As promised I have returned to report on my Thanksgiving. It went very well considering we were divided about half and half with those who see Obama as the Great Almighty and those who think he is Satan on earth, or at the very least one of his primary helpers.
As expected things were mostly about the family until we sat at the table to eat. I held the prayer with dear sincerity, all the time feeling a certain atheist set of eyes rolling in their head and glaring at me to hurry and shut up. I'm sure God was pleased that she had to wrestle with her inner demons to get through it. Then right about the time we passed the digging in to gorge ourselves phase, one of my nephews piped up about how thankful he was that Obama won.
I looked at him and saw that sparkle of ridicule in his eyes and knew I was in for a test of strength to keep my word about being above politics in favor of family for Thanksgiving. So I let him and his cohorts in crimes against the nation continue on for a spell, nodding and asking them to pass things from time to time like I said I would until finally I saw a way through the maze of non acceptable responses to one that might work. I patiently waited and after the Obama worship came the quips about liberal talking points. That is when I made my move.
"Obama said we can't ignore climate change." said my niece in law glaring at me specifically in opposition. (Or something to that effect, pardon me if I don't quote the comments verbatim.)
To which I replied in a serious manner, "Oh, I agree we can't ignore that humans' breathing is giving off a noxious poisonous fume to each other, even though the plants depend on it, and it is clear that we either need to severely reduce the population or tax people per year that they live so that they can help to pay for cleaning up the air." I felt my wife's knee sharply bump my leg. I took a bite of Turkey. My niece looked stunned.
"Well I think he was talking about the car and factory pollution, not people breathing." She retorted. I chewed thoughtfully. "Did he say that?" I asked. "No but... followed by her excuses," she replied.
At that point I gave her a small history lesson on eugenics favoring her progressive heroes in my accounts of their statements. I pointed out that Obama is a progressive so surely he must be thinking along those lines. She of course knew nothing of the history of progressives and found a reason to go check on her small son. I smiled inside.
Her husband had the light bulb over his head come on when he realized what I had just done. And he considers himself to be clearly smarter than I am so he continued on about "Green Energy" in general quoting the latest Moveon.org talking points which included a sparse number of facts as they like to call their slanted details.
"Green Energy!" I said enthusiastically, "Now there is something I can really get behind!" I rambled on about the number of green energy businesses that Obama supported with tax dollars and the costs of their failures. "But" I continued, "I think it is worth it and I would be willing to pay several more hundred dollars a year in taxes over the next few decades even though their track records aren't good for making money or helping the environment because in a few thousand years we might be out of oil on this planet and we need to start planning for it now. Then I told them what I read about the people up in Canada who had to give up their homes and those that had mental stress and health issues from being too close to wind mills." I cited numbers about how many wildlife are affected or killed each year knowing full well that the tree huggers might choke on the green beans at the mere thought of it. "But what is a few extra hundred dollars a year but a small price to pay for our far future generations" I said. "After all what do the Canadians know? Who cares if they have to give up their farms and homes. It is for the greater good! The government should have the right to take property away or run people off of it if it will help the environment don't you think?"
My nephew ate his potatoes with a chew normally reserved for only the toughest of jerky and was glad to be interrupted by his mother who asked him if he had installed the solar water heater he had spoke of back in the summer. She didn't know that she was setting him up but it went in my favor. "Well not yet." he replied, it was going to cost me over three thousand dollars in total and I couldn't afford it."
Couldn't afford it? I asked with a tone of judgement ringing in my voice. "Why don't you take out a loan, it should be worth it in the long run plus just think of how much you will be helping the environment in the mean time."
"Aw I don't want to have to pay even more with interest!" he said, and that was my opening for the discussion about the massive debt accumulated under Obama and how if he thinks it is okay to borrow against future earnings to such a tremendous degree and from the Chinese even, then to me his not being able to afford it just didn't make sense.
This kind of conversation went on for not too much longer before the most liberal of all of the relatives who had little to say during the discussions changed the topic to "How about them Jets" The family let out a collective but quiet sigh of relief and we moved on to have a wonderful time together for the rest of the day.
I was proud of myself for keeping my word, but even prouder that I had done something unusual by making the liberals think past their noses on the opinions they hold rather than to respond with a defense mechanism that typically shuts down their ability to do so. Yes, I was proud and more. I had kept Thanksgiving peaceful and made liberals think; and for that I was truly thankful.
~By Dale Barnes
Turkey Lover, Family Man, Proud Conservative
