousands of Children are on the
brink of starvation.
In Palestine, where there is apartheid,
where millions of people live in cities and towns that are in reality just
prisons, and the walls of their homes are the walls of a jail.
In America, where we are divided by class,
culture, color, by a pretender to the office of President.
I am not thankful for the dismal failures
of our government in Puerto Rico, more than a year since it was devastated by a
hurricane. Or the failures of civilization to address the deep problems related
to climate change, that are destroying communities everywhere around the world,
including the recent fires in California that have destroyed thousands of
homes, and killed dozens of people.
I am not thankful for our failures of
leadership.
I am not thankful for white supremacy, and
domestic terrorism.
I am not thankful for terrorism anywhere.
I am not thankful for the religious fundamentalism that drives it. I am
thankful neither for the fear that spawns it, nor for the fear it generates
I am not thankful that there is hunger in
our bountiful world. I am not thankful for the greed and the sloth, and the bad
public policy that fosters it.
I am not thankful for willful ignorance,
for anti-rational, anti-intellectual, demagoguery. I am not thankful for the
cultural relativism that has promoted it, for anti-objectivism, for liars.
I am not thankful for Donald Trump. I am
not thankful for my fellow Americans who voted for him, his allies in congress
and anywhere who continue to support.
I am not thankful for the media outlets,
the reporters, the editorialists who failed to take him seriously. I am not
thankful that they abdicated their responsibilities as the gatekeepers of our
society, as the so called 4th
Estate, and allowed his criminal regime to hold the seat of power.
I am not thankful that they have not
collectively figured out a way to redress their failures.
I am not thankful and ashamed everyday of
his antics as the President of the United States. For his capitulation to
murderous regimes, and strong-men anywhere who he thinks he can profit from at
some future point beyond his presidency.
I am not thankful for his corruption of
the rule of law.
I am not thankful for on-going continuous
assault on the working class, the threats that are levied against the average
citizen in the spheres of public policy like health care, and taxes.
I am not thankful for our government’s
continuous assault on our population of immigrants and refugees.
I am not thankful for these things.
I am not thankful that there is so much
more to add to this list.
I am not thankful for the shortsightedness
of liberals and progressives who cannot stand united in the face of the social
forces that threaten us all.
Did I say that I am not thankful for white
supremacists? I did, but let me say it again…I am not thankful for them or
their apologists, not their soft supporters or their ardent advocates. I am not
thankful that they have a seat at the table in the administration of Donald J. Trump.
I am not thankful for that vile imposter,
who stole the presidency with the aid of a foreign power, the Russians no-less.
I am not thankful for them.
