BY SHARON MARTIN

It was created as a day to share with family and friends the bounty around the table. Now, hucksters have commandeered Thanksgiving and the day after to part us from our money, to lure us into buying things we don’t need instead of celebrating the bounty that we have.

Is your roof watertight? Is your electric bill paid? Did you have too much to eat on Thanksgiving? Did your car start when it was time to go back to work?

Let’s take stock of our priorities. And when we’ve done so, let’s see what we can do to make sure that everyone in this country has the necessities – clean water, a safe place to sleep at night, nutritious food, and a sound education.

We won’t get there by cutting food stamps.

We won’t get there by adding to the conflagration in the Middle East, by putting ourselves slap dab in the middle of World War III, although Bush and Cheney and company may have set it into motion.

We’ll get there by being decent human beings.

We contributed to the flow of refugees. Now let’s take in those we can, making friends instead of enemies.

We used up too many people to fight our ill-conceived wars. Now, let’s make sure that every veteran has a home and the medical care he or she needs, including drug treatment.

We’ve cut education and social services budgets to the bone. Now, let’s reconsider what we want our tax dollars to pay for.

I’d much rather feed and educate every family in the U.S., whether you think they’re deserving or not, than to build one more unnecessary bomber or tank.

We’ve destroyed the air, the water, and the wild spaces. Now, let’s sign on to a workable climate deal.

Christmas is coming. Ignore the corporate hucksters and the paid mouthpieces crying doom. Celebrate this season of joy one day at a time rather than by buying what they have to sell.

– Sharon Martin lives in Oilton, OK and is a regular contributor to The Oklahoma Observer