Charles Pierce, as usual, offers cogent commentary on Thanksgiving. On a holiday that seems to have morphed into a celebration of shopping, eating, and corporate sponsorship, it's good to be reminded of the higher purpose of our democracy:
It is a hard road. It is a dangerous passage. If we are true to ourselves, it is a pilgrimage that leads toward justice. It is a pilgrimage that leads toward charity. If we are true to ourselves, it is a pilgrimage at the end of which a just government is formed from an existing political commonwealth, over and over again. Sometimes, as individuals, we lose faith in the journey and turn back, out of fear and doubt, and because there's some place on the map where it says that dragons be. Sometimes, as a people and as a nation, we lose faith in the journey and turn back, out of fear and doubt, and because we don't even realize that we drew the map ourselves, and that it is our fear and our doubt and our lack of faith in the collective enterprise that created the dragons in the first place, sometimes out of our fellow citizens. We turn back because we think the place we left is safer and more secure than the place on the other side of the dark and uncertain sea. But it never is.
The concept of the commonwealth, an underlying theme of Pierce's musings, is often lost today. Ours is more of an agglomeration of interest groups where temporary coalitions are formed based upon short-term self-interest. The very idea of a common good or a common destiny seems as obsolete as the manual typewriter. Many moons ago, I became consumed by politics--not b/c I had a deep and abiding love for polling data, but b/c I saw it as a means to attain a more just and a more compassionate society.
After Vietnam, Watergate, Iran/Contra, the theft of the 2000 election, the GWOT, the expansion of the National Security State, Citizens United, and all the rest, it has become harder and harder to see politics in that way. Seeing the Ayn Rand ethos go from a fringe distraction to a widely-held belief system increases the level of doubt. Pierce places those doubts in context, at least for today:
We are all pilgrims in a pilgrim country. We are all fugitives in a fugitive democracy. We are all fleeing where we were, but we also are fleeing toward something, a place and a time and a nation that in many ways remains a goal rather than a reality. This is what I give thanks for today. I give thanks for the courage of the people willing to undertake this journey before me; the people who made the journey in their minds while they were physically crossing the oceans. I give thanks for the fact that their journey enables mine, and that mine helps enable my country's, and that, if we are true to ourselves, our journey as a political commonwealth will enable millions of others yet to come. Act as if ye had faith, the old Scripture tells us, and faith shall be given to you. A prayer for all our thanksgivings, a prayer for our nation, yet a'borning still, in the hearts of its people. I give thanks that I am a pilgrim in my pilgrim country.
As a pilgrim, it was helpful to read the words of a fellow pilgrim whose journey is, in many ways, similar to mine. Sharing his thoughts w/ other pilgrims here was the best way I knew how to commemorate this day. I am thankful for the many Kossacks w/ whom I have shared my hopes and my frustrations over the course of 2013. I am equally thankful for people like Pierce who put those hopes and frustrations in context.
In closing, as a devoted Cafeteria Catholic, I'm especially thankful for a pope who has a unique ability to enunciate the Gospel message and alienate Rush at the same time. Much of the American hierarchy became an adjunct of the GOP over the course of the last 2 papacies. Francis's obvious shift towards an emphasis on the core messages of peace, love, and compassion makes it a little easier to continue what has become an arduous journey.
Best wishes to all of my fellow pilgrims today.