It’s that time of year, when most American bloggers type up the obligatory Thanksgiving post, where we revel in the good things that happened and the freedoms we enjoy.
Tomorrow, while I cook and eat and play games with my nephews, others around the world will be fighting and dying for the freedoms that I, as a heterosexual, white male enjoy as a matter of course.
I have my family. I have friends who not allowed to express their love for each other, because they are both males or both females. The freedom to show affection and not have it regulated by others is great, but not everyone has that freedom. I’m thankful that I do, but it’s only because I fit the normative mold of what is “proper”. That’s not fair.
I will have a full belly tomorrow… as I do every day. My family will to. I don’t have to decide which of my children gets to eat and which goes hungry. I don’t have to go hungry in order that my children may eat. Even here in the US, where there is an embarrassment of riches, almost 20% of the population is in poverty. Almost 17 million children in the US live in food insecure households.
I have health insurance. There are those, in the richest nation on the planet, who actively fight to prevent people from getting fair insurance. I insert the word “fair” very specifically as I believe that health insurance with $10,000 deductibles, that is dropped at the first sign of major illness, while cheap, isn’t fair. In a country founded on “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness”, there seems to be a lot of effort to limit those by our leaders. In fact, the control of those leaders is so great that people actively work against their own best interest.
I am thankful for the police and fire departments in my area. But, again, I’m a white male. There are those who fear the US justice system, because it is anything but just. Just because of the color of their skin, some people are more likely to be pursued by police, thrown in jail for minor infractions, and prosecuted more heavily for things that shouldn’t even be crimes. Our system is anything but ‘just’. The US is a land of excess, where almost 3% of the population is in jail.
I think I am most thankful for the people that have the passion and the skill to fight these injustices. The people who have changed my mind through friendship, knowledge, and fairness. The people who have spent their lives and, in many cases, their life to promote fairness, justice, and a world where everyone has, at the least, the basic necessities of life.
