Opinion – ’Tis the season of unaffordability, which makes Thanksgiving as important as ever

My parents were about to celebrate their first Thanksgiving and my mom was getting ready when I decided to pop out a week early. Instead of Thanksgiving dinner, my mom had to go give birth.  Of course, Thanksgiving became a favorite holiday for my mom just for that reason. Like many immigrant parents, the day is one to give thanks for the fact that they made it here and were able to thrive in this country.

But like everything else in this country, Thanksgiving is now a political mess that seems to bring out an airing of grievances instead of a giving of thanks. As kids, we all learned the pseudo-history of the first Thanksgiving. We may have even dressed up like Pilgrims or Indians and reenacted the day at school with a potluck cooked up by our moms. We created turkey drawings using our hands and bragged about which mother or grandmother made the best meal (mine).

Of course, we grew older and realized that the first Thanksgiving didn’t go the way we were taught and that America is a complicated place. As an Indian American, I had a lot of sympathy for American Indians but also loved that there was a day where you could just hang out with family, eat and watch football. And for many of us, there is a similar feeling. It’s supposed to be a day where you just hang out and give thanks.

But it really isn’t that anymore. People have come to dread the holiday for many reasons. Some people hate traveling (don’t blame them). Some hate how some of their family members have become warped by social media, cable news and podcast bros. Some can’t stand the relative that came back after a semester at college shaming everyone after learning something in a 101 course.

Of course, politics came into play and politicians would posture and cry about how we aren’t paying enough attention to Pilgrims, how the holiday isn’t what it used to be, how the other party ruined it with their policies, and how Thanksgiving (and life) would be better if you voted for them. Here’s the thing. We do this because whether we want to admit it or not, we really didn’t have it that bad as a country. We had the privilege of complaining because even in tough times, it wasn’t as tough for us as it was in other places or for other people. Even the poor and less fortunate could get food thanks to the generosity of others, charities, churches, or government programs.

That’s not the case anymore. This is a year where Americans are going to be in want and there might not be anyone to help. We have seen rising prices, food programs cut, churches become less charitable, and people tightening their belts. The president is bragging about a Walmart meal being cheaper, omitting that it is cheaper because it has less food in it. The Wall Street Journal told readers that this year’s meal could actually be cheaper — if they bought less food and went discount shopping. Inflation, tariffs, layoffs, corporate greed, political malfeasance, and a lack of return on things you spend money on has put many of us in bad shape.

But that is where Thanksgiving has found its place. Not in the good times, but in the bad. The fact is that the Pilgrims celebrated that they still were around to celebrate after a very harsh year in a new land. Early Americans made it through a harvest, grew their families and had stability in a rough frontier. During the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln established Thanksgiving as a national holiday because he wanted Americans to be unified as we suffered immensely trying to keep this country whole and rid it of the scourge of slavery. Franklin Delano Roosevelt moved Thanksgiving up, to give Americans more time to save and shop for Christmas during the Depression.

Many Americans are now struggling to survive in the land of milk and honey because those are just too expensive now. Many are having difficulty finding opportunity in the land of opportunity. Some are worried about being split up by immigration raids. Some families have been split by politicians’ hate. It’s hard right now.

And the perfect time to sit down with your loved ones and give thanks. The lessons of Thanksgiving aren’t just to give thanks for what you have but give thanks for those who will help you get through those tough times, and those tough times yet to come.

Jos Joseph is a recipient of the Military Reporters and Editors award for Best Commentary/Opinion. A graduate of Harvard and Ohio State University, he is a Marine veteran who served in Iraq. He currently lives in Anaheim, Calif. Subscribe to his Substack.

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