Widgetized Section
Go to Admin » Appearance » Widgets » and move Gabfire Widget: Social into that MastheadOverlay zone
Thanksgiving Won’t Be Happy For 50 Million Americans Who Are Going Hungry
Americans have officially celebrated Thanksgiving Day since 1863, and together with Christmas and the New Year, is a part of the broader holiday season. Many Americans envision Thanksgiving as a time of feasting and family gatherings replete with roast turkey and football games followed by the biggest shopping day leading up to Christmas. It is true that many people need a special day to express appreciation for their good fortune and prosperity, but if they are privileged enough to luxuriate with family and friends in a day of feasting, they probably do not understand the meaning of gratitude. It is tragically sad that for nearly 50 million Americans living below the poverty level, Thanksgiving is just another struggle to provide food and shelter for their families and a reminder that the next day will bring the same struggle to survive; much less making Christmas shopping decisions.
The media and big business have transformed a day of thanks into a wildly popular commercial season that purports all Americans share wealth and prosperity that allows them to relish the American dream. The narrative that every American spends Thanksgiving in gluttonous comfort is fallacious at best and perpetuates the myth that America’s exceptionalism means every household has myriad reasons to be grateful for the bounty of being an American. The miserable truth is that every day more Americans are falling into poverty and despair with flagging hopes of ever achieving the “American Dream” and are fortunate to find a food bank or gospel mission charitable enough to provide them with a cafeteria-style turkey dinner.
It is getting incredibly difficult for a majority of Americans to find reasons to be thankful for anything in America much less a commercially-oriented holiday. Republican policies that indulge the wealthy while cutting programs and services for the poor and middle class have made life tenuous and insufferable for millions of Americans who are grateful to make it through another day feeding and housing their family. It is incomprehensible that in the wealthiest nation in world history, one in six Americans never know from one day to the next if they will be able to provide food for their children during weekends and school holidays, but that is the reality 49.1 million Americans face every day.
Conservatives are prone to blame poverty on lazy Americans who prefer being on the dole and depriving the wealthy their precious tax cuts than having a living-wage job, but when offered the opportunity to provide jobs, Republicans demure because their allegiance to the wealthy supersedes any semblance of humanity. There are many conservatives who decry the poor are suffering at all and in fact, the Heritage Foundation had the audacity to claim poverty-level Americans lived opulently because most had microwave ovens; the truth is the poor are indeed fortunate if they have the security of housing and daily sustenance. House Speaker John Boehner made an impassioned speech that America had an obligation to support the poor and then voted to slash funding for food, housing, and healthcare programs for seniors and children.
Perhaps the only reason many Americans have to be grateful is that they are not yet living below the federal poverty level ($22,500 for a family of four), and yet any American who is not wealthy is an injury, illness, or job loss away from joining the ranks of the poor. Republicans assert that corporations are uncertain of making profits if they have to pay taxes, but they ignore the uncertainty of Americans who never know where their next meal comes from, and the media spends their time promoting the holiday shopping season instead of exposing the depth of poverty in the richest country in the world. Apparently if Republicans deny poverty in America, it doesn’t exist.
To be fair, there are reasons to be grateful on Thanksgiving, but they are diminished knowing that millions of Americans will be hungry while most people are practicing gluttony and preparing to bolster the bottom line of retail giants like Wal-Mart and the local mall. For some Americans, thinking about the plight of the poor is depressing on Thanksgiving, and maybe compassion for the poor is the price of being a secular humanist, but America is in need of compassion now more than ever. Feasting takes on new meaning when considering a neighbor, elderly relative, or total stranger have no idea where their next meal will come from. All the while, conservatives enrich the wealthy with savings from Draconian cuts to programs that may give the poor a reason to be thankful and to make matters worse, they are stuck wallowing in poverty because Republicans blocked a 0.7% tax increase for the wealthy that would create jobs and help lift them out of their destitute conditions.
On this Thanksgiving, while feasting and reveling in good fortune, take time to remember that 50 million Americans will be thankful to have a meal at all. Remind yourself that because of Republican policies, this may be the last Thanksgiving you can afford that big turkey dinner and Black Friday shopping spree. Most of all, be thankful that this Thanksgiving you have a home and food because at the rate Republicans are going, it may well be your last. Bon appétit!
Related Posts :
There are myriad ways to express a feeling of acknowledgment of a benefit one has received or will recei ...
There is a magical transformation that happens every year during the holiday season that begins with bea ...
How else would you expect Fox News to celebrate Thanksgiving other than to mock those who receive food ...
In most third world countries, citizens living in abject poverty is as normal as the sun rising in the E ...
For the past thirty years Republicans have used every argument under the Sun to convince Americans that ...
19 Responses to Thanksgiving Won’t Be Happy For 50 Million Americans Who Are Going Hungry
Public Service Advertisement
Reynardine
Nov. 24th, 2011 at 12:26 pm
Let’s just say my Thanksgiving is somewhat spartan, and I am thankful to have a quarter acre of good, East-slope land and enough sense to grow stuff.
Shiva (Moderator)
Nov. 24th, 2011 at 12:31 pm
Mine is even more spartan, gf went shopping and I am left to my own devices
Sarah Jones
Nov. 24th, 2011 at 1:15 pm
Spartan in some things but you are both rich in what matters:-)
Elizabeth
Nov. 25th, 2011 at 9:54 pm
You are, indeed, fortunate. That land may turn out to be a life saver.
Deborah Montesano
Nov. 24th, 2011 at 1:07 pm
Thank you for refocusing us on what’s really important. I need to up my donation to the food bank!
Sarah Jones
Nov. 24th, 2011 at 1:17 pm
Good point:-)
Enjay in E MT
Nov. 24th, 2011 at 1:55 pm
Today is a day to reflect on what we have because there are so many less fortunate. A loving family (near or far), challenging job, good friends, decent health, roof over our head, and food in the fridge (even if it’s Peanut Butter & Jelly).
God Bless & Happy Thanksgiving.
Cathy
Nov. 24th, 2011 at 2:18 pm
God bless you–what a beautiful reflection.
mathazar
Nov. 24th, 2011 at 2:03 pm
And yet, just think of how much perfectly good food gets thrown in the dunpsters of supermarkets ever day. With all this talk about redistribution of wealth, what we really need is a redistribution of food.
Elizabeth
Nov. 25th, 2011 at 10:01 pm
Start a gleaners group. Our county has one attached to the food bank. Some regularly visit grocery stores for past-pull date foods and other overruns. Some regularly visit the farmer’s market for produce the farmer doesn’t want to take home. Some are ready and able to pick/pull/ or harvest anything from a neighbor’s plum tree to 40acres of corn. Many hands make light work, and it does help. Start paying attention to how much food you waste in your home. Every little bit helps.
Ingarose
Nov. 24th, 2011 at 3:30 pm
Thank you for a very realistic article. And what does the media do? They argue if it is a good idea or not to start ‘black Friday’ earlier than usual. But a lot of people are still going along by camping overnight to get that special ‘cabbage patch doll’ or 10% off on some new item from China.
louie mndzbl
Nov. 24th, 2011 at 3:44 pm
Everyday is a Day in The Lord (Christ)…. Yes even a bad Day! Isaiah 45:7 There is no such special day ever unless you follow traditions of men , celebrations are a self thing and of pagan origin just like any US of A American holidays………..yes even B-days and specially Christmas…Learn about the Masses and let them go………….Every Day is a Day in The Lord……….
Shiva (Moderator)
Nov. 24th, 2011 at 4:41 pm
Did you miss the 50 million going hungry christian?
I thought so. Let them eat cake right?
Rivet Grrrl
Nov. 24th, 2011 at 6:06 pm
Please don’t lose sight of the fact that not all religious folks are of the same belief system as yourself. It is true that Christmas as we practice it has many pagan origins (the holiday of Yule, for example, is around December 20 through New Year’s). Still, many people celebrate it (if not in the original Heathen or modified Christian sense) as a time to remember the importance of family.
Thanksgiving is a time to reflect on and be thankful for the things that brighten our lives. Whether, ultimately, it is selfish or not depends on the person doing it.
Rmuse
Nov. 24th, 2011 at 7:11 pm
Dear louie mndzbl,
You know, just because you’ve got a bible, it doesn’t mean you have to thump it. Actually, what I really want to say to you is…never mind.
GuyFox
Nov. 25th, 2011 at 12:44 am
The words “Americans going hungry” certainly sound bad. But they may not mean precisely what you think. My wife and son took some food to some homeless people today..turkey, dressing, potatoes…the whole dinner. One homeless lady who my wife is well acquainted with said “there is turkey on every corner today.”
I have no illusions that there are are poor people suffering today. But their wants are not for food. The homeless in my part of the world (Atlanta) are by no means hungry for food. They are hungry, and that is for person to person interaction. They are are hungry for somebody to come to them and be nice to them. They don’t lack food. They lack love. They are often from dysfunctional families and they are in need of persistent love and attention. This is something is is very , very hard to provide. It takes feet on the pavement to make a difference.
Elizabeth
Nov. 25th, 2011 at 10:05 pm
For the most part, you are very right, but I think you misunderstood what the homeless lady said. Yes, there is a turkey on every corner on Thanksgiving, but how about January 15th?
Alithea50
Nov. 25th, 2011 at 11:54 pm
I had ham and eggs that I got from the food bank, which I am thankful for those who donated it. I am alone on disability – $945 a month – so there’s not much money for food or Christmas or anything else most people take for granted. For this year I have a roof over my head and eat once a day and that’s all I need. That and my little companion dog who I would starve for.
What makes me very sad and anxious is that if the Republicans have their way is that in the next year or so – if Ron Paul or any other leading contender in the GOP manages to finagle the Presidency I will be living on the streets, in a great deal of pain and eating in a soup kitchen.
It makes me feel horrible to see so many comments blaming me and other disabled / elderly for ruining the economy and saying that I, and others like me who worked hard all our lives and then had the audacity to become disabled or old are responsible for the financial woes of this country.
Speaking for many of the disabled and disenfranchised, being in this needy position already makes us feel worthless. We don’t need soulless people telling us that we are basically a waste of breath; our loss of dignity is just about as much as our spirits can take already.
Don’t these people understand that should they remove all social support from this country there will be massive suicide rates? Many of us would rather “fall on their swords” than succumb to physical pain, disease starvation or exposure and loss of hope. Or is that the master plan?
Alithea50
Nov. 26th, 2011 at 12:56 am
Not shared to be a downer – just offering a first-person account of reality. Rest assured, I won’t go down without a fight to my last breath and last battle-hardened cane is broken.;)