Thanksgiving 2012

The Good:

Rocky Mountain H.S. (Fort Collins, Colo.) Principal Tom Lopez defends his Spanish Club students' Pledge of Allegiance in Spanish over the school's PA system. Of course, sadly, some parents complained. This story perfectly captures the "I'm not a racist, but..." divide that has always existed in America, and which was rejected--again--when President Obama was re-elected, leaving the gobsmacked GOP desolate and confused in such grand denouement as to be thoroughly pitied. You don't have to be a hood-wearing, pitchfork-wielding hysteric to let a wrong belief in your bones drive your every impulse, and then feel a moral imperative to pass it along to your children, which is why I hope these parents hear a dissonant clanging in their heads because these kids are reading the article (and the great comments) and challenging them.

The Bad:

Penn Station shuts down for Thanksgiving travel.* Are you kidding me?? There are a lot of things I never thought I'd live to see, including the fall of the Berlin Wall, the end of apartheid in South Africa, a black President, a two-term black President, state-sanctioned gay marriage, and legal weed in Colorado, but mass-scale urban devastation due to global warming, the zombie apocalypse, and the shutdown of the last resort for reliable urban travel** during the busiest time of the year weren't even on my list.

*UPDATE: Penn Station now re-opened. Expect delays.
**No, Greyhound doesn't count.

& The Ugly:

Gaza lynch mob.
Also, the pervy assholes at HuffPo who think that where Suri Cruise--a 6-year-old child born to celebrities--is spending Thanksgiving is news by any definition, even today.
Finally, Black Friday, which apparently started two days ago. The only two reasons I'd sleep outside of Best Buy for a new TV is if TV had just been invented, and it was 50% off.

--CR