Thanksgiving Comes First

Since I've often been all about Thanksgiving, some of you were probably wondering when I was going to write a post about it this year. If you were wondering, I thank you for thinking about it and here it is.

I made a conscious effort to NOT post about Thanksgiving. I wanted to see what was happening without being clouded by thoughts of what was happening as a result of anything here.

I still kept plugging away on Facebook (on my own personal page and at THANKSGIVING COMES FIRST, a page I manage there - https://www.facebook.com/ThanksgivingComesFirst ) and I get the feeling that there may be a tipping point being reached, one way or the other. There are boatloads of people who are fed up with the commercialization of Christmas and the incursion of store openings on Thanksgiving itself. I mean, some folks are seriously angry now. That's a good thing. And there are lots of stores specifically advertising that they will be closed on Thanksgiving, another good sign. On the other hand, stores are opening earlier than last year (when they opened earlier than the year before that) so...

I have the feeling we're either going to see Thanksgiving completely obliterated as a holiday in the next few years or else we'll see it become a thing that people are so pissed about that there might even be legislation passed to save it. I'm not thrilled with either of those options - I'd prefer that it work solely via the public opinion being so strong that retailers back off and pay the respect they ought to, to both the holiday and their employees - but, if I have to choose one or the other, I'll gladly see the legislation, thanks.

The other thing I did was try to have an op-ed published, which I was successful in doing a couple of times previously. I'm happy to report I was able to sell one this year, too. It hasn't appeared yet, but it will publish either on Thanksgiving day itself or the Tuesday before, in the Los Angeles Times (which, as much as I love my semi-permanent home at The Boston Herald, is a much larger audience and I'm stoked. We're talking about the 4th largest newspaper in the country, with a total average circulation of well over 500,000 in both print and digital editions.)

So there you go. That's what I've been up to insofar as Thanksgiving is concerned. I'll be back to point you at the L.A. Times when I'm published (unless it's on Thanksgiving itself, ironically, because I don't work on Thanksgiving and that includes blogging or computing of any sort. Maybe if I catch it before I go to bed and consider the three hour time difference...)

Meanwhile, keep up the good fight. If you're on Facebook, change your profile picture to the orange button shown above. Doing so makes every post or comment a statement of how you feel. If you blog about Thanksgiving, please let me know; I love to read your stuff. Some of the best things I've ever read on the internet were blog posts about what Thanksgiving means to people.

If I don't talk to you before the day itself, I wish you a wonderful and blessed Thanksgiving. Eat much, show love, and don't forget to say "Thank you!"

Oh, one last thing: Here's the latest list of "naughty and nice" stores. If you care about this thing, do NOT shop at the naughty stores. And I don't mean just now. I mean from now on, unless they change their ways. That is THE most effective thing you can do to make the situation better.

Soon, with more better stuffing.