Thanksgiving 2022
Winston, come into the dining room, it’s time to eat,” Julia yelled to her husband. “In a minute, honey, it’s a tie score,” he answered. Actually Winston wasn’t very interested in the traditional holiday football game between Detroit and Washington. Ever since the government passed the Civility in Sports Statute of 2017, outlawing tackle football for its “unseemly violence” and the “bad example it sets for the rest of the world”,Winston was far less of a football fan than he used to be. Two-hand touch wasn’t nearly as exciting.
Yet it wasn’t the game that Winston was uninterested in. It was more the thought of eating another Tofu Turkey. Even though it was the best type of Veggie Meat available after the government revised the American Anti-Obesity Act of 2018, adding fowl to the list of federally-forbidden foods, (which already included potatoes, cranberry sauce, and mincemeat pie), it wasn’t anything like real turkey.
And that was the year they took all the guns, since “hunting” was officially outlawed under the same act, so there was no need to have any guns. The NRA was disbanded as a terrorist organization, and their entire membership list was added to the terrorist watch list, put on GPS monitoring and most lost their jobs, as they were restricted to no more than 2 miles of travel from home. Winston absently rubbed his ankle, remembering those two years until he ‘proved’ he was safe.
And ever since the government officially changed the name of “Thanksgiving Day” to “A National Day of Atonement” in 2020, to officially acknowledge the Pilgrims’ historically brutal treatment of Native Americans, the holiday had lost a lot of its luster. Eating in the dining room was also a bit daunting. The unearthly gleam of government-mandated fluorescent light bulbs made the Tofu Turkey look even weirder than it actually was, and the room was always cold.
Ever since Congress passed the Power Conservation Act of 2016, mandating all thermostats – which were monitored and controlled by the electric company – be kept at 68 degrees, every room on the north side of the house was barely tolerable throughout the entire winter.
Still, it was good getting together with family. Or at least most of the family. Winston missed his mother, who passed on in October, when she had used up her legal allotment of life-saving medical treatment. He had had many heated conversations with the Regional Health Consortium, spawned when the private insurance market finally went bankrupt, and everyone was forced into the government health care program. And though he demanded she be kept on her treatment, it was a futile effort. “The RHC’s resources are limited”, explained the government bureaucrat Winston spoke with on the phone. “Your mother received all the benefits to which she was entitled. I’m sorry for your loss.”
Ed couldn’t make it either. He had forgotten to plug in his electric car last night, the only kind available after the Anti-Fossil Fuel Bill of 2021 outlawed the use of the combustion engines – for everyone but government officials. The fifty mile round trip was about ten miles too far, and Ed didn’t want to spend a frosty night on the road somewhere between here and there.
Thankfully, Winston’s brother, John, and his wife were flying in. Winston made sure that the dining room chairs had extra cushions for the occasion. No one complained more than John about the pain of sitting down so soon after the government-mandated cavity searches at airports, which severely aggravated his hemorrhoids. Ever since a terrorist successfully smuggled a cavity bomb onto a jetliner, the TSA told Americans the added “inconvenience” was an “absolute necessity” in order to stay “one step ahead of the terrorists.”
Winston’s own body had grown accustomed to such probing ever since the government expanded their scope to just about anywhere a crowd gathered, via Anti-Profiling Act of 2022. That law made it a crime to single out any group or individual for “unequal scrutiny,” even when probable cause was involved. Thus, cavity searches at malls, train stations, bus depots, etc., etc., had become almost routine. Almost.
The Supreme Court is reviewing the statute, but most Americans expect a Court composed of six progressives and three conservatives to leave the law intact. “A living Constitution is extremely flexible”, said the Court’s eldest member, Elena Kagan. ” Europe has had laws like this one for years. We should learn from their example”, she added.
Winston’s thoughts turned to his own children. He got along fairly well with his 12-year-old daughter, Brittany, mostly because she ignored him. Winston had long ago surrendered to the idea that she could text anyone at any time, even during Atonement Dinner. Their only real confrontation had occurred when he limited her to 50,000 texts a month, explaining that was all he could afford. She whined for a week, but got over it.
His 16-year-old son, Jason, was another matter altogether. Perhaps it was the constant bombarding he got in public school that global warming, the bird flu, terrorism, or any of a number of other calamities were “just around the corner”, but Jason had developed a kind of nihilistic attitude that ranged between simmering surliness and outright hostility. It didn’t help that Jason had reported his father to the police for smoking a cigarette in the house, an act made criminal by the Smoking Control Statute of 2018, which outlawed smoking anywhere within 500 feet of another human being. Winston paid the $5,000 fine, which might have been considered excessive before the American dollar became virtually
worthless as a result of QE13.
The latest round of quantitative easing the federal government initiated was, once again, to “spur economic growth.” This time, they promised to push unemployment below its years-long rate of 18%, but Winston was not particularly hopeful.
Yet the family had a lot for which to be thankful, Winston thought, before remembering it was a Day of Atonement. At least, he had his memories. He felt a twinge of sadness when he realized his children would never know what life was like in the Good Old Days, long before government promises to make life “fair for everyone” realized their full potential.
Hearing the roar of a big Detroit V8, riding in a convertible, going to the range for friendly competition, actually LISTENING to one’s parents, cooking a real steak on a grill; oh man, now all they get is what the government ‘lets’ them do.
Winston, like so many of his fellow Americans, never realized how much things could change when they didn’t happen all at once, but little by little, so people could get used to them. He wondered what might have happened if the public had stood up while there was still time, maybe back around 2011, when all the real nonsense began. “Maybe we wouldn’t be where we are today if we’d just said ‘enough is enough’ when we had the chance,” he thought. Maybe so, Winston. Maybe so.
Three words: “Oh, HELL NO!”
There are enough patriots still alive to prevent this.
For now.
This will all be attempted by “presidential decree”.
What Newbius said.
I’m afraid our country is headed this way. I am going to repost this. Hopefully, we as still ‘free’ people can keep this from happening.
The name Winston has shades of 1984.
Highly disturbing, scarily plausible.
Ya know, the older ones of us have less to lose if the gubmint thinks it could shove something like that down our throats.
Ditto, Newbius.
Yep. What they said.
D:
Newbuis/PH/Crucis/Rev.- Agreed, for now…
North- I’m afraid so, or by “regulation”…
Linda- Feel free to!
North- You Noticed 🙂
Dirk- Ain’t it though…
Laura- It’s YOUR generation that has to step up…
oldNFO: What do you mean, YOUR Generation? I sure ain’t giving up, just changing Tactics. Why in heck do you think I’m hauling a 1919 Browning up to Jay’s next weekend? You and I need to get some time firing from the Barricade Prone and knock off some rust, so those youngin’s can skeddadle and carry on the Good Fight, Just in Case. Oh, and don’t forget the Folgers. ; )
Sounds like the game plan for Obama’s second term….or Romney’s first….
….wonder how many of us will still be alive to see how bad it finally gets?…..
what seeker_two said!
I really hope that we are beginning to see people getting elected this past election and the coming one, that will begin the process of cleaning out this huge nest of vipers we have in place now.
The thing that amazes me is when they finally kill off all the companies/rich people/actual taxpayers, where the hell are they going to get the resources to continue to appease their constituents? Where will the money come from?
I just keep right on reloading a few hundred rounds a week and buying bags of silver coins and restocking the larder and the armory! I and my family WILL NOT willingly give in too these traitorous bastards. Charlton Heston’s words about cold dead hands comes to mind very often!
I am really getting scared now more than ever!
Man, I’d love it if my generation would step up. Problem is, the majority of my fellow Xers are pretty much fed up with everything. Really, it’s up to the Millennials. There are more of them than there are of us.
That is not funny! It has already started. CAFE standards for cars, how much water you can flush in your toilet, what light bulb you can buy, what you can and cannot throw away, sheesh! I will stop now, it really makes me mad!
Breathe..
Les- Good point 🙁
Seeker/Andy- I have NO idea
Ev- I hear ya… I truly do…
Laura- Now you’re REALLY scaring me!
Keads- Point taken…
You’re scared? I’ve gotta live with’em longer than you do. I’m terrified.
…and Chris wants a kid. I dread the idea of bringing a kid into that world.
Let them come, I’ll go down fighting.
Laura- Good point… Re kids, THAT is a personal decision, but I’d definitely think long and hard…
Instinct- Yep…
What you have posted is scary, I unfortunately hope doesn’t happen. I am afraid that the average American is clueless, as long as they are more concerned about enertainment tonight than what actually can affect them, it will not change. When we have 50% of the populace that looks to the government for guidance and support, I have fear for our republic.
Can’t laugh. Too plausible.
yes, kids are a personal decision (and he’s the only guy who’s got me seriously reconsidering my OMG NO KIDS EVAR life plan), but i just can’t…i can’t imagine putting them through the school system, among other things. our country’s screwed up.
My 86 year old Mother says, “I’m glad I’m old”.
But I hate the world my 28 year old son will have to live in. Still, he’s been educated by several folks that have given him eyes that see…
He’s already started gathering the tools he’ll need to survive.
When do we start shooting at one another?
Soon, if we don’t make the drastic changes we seem too addicted to spending to make.
If you have your head in the sand, take it out.
It’s not too late to start your “gathering”.
all too possible …. unfortunately …
Scary ain’t it? But the oblunder and his multitude of liars, thieves and out and out commie scumbags want this to happen.
Wont’ be long until the Obama Administration creates an Office of Handicapper General, too. Gotta all be equally unable, you know.
MrG- I’ve heard 51% pay NO taxes now…
Jenn- Yeah, sigh…
Laura- Good point!
GB- Agreed, my daughters are 31 and 29… and THEY are scared!!!
Julie- Yep
ORPO- Yes it is… sigh
Murph- Not no but HELL no…