Thanksgiving is a complex time for thinking people in the US. I pretty much think I've decided it's good to be grateful as long as I know who and what I'm grateful for, and as long as I'm participating in changing the things I'm not grateful about.

For many years I didn't celebrate on Thanksgiving, I actually fasted on Thanksgiving for a few years in a row. I spent the time thinking about it. Being in one's late teens and early twenties is an intense time for people in this Country who have all their cylinders firing. I really wanted to think about it and not take anything for granted.

I'm thankful for having a place to live and all these kick-ass people who come to this country from all over the world, in spite of the fact we piss over all the world. I'm thankful for the evolution the civil rights movement ignited, i'm grateful i made the decision to be part of that. i'm grateful for the grandchildren of the survivors who teach me so much. I'm grateful the indians were NOT KILLED OFF. I'm grateful I never met a dead indian. i'm grateful race isn't a biological occurrance, but rather a social occurrance that can be abolished.

I'll be celebrating Thanksgiving with neat people from here and other places who have come to pretty much the same kind of understanding about these things.

I know npr is pretty fascist mostly, but who can resist when a cool guy like Cornel West sneaks on there.

check out his thanksgiving thoughts.

www.npr.org/ramfiles/tavis/20021127.tavis.03.ram

and cheer up a little bit today.