CommentsPERSPECTIVE - Another year has passed under the shadow of the pandemic and much of our focus has been on what has gone wrong and in attacking those we think are responsible for our suffering.
There’s no doubt we have faced many adversities but we also have a lot for which to be thankful.
Our Thanksgiving holiday evolved from harvest festivals in times immemorial celebrating the taking in of the harvest to see people through the coming winter and to acknowledge the passing of the preceding year.
In the United States, the tradition began in Virginia in 1619 as an anniversary pursuant to the settlers’ charter from the London Company, which required "that the day of our ships arrival at the place assigned ... in the land of Virginia shall be yearly and perpetually kept holy as a day of thanksgiving to Almighty God."
Let us give thanks for our scientists and the CDC that spearheaded the race to fight the pandemic, for the doctors and nurses who worked to save lives, and for those of us who have survived or been spared the virus.
Let us give thanks for leaders around the world who made the hard choices to impose quarantined and vaccine mandates that have saved so many.
Let us give thanks that our democracy still exists despite the depredations of Trump and the forces he unleashed.
Let us give thanks that we are starting to rebuild and will continue to face the setbacks but persevere to rebuild this country to be a beacon of freedom and welcoming to all.
Let us give thanks that so many out there still work to inspire building up and improving on what we do have, instead of criticizing others and tearing apart the fabric of our society.
So take this time, this Thanksgiving weekend to reconnect with friends and family if you can do so safely, respect the choices of those who choose not to participate, and give thanks that you have survived another year, that there is food on your table and love in your hearts.
Please.
And take time this Thanksgiving Day and every day thereafter to practice being thankful and putting a smile on your face and on the faces of those around you.
(Liz Amsden is an activist from Northeast Los Angeles with opinions on much of what goes on in our lives. She has written extensively on the City's budget and services as well as her many other interests and passions. In her real life she works on budgets for film and television where fiction can rarely be as strange as the truth of living in today's world.)
