 Thankful For A Day Off At this time of year, when we hear words like "smothered," "drizzled," or "stacked," we're usually thinking of gravy, sauces, and piles of ham or turkey. This year, for many Americans, those adjectives may also apply in several other ways.
For millions of Americans on the East Coast, including near our office in Washington, DC, "drizzled" and "stacked" may refer to the weather and the traffic patterns, including a nasty early winter storm that will make holiday travel a mess. For some of our Republican friends, no matter how much better the HealthCare.gov website is getting, and how much enrollment is increasing, they'll still be dreaming of smothering the program to death in its sleep.
For millions of other Americans - including some of our own family members who either work in retail stores or service retail & restaurant establishments, the words "smothered" and "stacked" refer to how they feel economically, and how they think of the bills they have back home. You can even add "chained" to that list, as so many Americans working low-level hourly jobs worry - now more than ever - that they could lose their jobs at any time.
According to a recent Washington Post-Miller Center poll, more than 60% of working Americans worry about losing their jobs right now, with nearly one-third saying they worry about it "a lot" these days.
That explains, in part, why so many Americans this Thanksgiving will be grudgingly putting on their work clothes and trudging off to work, while their families, friends and neighbors sit down next to empty chairs at the Thanksgiving dinner table... |
