Stay Open on Thanksgiving, Please!

I'm working from home on Thanksgiving, and I'll be doing it from a local coffee shop that's staying open because I live in the Boston area. This means I can't afford to rent my own apartment and have a roommate who has her family coming over for Thanksgiving. Rather than hide in my room in my pajamas afraid to be forced to eat with them if I dare walk out to pee or grab a sandwich for lunch, I'm going to a local coffee shop.

I can't get back to my hometown for Thanksgiving, and even if I did go back, my mother and grandmother have passed away. My sister goes to her husband's mother's house for holidays, so I'd drive down in the middle of the night, eat a bird at a stranger's house, and then drive home so I can get back to the office and work on Friday. My office is open Friday, but I'm working Thursday because I had an invite for post-Thanksgiving hanging outs on Friday :-)

There are a lot of companies getting flack for being open on Thanksgiving, but being open on Thanksgiving isn't necessarily a bad thing. If fat Aunt Martha drove three hours to get here and you immediately dumped a pot of coffee on her outfit, she can run to Sears for a new blouse (since nobody else's clothes are large enough for her). When you realize you forgot to buy cranberry sauce you can send one of the kids out for the cranberry sauce that comes out of a can. While they're at the store, you'll probably text them to pick up extra stuffing, some celery, and butter without salt (because you forgot that Grandpa's heart problems require a low salt meal).

All the screaming about how people shouldn't have to work on Thanksgiving and stores should be closed pisses me off. Here's some of the reasons why:

1. It assumes that everybody has somewhere to go on Thanksgiving. Some people might live far away from family and be unable to pay travel expenses to go visit. Perhaps they no longer have family to spend Thanksgiving with because of death, divorce, estrangement, or something else.

2. Not everybody wants to go to see their family on Thanksgiving There are websites and self-help books dedicated to helping people survive Thanksgiving with family. Liquor stores are open on Thanksgiving because so many people "need" alcohol to deal with their family for the day.

Also, some people have dietary restrictions their families refuse to respect. So when they go for the "delightful holiday," they end up sick because Cousin Jack swore the green bean casserole was meat free but forgot that the bacon fat it was cooked in was meaty or mom promised to use skim milk in the potatoes so the fat won't hurt your gallbladder but didn't think about how much fat is in butter. So then they're stuck in the bathroom whimpering in a cramped heap of pain why Aunt Jane screams at them to get outta there because she needs to piss out all the wine she needed to choke down the turkey because Uncle Ralph overcooked the bird. Again.

3. "But what about their friends," you may ask. What about them? Huge swathes of the American population have been raised on the idea that nobody should be left alone for Thanksgiving. These trained Americans force loners to spend Thanksgiving with them and their families - sometimes so they don't have to be alone with the family they hate. The poor loner, who was looking forward to a quiet day of R&R is then forced to sit on a broken folding chair whil eating off a chipped plate because the host hadn't expected an extra guest. The loner gets to chit chat with 30 strangers who have a lifetime of shared experiences and private jokes that they bandy about throughout the day.

The Golden Rule stinks, and I'm tired of hearing it. "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you?" You don't want to be alone on Thanksgiving, so your friend who was looking forward to catching up on sleep is forced to go to your house? Coercion isn't friendly. Maybe folks should instead treat people as they wish to be treated.

4. Not everybody thinks they have something to celebrate on Thanksgiving. Another name for Thanksgiving is Day of Mourning.

The plaque at Plymouth Rock; the text is on the left.

"Since 1970, Native Americans have gathered at noon on Cole's Hill in Plymouth to commemorate a National Day of Mourning on the US Thanksgiving holiday. Many Native Americans do not celebrate the arrival of the Pilgrims and other European settlers. To them, Thanksgiving Day is a reminder of the genocide of millions of their people, the theft of their lands, and the relentless assault on their culture. Participants in a National Day of Mourning honor Native ancestors and the struggles of Native peoples to survive today. It is a day of remembrance and spiritual connection as well as a protest of the racism and oppression which Native Americans continue to experience."  

When I studied Thanksgiving in school the Pilgrims had names, but the Native Americans were faceless stereotypes with feathers on their head. We didn't talk about the war European nations were already waging against Native Americans up and down the coast. I don't know what kids are learning in school these days, but there are a fair number of adults who think that we shouldn't worry about any of that because "Thanksgiving is about family and giving thanks for what we have!" and that the rest is ancient history. The rest is not ancient history. Here's a poster from the National Museum of the American Indian that gives one Native American perspective.

5. Some people like to work on holidays! Most people make time and a half when they take a holiday shift. Folks who do work Thanksgiving not only get extra money, but if they have families who are home celebrating, they get off work, go to see family, get comforted for have been "forced" to work, and enjoy all the leftovers without having to hear about Uncle Todd's colon problems while eating a meal covered in gravy. 

6. People get so caught up in trying to make sure that Thanksgiving is perfect that they end up exhausted. They don't get a chance to enjoy the holiday because they're too busy trying to make sweet potato mousse - you know, the one Martha Stewart made for Willard Scott. If you don't get that cultural reference then you've missed out on viewing my favorite Thanksgiving show. Here's a link to it on youtube. 

7. This belief that people shouldn't have to work on holidays forgets that there are career paths that don't allow people to take off for the holidays. If every single person stayed home from work on a holiday, the country would fall apart. We talk about how it's unfair that folks have to work retail on Thanksgiving and forget that there are nurses and doctors, soldiers, cops, utility workers, direct service personnel, and so many other people out there working hard everyday to make sure the country keeps on moving while a bunch of folks gorge themselves on a sad bird who was bred to eat too much and die early.

Facebook is filled with posts about how we need to honor our police officers, memes about how nurses are an asset, and complaints about what happens when the power goes out or a water main breaks. Well, these people are out there keeping us safe and also making sure there's enough electricity for you to to watch the Macy's Parade uninterrupted.

Saying that people shouldn't have to work at a store on Thanksgiving implies that they're worth more than the people who keep us safe every single day! It is based on an assumption that everybody wants to stay home on Thanksgiving and that you are superior to the big, mean company heads who decided that somebody's got to sell extra cans of gravy to the masses and sales priced tvs to folks who want to watch football.