WASHINGTON, D.C. — So I woke up at the crack of dawn on the day before Thanksgiving and felt pretty good. Even though it was 32 degrees outside, it was 68 inside, and I remembered to make the coffee the night before.

All I had to do was hit the button on Mr. Coffee and awake to the sweet aroma and ease into the day, which promised sunshine and warmer temperatures in the upper 50s.

After a three day break, for me and my friends, fans and followers, the plan was to try going back in time a bit, to harken back to the days when newspaper columnists wrote pretty little stories to make readers feel good for the Thanksgiving edition. Something nice and easy to read before or after the juicy turkey and dressing, green bean casserole and real cranberry sauce.

But I made the mistake of turning on the TV, and the news exploded with another mass shooting in America, this time at a Walmart in Chesapeake, Virginia, just down the road a ways.

If I was an old man sitting on a bench in front of the barbershop in Mayberry, I would whittle another sliver of wood off a fresh piece of cedar, shake my head, and ask simply: “What’s the world coming too?”

We are way too far past that now for such a simpleton’s reaction so far from the action.

Commentators are echoing their viewers’ concerns and wondering aloud: Where in the world can one go these days and feel safe? Not a grocery store, a school, a church or a bar. I’ll stick to a park in the woods.

Gratitude

If I was going to take a few moments to express gratitude, it would be to those readers who somehow cling to a belief in American democracy, and the role honest journalism plays in it, along with some hope for a future for human life on planet Earth.

I would thank those who show their gratitude with an occasional contribution to keep it going, and those who share the news links on social media, even though the hackers, bots and algorithm would rather solicit idiotic comments about the picture of the cat in the suitcase at the airport.

I would also like to thank every woman, African American, Latino, college educated Republican and independent voter and yes, every white male Democrat too, who voted in the midterm elections and prevented the MAGA Republicans from celebrating a Red Wave. It was in fact a Red Mirage, even though they did manage to eke out enough wins in rural gerrymandered districts to take the gavel in the House.

At least the sanity line held and is still in control in the White House and the United States Senate, if barely. The MAGA Republicans, talk radio and Fox News lost.

At least we can make a toast to “winning” the game of life by a fire on Thanksgiving Day for that. We’re not dead yet.

While I often celebrate the web press and keep working to pioneer a future for news on this platform, don’t think there aren’t days when I too look back on the days when print was king, back in the 20th century when life moved slower. I still want to slow down around Thanksgiving and through the Christmas and New Years holidays and stop having to crank out seven to 10 stories a week to keep the capitalist press and media churning in dough.

We don’t have that mandatory space to fill in the paper anymore, or the time to fill like the talking heads on TeeVee. They can’t stop printing or talking or the world would stop turning.

I can stop, and take long breaks from posting on social media too. So can you.

The news junkies won’t turn off the cable TV or log out of Facebook, even as they brag about canceling their Twitter accounts because they don’t like Elon Musk.

I know it won’t do any good. But would it be too much to ask my friends to simply ignore Kevin McCarthy, Majorie Taylor Green, Matt Gaetz, Tucker Carlson and Donald Trump too for the next month? It does no good to explode their points of view by sharing their memes. That would do more good for the world than just about anything you could do.

I’m working up a full blown Hunter S. Thompson rant about this class of Republicans. But I would like to save it all up for about Jan. 3, when the new members of the House will be sworn in downtown in the Capitol.

If you have to do some sharing now, maybe focus on the Senate runoff in Georgia, where Herschel Walker is still in the running to give the Republicans another seat at the table. If you’ve got any money left to contribute to a politician, give it to Senator Raphael Warnock. He’s ahead and favored to win on Dec. 6, but you never know these days.

Also, one last thing. I’ve got a personal favor to ask. Small and large contributions welcome.

For reasons that should be obvious I’m reluctant to talk about it. But I need some new teeth. I found a great dentist in Greenbelt, Maryland who has offered me a sweet deal on dental implants. Normally this would cost about $11,600. But for a mere $3,600, I have a chance to maybe get my smile back.

Just so you know I ain’t lyin’, here’s a picture of the treatment plan estimate.

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