I don’t think I’ve ever been as conflicted about a Thanksgiving as I am this year. Many things in my life are going better than I ever expected they would. My writing career has taken off in a big way with opportunities and accolades I can scarcely believe have come my way. This year’s conventions have brought such joy to my world. For every anonymous coward or troll, there are literally thousands of fans and even fellow professionals who’ve told me how much they appreciate my work. Financially, this is the best year I’ve had in decades. For Tony the writer, life is sweet.
For Tony the family man...and when I say “family,” I mean my wife and kids, my friends and neighbors, my colleagues and readers...it has also been a terrific year. Family is what you make for yourself and not an accident of birth. Mine is a blessing to me day in and day out.
Yet 2016 has not been a year without challenge and loss. My mother-in-law is suffering from Alzheimer’s and dementia, leaving it up to my Sainted Wife Barb to handle her mother’s affairs. There is more to the story than that, but it will be some time before I can write about it. If ever. It kills me to see the strain this situation is putting on the woman I love. I do what I can. I do what she’ll let me do. But it never feels like enough.
Loss? I would be here all day if I tried to list all the good and creative people who have been taken from us this year. The comics industry, the entertainment business, the world is so much poorer for these losses. It sometimes seemed like we couldn’t go even one week without being punched in the gut. The pain sometimes seems unending.
Then there’s the elephant in the room. That arrogant, bigoted, dishonest, homophobic, misogynist, racist, xenophobic, cancerous elephant in the room.
President-elect Donald Trump and the Republican Party.
How can I be thankful for my own gains and joys when so many other Americans are being targeted by these soulless creatures? How can I be thankful when Trump brings an actual white supremacist Nazi into his inner circle? How can I be thankful when the old straight white men of the GOP are again posed to crush the rights of women, gays, blacks, immigrants, Hispanics, Muslims and anyone who won’t fall in goose step with their hideous agenda? How can I be thankful when the freedom of the press is threatened? When the freedom of my country is threatened?
I can’t. That’s not how my America is supposed to be.
There are those who make ridiculous excuses for Trump’s actions and words, part and present, and try to tell us we have nothing to fear when we so obviously have much to fear. There are those who try to “normalize” the unspeakable. They aren’t alt-right. They are Nazis and their “Heil Trump” shouts confirm that. You shouldn’t be making excuses for them or trying to tell us they aren’t the evil we know them to be. Stop lying to us. Stop lying to yourselves.
Here’s what I wrote in this space last year:
I am thankful for my wonderful family and friends and readers. Sainted Wife Barb, Eddie and Kelly are three of the best people I know. They bring me great joy every day. My friends and readers are right up there as well.
I am thankful for my continued employment as a writer. Any creative career has its ups and downs, but the ups are worth it.
I am thankful for the many forums available to me, this blog highest among them. I hope that I can continue to amuse and inform you.
This isn’t a normal Thanksgiving in these United States of America. I don’t feel normal. But I will.
I’m determined to work my way back to normal in an America that has become anything but normal. We will endure. We will fight. We will win. Never doubt that.
I hope all of you have a happy and safe Thanksgiving.
As ever, I'll be back tomorrow with more stuff.
© 2016 Tony Isabella
For Tony the family man...and when I say “family,” I mean my wife and kids, my friends and neighbors, my colleagues and readers...it has also been a terrific year. Family is what you make for yourself and not an accident of birth. Mine is a blessing to me day in and day out.
Yet 2016 has not been a year without challenge and loss. My mother-in-law is suffering from Alzheimer’s and dementia, leaving it up to my Sainted Wife Barb to handle her mother’s affairs. There is more to the story than that, but it will be some time before I can write about it. If ever. It kills me to see the strain this situation is putting on the woman I love. I do what I can. I do what she’ll let me do. But it never feels like enough.
Loss? I would be here all day if I tried to list all the good and creative people who have been taken from us this year. The comics industry, the entertainment business, the world is so much poorer for these losses. It sometimes seemed like we couldn’t go even one week without being punched in the gut. The pain sometimes seems unending.
Then there’s the elephant in the room. That arrogant, bigoted, dishonest, homophobic, misogynist, racist, xenophobic, cancerous elephant in the room.
President-elect Donald Trump and the Republican Party.
How can I be thankful for my own gains and joys when so many other Americans are being targeted by these soulless creatures? How can I be thankful when Trump brings an actual white supremacist Nazi into his inner circle? How can I be thankful when the old straight white men of the GOP are again posed to crush the rights of women, gays, blacks, immigrants, Hispanics, Muslims and anyone who won’t fall in goose step with their hideous agenda? How can I be thankful when the freedom of the press is threatened? When the freedom of my country is threatened?
I can’t. That’s not how my America is supposed to be.
There are those who make ridiculous excuses for Trump’s actions and words, part and present, and try to tell us we have nothing to fear when we so obviously have much to fear. There are those who try to “normalize” the unspeakable. They aren’t alt-right. They are Nazis and their “Heil Trump” shouts confirm that. You shouldn’t be making excuses for them or trying to tell us they aren’t the evil we know them to be. Stop lying to us. Stop lying to yourselves.
Here’s what I wrote in this space last year:
I am thankful for my wonderful family and friends and readers. Sainted Wife Barb, Eddie and Kelly are three of the best people I know. They bring me great joy every day. My friends and readers are right up there as well.
I am thankful for my continued employment as a writer. Any creative career has its ups and downs, but the ups are worth it.
I am thankful for the many forums available to me, this blog highest among them. I hope that I can continue to amuse and inform you.
This isn’t a normal Thanksgiving in these United States of America. I don’t feel normal. But I will.
I’m determined to work my way back to normal in an America that has become anything but normal. We will endure. We will fight. We will win. Never doubt that.
I hope all of you have a happy and safe Thanksgiving.
As ever, I'll be back tomorrow with more stuff.
© 2016 Tony Isabella
I hope you're right Tony but I'm on medicaid and disability and with social security and medicaid on the chopping block I'm very worried about my future. Oh yeah on a lesser note Trump and his team is planning to ruin the internet when he guts net neutrality.
ReplyDeleteI just hope the minority democrats can block some his more odious cuts like the ones I mentioned.
Dan Lorenzen
Perhaps we all to read/reread "They thought they were Free" notably chapters 13 and 14. Surely there are similar writings but this seems especially profound since Trump was mostly elected by the equivalent of the Germans interviewed.
ReplyDelete