We’ve nearly made it. We’ve past the marker for the beginning of the holiday season, that season of joy and family, love and friendship. Thanksgiving 2016 has passed us by, and we spent it with the kids and had a wonderful meal that Jennifer and I spent the day working on. She did more than me (potatoes, several pies, veggies, a ham) but I tried to get some contributions in as well (my own peanut butter pie, the turkey, general assistance and lots of dish washing throughout the day).
And we got past the longest, nastiest, most brutal election I can ever recall. It wasn’t the result we hoped. It was, in fact, possibly the worst thing that’s happened to our Democracy in our lifetime. We have elected a man so insanely unqualified for the office, so unfit, so pathetically obnoxious that it boggles my mind. Our news system is now crashing, one of the last institutions we thought we could count on to look out for the people, buried under the weight of its own inability to be fair and impartial as well as a glut of fake news that buries any truth under an avalanche of lies and propaganda long before it can begin to take root. No one trusts anything any more.
But I do. I trust the people of this country. Oh, perhaps not the 25% of the voters who voted for Trump. Which amounts to roughly just 17% of the population who elected this man. And I’m more than a little disappointed at the large number of Democrats who sat out the election and now shrug and wonder what happened. You get what you pay for, and this is going to be a heavy price.
My wife and I are both former military. I grew up in a hunting household. We have no real fear of guns other than being away from them for a long time and uncomfortable now in their use, something we plan to rectify. We’ve bought our first rifle, are getting our handgun qualifications and are preparing for what we hope won’t come but feel we need to be ready for. We understand the left’s desire for greater gun control, but we don’t see that most of the laws passed have done anything to stem the tide of gun violence other than background checks (which we absolutely agree need to be universal). Magazine restrictions, bans on certain models… those are feel good measures that quell the voices slightly without doing a lick of real good. The Dems need to drop any further attempt at gun restrictions other than expanded background checks and remove one more wedge issue the right uses to drum up blind support, until their supporters are frothing at the mouth about ridiculous conspiracies surrounding FEMA death camps and planned gun seizures.
But no… I’m supposed to be thankful right now. I’m looking forward to a wonderful and hopefully quiet Christmas this year. Many of the gifts are already bought, and there are only a few more big things I need to get ordered soon. Then New Years will come, and 2017 will be another year to focus on writing and getting better at what I do in the hopes of one day doing it for reals. All the time. Forever. And I’ll be thankful for the millions of friends, family, and people I don’t know who are going to be joining us in solidarity on January 20th and 21st when we march to show this child of a man that we won’t be bullied by him or his thugs. We will begin the fight to reclaim our country and return it to its roots, which are steeped in the blood of liberal patriots.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone.