I am one of those who tend to bristle when someone becomes Pollyannaish and chirps how good things are. I often look down into a glass and see that it is half empty while some pronounce it half full. The difference is not in what is, but in what it is perceived to be.  Being pessimistic is not what I am all about.  However, I do think that hyperbole is practiced more than careful, judicious and sober reflection and slow the rush to bad judgment down. We suspend disbelief a lot.

There are more than two sides to every story and when someone tells you about how bad things are you can, in fact, point out that things could be worse. In the papers these days before the THANKSGIVING holiday, the emphasis is on the greatness of the democracy that our holiday celebrates.  Actually, it was a day of deliverance from hunger and the turn of the tide of bad things happening to newcomers to a wilderness that was quite unlike the lands from which they came.  I tend to think that non-Americans who were brought up on different systems appreciate what we have here much more intelligently than our home grown variety of in-bred, close-minded, over-fed and open to yahoos who sell us crack-brained religious nonsense. I remember a refugee from the Hungarian revolution against Communism who succinctly summed up the American myopic view of their own land, not seeing all the opportunity and possibilities available through the good fortune of a system that is currently being cut and pasted to fit the vision of those of “faith” but who confuse “true belief” with democracy.

It took a foreigner to point out looking on the bright side is good and we should be thankful for the genuine goodness’s that are available to those lucky enough to have been born here, to have arrived here or to have snuck in over, under or through the borders. One bright thing is that our democracy worked to elect someone a majority of the voters wanted.  There are checks and balances on the powers vested in his office and are incumbent on him as a public servant.  That is often forgotten. Our President is a salaried official who can be ousted by several methods if we cannot wait until his term in office is over.  One check that is very good is that our current President will be a lame duck for four more years and a lot can happen in that length of time. Look on the bright side. We know pretty much what Bush is and we can fight him every step of the way.

While I am looking on the bright side and am thankful for a great many things, I must include the fact that as every old order passes a new opportunity arises. The successes of the glass being half full crowd will seem less and less the great thing they proclaimed they were and the other crowd is going to exchange places with them out at some future time – and, we can wait and hurry it along.