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By Liz Quirin

Reflecting on These November Days

I look forward to some Novembers more than others In the case of this November, I truly hope the unbelievably uncivil discourse in politics has stopped. Just think, if some of the money thrown at media outlets to air the latest half truths — about one candidate or another, one issue or another — had been spent on alleviating hunger, creating jobs or reducing the numbers of people being evicted from their homes,

just to name a few, some of those problems could have been mitigated to some extent. I am not naive enough to believe any of them could have been eliminated, but it would have eliminated some of what can only be described as “political trash talk” coming into our homes or following us in our vehicles.

So many businesses and institutions have codes of conduct, but all bets are off when politicians are trying to get our attention, in this election by saying partially truthful or wholly fabricated information about an opponent. What would happen if the media outlets insisted on a code of conduct for politicians, not just
everyday advertisers, but specifically politicians. I know that would inspire all kinds
of debate and comment about the idea, but why not talk about it before the next election rolls around.

On the positive side of November, Thanksgiving dinner menus have been prepared, and folks are checking them twice to make sure they’ll be ready for the big day. The only possibly sad “person” for this event is the turkey, and with the growing number of vegetarians, even the turkeys can do a little “trot” around the barn. Add to this, I am personally thankful for all of the messages The Messenger received about why young people are thankful. Most were wonderfully predictable, with youngsters being thankful for their families. Some showed students took our invitation to write about their thankfulness seriously, being thankful for people on a more personal level.

I want to add my thanks to the list, especially thanks to all of the teachers and parents and religious educators who took the time to help us in engaging young people. Asking students to write or draw something, then gathering all of their responses together and mailing them to us on time is not easy, but many, many people responded. I read each and every response, studied every picture, and the stack of responses was high. More than 500 young people sent in a response. While we could not accommodate everyone, we have tried to include a few expressions of “thankfulness” from every school or religious education or home school program that we received.

November gives us an opportunity to slow down for a time, enjoy family and friends, gather around a table and perhaps remember those who are no longer with us as well as those who have no table, have no turkey and must rely on others for help.