Between the next in a series of Thanksgiving and post-Thanksgiving meals, the point of which I have now forgotten, I could not get around to the computator. This is probably the longest I’ve gone without blogging in eight years, let’s see if I remember how to do it.

This is not right. You are not alone. This must change. With these three phrases, the mighty are brought down and the lowly lifted up.

On this Thanksgiving Weekend, I am thankful for all who stand up to bullies.

There are many alternative names you might consider. In honor of Sen. Linda Menard’s hallmark legislation from the 2009 session, you might consider the new name “Winged Marmot”

Other suggestions already put forward by Patriotic Americans have been “Freedom Fowl” and ‘Pilgrim Pullet.”

I wanted to share these two families’ best wishes for a wonderful Thanksgiving. I think their very simple wishes for this holiday illustrate how all families are the same: our hopes and dreams, and our rights and responsibilities.

More than two and a half million Americans slipped into poverty this year bringing the total number of Americans in poverty to 46.2 million. There are millions more Americans near or in danger of going into poverty because they could lose their job, their home to bank foreclosure, or contract a disease or illness that leads to a medical bill they will be unable to pay.

When 700 Club host Kristi Watts interviewed Condi Rice about her holiday dishes, both agreed that mac and cheese was their favorite item on the menu. This baffled the out-to-lunch fundamentalist, apocalypse-predicting Robertson, who didn’t mince words – after all, Condi’s black, Watts is black, therefore mac and cheese=”black food”.

Happy Thanksgiving! Who’s frying the turkey?

With many encampments still setup around the country, it is to be expected that there will be stories of occupations having Thanksgiving at their camps. Occupy Wall Street is preparing 5,000 meals that will be served on Thanksgiving.

This week’s holiday mandates giving thanks. For many Americans, that is complicated by the harsh years since 2008.

There’s the bitterness of lost jobs, foreclosed homes and diminished opportunity. There’s the resentment over bailing out Wall Street, then watching banksters grant themselves sensational bonuses while denying Main Street loans to save businesses. There’s the fear generated by county club conservatives demanding draconian cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

It’s hard to muster gratitude while suffering, to feel appreciative while dreading a meaner future.

We all have our traditions, many of which we are quite inflexible about (in our house, my father had to carve the turkey, there never was any turkey carving training for the young ones, this was serious work). And yet as I look back over the years, I’m surprised to find how many “traditions” are relatively new to our celebration, like the Mud Bowl football game, not watched but played. Or lately going over to the neighbors and meeting up with friends for a festive dessert potluck.