Tomorrow we leave for my Dad's house in Bodega Bay, CA. It has been about 10 years since we have spent a holiday with him and all of us are really excited about being there with him.
One thing of note: he is a Republican, has been all his life. He tells me this story of how he became a Republican, and it always makes me laugh, don't know if I will get it right, but will tell it for you here.
Many years ago....
more...
he lived in Washington, D.C. when he was going to law school. He decided to check out both the DNC and RNC. First, he went to the DNC (this was in the 50's). When he walked in no one said hi to him, people were all over the place, casually dressed and basically very unorganized. He left. Then he went to the RNC.
As he tells it, when he walked in he saw desks neatly lined up, people at the desks in suits, someone came up to him said hi, introduced themself, asked who he was, gave himn literature, and he was hooked.
But the reality is that he hates his party. He sends me stuff all the time about how bad the GOP is. He also has a house in Marin, and tells me how he remembers Barbara Boxer walking precincts when she ran for congress. He tells me stories of San Francisco politics, such as when he saw George Miscone shaking hands at the cable car turn around when he ran for the legislature. He remembers writing Miscone (both were Catholic) and asking how Moscone could support abortion. Moscone wrote him back and said that while he held his own personal views it was wrong to impose those on the public.
I don't do justice to the words used, but bascially my Dad changed his mind when he read that letter. While my Dad is almost more liberal than I am in many ways, he refuses to change parties. He hasn't voted Republican in 30 years, yet clings to the notion that the GOP will someohow get back to what it was when he joined.
He just sent me an article about what went wrong in the election, and keeps telling me, his democratic daughter, that I have to get my party in line. He has finally decided that he has to work to get his party in line as well.
I go to the house my Dad lives in, to share his spirit, to share your thoughts with him, and debate how we can take our country back from those who seek for themselves over the nation.
His house is great, over looks the ocean, we relax, drink wine, eat way too much, take this great drive through northern CA where we go to this amazing bakery in the middle of nowhere, in Freestone, CA, to get the best damn bread you have ever had.
I love my Dad, and so wish that the moderates in the GOP, like him, would take back their party. He is a man I respect and admire so, he has an ability to see things I just gloss right over.
This Thanksgiving I am ever blessed to have a wonderful husband, two fantastic children and a Father who I am not deserving of.
So, even though the election SUCKED, I am ever so grateful for all that we have in this great nation. I thank god for all of you each day, for being able to be part of this community, to share ideas, thoughts, desperation and more with you all.
Through it all, I am ever so thankful for all of you here who write so much better than I do, who know so much more, who work so much harder to take back our country.
Thank you so very much, for all you are, for all you do, and for being who you are. Thank you for always holding true to that which we know are the real "moral values."
May your Thanksgiving be shared with those you love. May your day be filled with that which you are thankful for, and may we all be blessed enough to work yet again to return our nation to the greatnes it once had.
While at my Dad's I will think of you all, and say yet another prayer for all those in our country who share the vision of a shared prosperity, of those in this community who know that we can and will do better.
May your Thanksgiving be warm and full of love, may you share in the spirit of that which we know we can have here in this country. We will somehow, someday, see our vision come to reality.
Happy Thanksgiving all.
