Gratitude

[lostnfound]

I wrote in another thread that I was so grateful that I cried when my child received a polio vaccine. His grandmother, my mother had had polio when she was a child. It left her with a limp and a heart of gold, forgiving spirit and memories of a disease that was not bestowed on future generations

I felt so grateful when my close relative (a republican) received weeks of hospital care after a heart attack, eventually released without going deep in debt over medical bills, all because Barack Obama and Joe Biden had successfully passed the affordable care act.

The house I live in and the food I eat depend largely on them and their hard work. When a different loved one was under the expert care of a renowned Japanese-born cardiologist, my child received loving attention from a Filipino nanny, my giant tree gets climbed and trimmed by a Guatemalan man with incredible talent and skill, and my home is remodeled, my taxi is driven, restaurant meal is prepared or served, STEM classes taught or mentored by immigrants from dozens of countries, I feel grateful.

They’ve enriched my lives; in particular i count a Malaysian and a Peruvian friend as among my very favorites over my many years.

What a marvelous country.

The gratitude extends beyond borders and beyond time. I’m deeply grateful to centuries of scientists, mathematicians, inventors, musicians and researchers who have enriched the experience of being human with knowledge, creature, comforts inventions and beauty. These contributions know no boundaries! How crazy for anyone to try to put boundaries and neat little geographic boxes around the human experience.

WTF caused these MAGA people to become so ungrateful?? Many walk around all day saying how blessed they are, and telling people to have a blessed day, but can’t see the human blessings all around us.

[Walleye]

1. Yes, I have always always thought of Americans as generous and tolerant

I don’t know who these people are now calling themselves Super patriots. But they don’t believe in the constitution that’s for sure. I am also grateful to generations of politicians and public servants who took their job seriously and helped us achieve who we became. I don’t know how so many people call themselves patriots and hate the constitution. That’s my impression of Donald Trump. He thinks of the United States as a piece of real estate not as a group of people with ideas.

[marble falls]

2. A lot of them are like my father was: he hated PoC as a whole group - HATED, but tended to like almost ...

... every individual he met. A black mason's laborer he hired, Roosevelt Dobson, always was the 'boss' when he wasn't around. And Mr Roosevelt (as I always called him) was known as the black Marble Falls brother. When my father took over a plant in Houston, he forced his bank to cash checks, open bank accounts, make loans to his black and Hispanic work force, threatening to take all company and personal banking elsewhere.

He's have been MAGA if he'd been around for TACO. He have voted to cut off his nose to spite his face. He'd have supported ICE even while he'd be angry that they were taking away all the wrong individuals.

Being MAGA means living in a world of cognitive dissonance.

[vishnura]

3. Gratitude

Real Americans are always grateful for the gifts given to us by the rest of the world. Thanks for composing.