Thanks, but no thanks

Apropos of the holiday, this Thanksgiving-week issue of the CN&R acknowledges positives.

Four altruistic Chicoans get overdue credit they didn’t seek in our Local Heroes salute. The Holiday Gift Guide, this year themed on sustainability, features presents you can feel proud of giving from businesses you can feel proud of patronizing (page 22). As National Adoption Awareness Month winds down, an adoptive daughter-turned-mother shares one of the many heartwarming life changes effected in Butte County (The blessing of adoption).

Yet, for all the good examples in these stories, our world isn’t all sweetness and light. There are a lot of things for which I’m grateful, and just as many for which I’m not.

So, drawing on the spirit of Backbeat, channeling my inner cantankerous author, here’s an anti-Thanksgiving list. I’m not giving thanks for:

Left-right bickering (national). I’m thrilled that the Democrats have mustered enough support to challenge President Bush on his policies. I’m revolted by the fact that pundit politics still reign.

Rush Limbaugh expressed remorse at having to “carry the water for people who I don’t think deserve having their water carried"—in other words, trumpeting Republican talking points. Whether a true confession or not, it’s troubling that the loudest radio voice on the right would preach fiery sermons that took a leap of faith, simply out of a sense of obligation.

Left-right bickering (local). Undercurrents from the Chico City Council election show polarization is a fact of life in the community, too. Yes, much is at stake as we map out our future, but labeling and finger-pointing don’t help. Let leading vote-getter Mary Flynn set the example with calm, constructive discourse.

Nero-like corporations. We’re running out of oil. Our cities are choked with smog. Many children are obese, caffeinated and medicated. Ditto many adults, who also face the cardiac double-whammy of tobacco addiction.

Meanwhile, oil companies continue to post record profits and successfully blocked California’s clean-energy tax on petroleum extraction, akin to the way “big tobacco” confused the issue regarding the cigarette tax. Only now are auto manufacturers making concerted efforts to produce hybrid cars. Soft-drink manufacturers spike energy drinks with stimulants and sugars, making them even more potent than the supersized sodas served in fast-food and convenience stores.

I could go on—health-insurance providers focus on treatment, not prevention; media conglomerates bleed local outlets dry for arbitrarily high profit margins—but I think I’ve made my point. Too many powerful entities think only of short-term gain rather than long-term benefits.

Fatalism. I know, it seems contradictory to talk about mortal obstacles and chide fatalism. But pointing out reasons for pessimism doesn’t mean abandoning optimism. I look at what Bill Clinton and the Gates Foundation are accomplishing worldwide, in the vein of what the Local Heroes are doing here, and I see hope. Kick aside wedges, keep an eye out for selfishness and embrace ways to save fellow earthlings from destruction.