Jason Kander (D) [2016 file photo]

From Jason Kander, via social media:

Before we all sit down to Thanksgiving dinner, I want to share a little bit about what I’m thankful for this year and tell you an important family story.

I’m thankful to be married to an absolutely unsinkable human being like Diana. Anytime I begin to get discouraged, she’s there with a pep talk that is so much more than platitudes. I’m thankful to have a three-year-old son whose biggest care in the world is making sure we read Dinosaur Train (again).

I’m thankful that I’ll see my grandfather at dinner tonight. I’m thankful that my mother, who went through surgery and chemotherapy during this campaign, and my father, who was diagnosed with ALS during my campaign for Secretary of State, will both be there too. I’m thankful for the vigorous argument my brothers and I will have tonight about the Royals’ off-season plans.

Everyone around my Thanksgiving table shares the same politics, so we don’t have those uncomfortable dinner table debates that sometimes bring down the mood or start fights. I recognize that may not be the same for you and I imagine that might take some of the fun out of this holiday. I thought I might offer a little advice about that.

Focus on how much you love your family and, also, focus on the fact that no matter what they say or do, it’s not going to stop you from working to get the country going back in the right direction. Basically, try not to let it get to you, because no one ever accomplished a goal if they let themselves lose focus and get distracted.

In that vein, and speaking of my grandfather, I want to share with you one of my favorite Kander family stories. It’s a good lesson in staying focused on what really matters.

My grandfather, Ed Kander (we all call him “Pop”) is the protagonist of this story. Here’s a fun fact about Pop: He served in northern Africa during WWII and this past Veterans Day was his 93rd birthday.

A few years after the war, Pop’s father died, and he came home to Kansas City to run the family chicken business and start a family. A short time later, when Pop and my grandmother purchased a house in Kansas City, Pop got sort of drafted into being President of the neighborhood association. Now, as Pop tells it, the job of neighborhood association President was pretty easy because, as far as he could tell, the only responsibility he had was to coach the neighborhood baseball team. My dad and my uncle played on the team and the team was decent. The only thing missing was a good shortstop, so Pop would go around asking people in the neighborhood if they knew of a kid that could play shortstop.

Later that summer, one of the families in the neighborhood moved out of the area and turned their home into an unlicensed hotel. This was against the rules of the neighborhood and had a lot of people pretty upset. It was the kind of neighborhood where kids played outside all the time and everyone was pretty uneasy about strangers coming and going at all hours.

The neighbors came to Pop and told him he needed to go to court and get the unlicensed hotel shut down. Pop was not a lawyer, and he probably didn’t want to take time away from work to fight this fight, but he took on this challenge for the good of the community.

Soon came the day of a big hearing in the case and the lawyer for the people who owned the unlicensed hotel pulled Pop aside outside the courtroom to talk.

The lawyer threatened Pop. “If you go forward with this lawsuit, you’ll probably win,” he said, “but you should know that my client has already identified a black family to sell the house to should they lose. If you move forward with this case, you’ll be responsible for letting a black family move into your neighborhood.”

I guess the lawyer was trying to threaten Pop with the one thing he thought would be more unpopular among Pop’s neighbors than the unlicensed hotel. But Pop didn’t skip a beat. He looked right at the lawyer, smiled, and asked him, “Do you happen to know if that family has a kid that can play shortstop?”

I get a chuckle every time I imagine the look on that lawyer’s face. And I get inspired every time I think about my grandfather’s resolve.

So whether it’s your family at Thanksgiving or Fox News on the TV in the waiting room at your doctor’s office, stay focused and don’t get distracted.

Have a great Thanksgiving. Today, and every other day, with warmth and love in your heart, just keep doing what you know is right and don’t let anyone or anything distract you from the path of making the world a better place.

Pie.

“…our last slice?”

“No. There is another.”

Today, from Senator Claire McCaskill (D):

Claire McCaskill ‏@clairecmc

So thankful. For my family. And my country that encourages free speech and peaceful protest.And the ability to listen.Happy Thanksgiving! 10:20 AM – 27 Nov 2014

And some of the responses, oh my:

Troy Appel ‏@tdappel

@clairecmc Do you fear facing Officer Wilson in 2018? Sounds like a candidate the GOP might recruit. 10:22 AM – 27 Nov 2014

Johnny Evan Lane ‏@49erlane

@clairecmc you are worthless. Crawl back into the hole from witch you came. 10:22 AM – 27 Nov 2014

THUGLIFE ‏@_TAhmad

@clairecmc I’m afraid for my family because they’re black in Amerkkka. Senator, does #BlackLifeMatter ? 10:24 AM – 27 Nov 2014

j coop ‏@bambam6770

@clairecmc it is a right therefor should not need encouragement from anyone. To bad you don’t view the #2A with same admiration #teaparty 10:24 AM – 27 Nov 2014

Would that be a distant cousin?

Allan Brauer ‏@allanbrauer

.@clairecmc And the extrajudicial slaughter of black people by your white supremacist pals who traded Klan robes for badges. 10:24 AM – 27 Nov 2014

No one is happy. This is like Festivus.

Austin Allison ‏@azta110790

.@clairecmc Are you sure you’re from America? 10:27 AM – 27 Nov 2014

Peggy McLain ‏@PeggyKelly

@clairecmc You call that a peaceful protest. Please start telling the truth 10:30 AM – 27 Nov 2014

Adriane Farray ‏@AFarray

“@allanbrauer @clairecmc And the extrajudicial slaughter of black people by your white supremacist pals who traded Klan robes for badges” 10:31 AM – 27 Nov 2014

Sophia LaMar ‏@SophiaLamar1

@clairecmc @newscat44 Are you overseas? 10:33 AM – 27 Nov 2014

Dave Warren ‏@SjlWarren

@clairecmc Peaceful protest? Really? Shame on you. Can’t wait to vote for your opponent! 10:49 AM – 27 Nov 2014

Tom Who ‏@TommieWho

@clairecmc And what country is that? Canada? 10:59 AM – 27 Nov 2014

BWD ‏@theonlyadult

@clairecmc what a disgusting dishonest statement. A senator from a state where black lives are cheaper than your non existing moral. 11:13 AM – 27 Nov 2014

Kyle ‏@gaysquib

@clairecmc um? Police are abusing protestors and this is what you tweet? Stop with this bullshit senator and do something. 11:14 AM – 27 Nov 2014

Welcome to America in the 21st century.

At the White House petition site:

We petition the Obama Administration to:

Execute Caramel, the Thanksgiving turkey who was pardoned by President Barack H. Obama

We the undersigned hereby demand that President Barack H. Obama, hereafter “POTUS,” fulfill the implied will of the people with regards to the annual Thanksgiving Turkey Pardon. POTUS supervised a binding web vote between poultry-Americans “Popcorn” and “Caramel,” promising to spare the life of the winner. Popcorn won the vote, but then POTUS revealed that both turkeys would be allowed to live. Is this the democracy the pilgrims fought and ate dinner for? We think not. Therefore, we the people ask that POTUS summarily execute Caramel at a time and place of his choosing. Justice must be served. Preferably with a side of mashed potatoes and candied yams.

Created: Dec 02, 2013

Issues: Civil Rights and Liberties, Criminal Justice and Law Enforcement, Rural Policy

[….]

Signatures needed by January 01, 2014 to reach goal of 100,000 97,554

Total signatures on this petition 2,446

[emphasis added]

I understand the mashed potatoes.

I read Vicky Hartzler’s newsletter so you don’t have to.  

It is interesting to how she describes the first Thanksgiving.

Many of us learned, as children, that the first Thanksgiving was observed at Plymouth following the harvest of 1621. The Pilgrims had endured a perilous first year and were grateful for God’s provision and faithfulness.

No mention how the original inhabitants at Plymouth Plantation helped with provisioning those Pilgrims.  In fact, there were more original inhabitants at that first Thanksgiving than the recent arrived undocumented immigrants.

It certainly is interesting how Representative Hartzler reports that the Pilgrim’s were grateful for God’s provision and faithfulness.  

It is interesting to consider what that means.  

 

Hartzler’s God provided Squanto, who could speak English.  Knowing that His followers would need help, God had Squanto as a boy stolen by an English captain in 1605. He was a slave and he was able to get back to his home to discover that everyone in his village was dead from European diseases.

However, Squanto’s tragedy was another example of Hartzler’s God provisions.

(The following excerpts from a colonist’s journal comes from Loewen’s Lies My Teacher Told Me.)

On the second day of arrival in Massachusetts:

Having their guns and hearing nobody, they entered the houses and found the people were gone.  The soldiers took some things but didn’t dare stay.  . . .  We had meant to had left some beads and other things in the houses as a sign of peace to show we meant to trade with them.  But we didn’t do it because we left in such haste.  But as soon as we can meet with the Indians, we will pay them well for what we took.

And, it gets better for what Hartzler’s God provided.

We marched to the place we called Cornhill, where we had found the corn before.  At another place we had seen before, we dug and found some more corn, two or three baskets full, and a bag of beans. . . . In all we had about ten bushels, which will be enough for seed.  It was with God’s help that we found this corn, for how else could we have done it, without meeting some Indians who might trouble us

Only God’s help.  And, then consider this final provision from God.

The next morning, we found a place like a grave. We decided to dig it up.  We found first a mat, and under that a fine bow. . . . We also found bowls, trays, dishes, and things like that.  We took several of the prettiest things to carry away with us, and covered the body up again.

Like a grave? Is this one more example of God knowing how to help His followers?

Hartzler acknowledges that this is the 150th anniversary of Lincoln’s proclamation on Thanksgiving.  She writes:

We also learned that the first Thanksgiving recognized by the U.S. government came during the Civil War when President Lincoln issued a proclamation in October of 1863, reminding all of us that our nation’s many blessings “should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and voice by the whole American people.”

In 1863, the invocation of the “whole American people” is important during a civil war.  However, Hartzler doesn’t provide any sense of what our nation’s many blessings are.  Here is the passage before Hartzler’s excerpt.

The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom. No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People.

Is it really embarrassing to note that the Union was winning and the country was expanding despite the horrendous nature of the war?  

There is much to be thankful for, but we should not be thankful for a member of Congress who misrepresents history.

“…So next Thanksgiving, when you’re sitting at the, at the dinner table and some of your family’s not there because they’re at work this is why…”

Previously:

Black Friday labor demonstration in Roeland Park, Kansas (November 23, 2012)

For every season, spin, spin, spin… (November 24, 2012)

Does anyone think this will get anywhere?:

FIRST REGULAR SESSION

HOUSE BILL NO. 37

97TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

INTRODUCED BY REPRESENTATIVES ROORDA (Sponsor), AND COLONA (Co-sponsor).

0176L.02I                 D. ADAM CRUMBLISS, Chief Clerk

AN ACT

To amend chapter 407, RSMo, by adding thereto one new section relating to retailer hours on Thanksgiving Day.

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the state of Missouri, as follows:

           Section A. Chapter 407, RSMo, is amended by adding thereto one new section, to be known as section 407.1600, to read as follows:

           407.1600. This section shall be known and may be cited as the “Thanksgiving Family Protection Act”. Retailers in this state shall be closed during the hours of 12:00 a.m. to 11:59 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day. This section shall not apply to restaurants or retailers whose primary business is motor fuel sales or pharmaceutical sales.

Don’t hold your breath. Besides, you can always eat the leftovers for a few few days after.

“…So next Thanksgiving, when you’re sitting at the, at the dinner table and some of your family’s not there because they’re at work this is why…”

A Black Friday labor demonstration at the parking lot entrance of the Walmart store in Roeland Park, Kansas.

Starting at noon today approximately one hundred people, a mix of union members, young people, and older activists, demonstrated in front of the Walmart store in Roeland Park, Kansas, protesting the Thanksgiving evening opening and other worker issues. The union members, identifiable by the logos on their clothing, included Teamsters, Communications Workers of America, United Auto Workers, and Carpenters/Joiners.

Mike Frommer, one of the organizers, spoke with the media:

Mike Frommer: …Living wage, full time employment, uh, and most of all, protection from retaliation, to be able to say these things without somebody saying, hey, you know, you’re gonna lose your job if you’re talking like that.

[….]

Question: There was a group at Independence [Missouri], at the Walmart. Is there another group, or do you know?

Mike Frommer: Uh, this is, you know, this is a, uh, it’s an online thing.

Question: Okay.

Mike Frommer: Any individual group can go online, pick out a demonstration that they want to attend, and, and just kind of do their own thing.

Question: It’s not a real organized, just for like [crosstalk][inaudible] here, if you want to show up.

Mike Frommer: It’s, yeah, you can do, you can do it anywhere, you know, any group, we’ve had people that have gone out strike in, in places like Oklahoma City where the workers just walked out. They contacted no one. They just did it by using the web site.

Question: Have any Walmart workers walked out today [crosstalk] that are in this group?

Mike Frommer: At this store? Not at this store.

Question: Okay.

Mike Frommer: But we just chose this store, just for, for solidarity.

[….]

Question: And is it just about Walmart, or is it other retailers that?

Mike Frommer: Well, I, I think Walmart sets the standard. Walmart set the standard to open on Thanksgiving night. Sears, Kmart, everybody else followed suit. When Walmart does it everybody else does it. So next Thanksgiving, when you’re sitting at the, at the dinner table and some of your family’s not there because they’re at work this is why.

[….]

The demonstration press release:

For release Nov. 23, 2012        

Contacts: Judy Ancel, KC Jobs with Justice [….]

Mike Frommer, UFCW [….]

Santino Scalici, autoworker and UAW member [….]

Local Citizens Join Nationwide Black Friday Protest Against Walmart

A group of local citizens and working people will gather outside the Walmart Store at 5150 Roe Blvd, Roeland Park, KS at noon on Black Friday, Nov. 23rd. They come together to stand with retail and warehouse workers who will be striking and demanding respect and their rights from Walmart on this the busiest shopping day of the year.

Starting last summer, workers all along Walmart’s production chain began the first-ever strikes against the company. Many have joined OUR WALMART, a mutual aid organization of Walmart workers. A number as a result are now facing retaliation by Walmart.

Friday’s rally is organized by Kansas City area working people, including a number of union members, and Kansas City Jobs with Justice, who are concerned about the effects of Walmart’s low wages and poor treatment of its associates on all workers and our communities. They object to retaliation against workers who are protesting bad conditions and harassment on the job. They are dismayed by Walmart’s discrimination against women workers and people of color, wages that average $8.81 an hour, unaffordable benefits, and shifting of costs onto taxpayers. The Missouri Department of Social Services reported last year that 10,028 Walmart employees and their families enrolled in Missouri’s Medicaid program- MO HealthNet, and its well-known that many Walmart Associates qualify for food stamps.

Walmart’s leadership in driving down standards can be seen in the progressive erosion of their workers’ Thanksgiving holiday in the last few years, which has now spread to their competitors. Black Friday has become Black Thursday eliminating one of the few times all year when families have a common holiday and can get together.

Santino Scalici, an autoworker and one of the organizers of Friday’s rally said, “We want Walmart workers to know that when Walmart retaliates against workers who stand up for their rights and dignity, we will be there to support them.  It’s time we support Walmart workers in their legal right to a democratic voice in the decisions that affect their lives.”

For more information about Walmart worker organizing and the company, visit http://www.makingchangeatwalmart.org and http://www.forrespect.org.

—end—

[emphasis in original]

Pickets along Roe Boulevard in Roeland Park, Kansas.

Three Kansas City area television stations had crews covering the demonstration. There was at least one (apparent) print reporter interviewing people at the demonstration.

From what we heard in the crowd individuals entered a store in Independence, Missouri earlier in the day and passed out leaflets. They were told to leave.