Thanksgiving, that great American feast day, will soon be upon us. Tables will be laden with more food than can be imagined, services beckoning the faithful will be held and many treasured moments with kith and kin will be stored for future reflections. Indeed, a very remarkable celebration for countless millions. But, however, not for all.
True, multiple numbers of food baskets, complete with all the trimmings of a traditional Thanksgiving Day meal, are prepared for the poor; the homeless are welcomed to community tables and wayfaring strangers are bid welcome for a hearty meal.
Then comes the day after Thanksgiving. What then of the poor, the hungry, the homeless and the stranger no longer welcome? How are they to be fed? Housed? Invited into the circle of human warmth?
Food for Thought.
Would jobs that paid a living wage so people could eat and have a place to live be too difficult to comprehend for a nation that gives thanks around the table of plenty?
Would affordable and accessible health care for everyone be too much of a stretch for politicians to notice in their constant squabble over power?
Would quality preschool care and stimulating and healthy environments for our youngest citizens be too difficult an agenda to place on the table of thanksgiving?
Would it be too much to ask for a system of justice that treats all persons equally and fairly to still be a part of the American dream?
Perhaps, we who are fortunate to be able to gather with family and friends in the security of the places where we worship, or the comfort and warmth of our homes while we sit at a table laden with the feast of Thanksgiving, should pause to think of the days and weeks that stretch into years of need for those who desire a life defined by more than the gestures of an occasional feast day.
Food for thought?
Olson Huff, MD 
Once again Olson has hit us where we need to be hit.
OUCH. But thanks, Olson
Thanks, Heath. Unless we care more and more for what happens to each of us we will lose the ability to care at all. Yet, do have a Happy Thanksgiving!
Thank you Olson, for pushing us to reflect on the “day after Thanksgiving” in the lives of the “have nots”
Yes, Judy, we have to keep our minds focused on all, not just the “haves.”
Thank you for your thoughts!
Good questions, Olson. Would that all of us including politicians would think about these questions and take decisive actions to end hunger and poverty.
Yes, indeed! Thank you, Barbara
Thanks, Olson! You are right on target. I hope you send this to our state and national legislators! In Christ, John LaMotte
Thank you, Olson, well said once again. Please consider sending this blog entry as a Thanksgiving letter to all of our elected officials in Washington, DC. Perhaps it will plant seeds and inspire critical needed actions in our Lame Duck Congress and again in January to address living wages, affordable and accessible healthcare, early childhood education, and justice for all. Yes, it is food for thought and for action! Molly
Thank you, Olson for your “food for thought.” Will read it at our Thanksgiving table, followed, I hope, with conversation.
I am so thankful that you and I have found a container for eldering justice work and that we are in it together. A blessing I cherish.
Mahan
Olson,
Pleased to have access to your thinking and concerns. Very pleased indeed that your voice will be asserted along with others of us who share similar concerns.
How more straight to the bitter truth than what you have written? I listened today to Rep and Dem rhetoric over the immigration changes Pres. Obama is making, and thought how much this sounds like 4 year olds in the sandbox. Disgusting.
Succinct and meaningful. Hope you will send the piece to many newspapers. Cecil
Always good to get your blog.