Pat, I can tell you of the people I have met from this message board none are going to spew insults at you. Dan and Peter are a couple of teddy bears. So, seriously, no worries there. Sure, we can go back and forth about politics...that's supposed to be one of the things that makes America great, because it seems that the people that come here care, quite a bit, what happens to the world. 

When I ask you questions about the political stuff, it is because I am trying to understand a point of view that is outside of my own. I believe this is the same for everybody here. Call me whatever you want, a liberal, a nut, a socialist...I know that was the vogue slur this year...I don't care. If I say it I'll own it. 

For the record, I just think of myself as a humanist and I honestly don't care about political parties nor politicians. I don't love any of them nor do I feel a sense of loyalty to them nor their parties. I think of them just as public servants that have a job we are paying them to do and they damn well better do it. Sadly, thanks to Mitch McConnell they mostly do nothing because he kills everything except things that benefit the most wealthy in this nation. He, in my view, represents all that is wrong and broken about government.

For years I hosted Thanksgiving dinners at my house for family, friends, and whomever wanted to come. The house would be filled with food, music, guitar playing, singing, laughing, talking, and political banter (but my family are all of the same stripe in this area so no fights or insults). This year on Thanksgiving, Julia and I will, like probably many others, just be staying home and one woman we know will come by for dinner because her parents have passed and her sister lives in another country. I like to cook so we'll have a good dinner, there will be lots of calls and facetime and wishes sent over electronic devices. Some champagne to toast Trump's loss (our friend Vixen is insisting on this), and I will either pass out early or spend the quiet night writing something. It will, I think, be a bit sad for me. This has always been my favorite holiday during my life but this year, I look forward to New Years Eve, because while it won't radically change anything like probably many, many people I would like to put 2020 in the rearview mirror and look forward with all the hope I can muster to better things in the future.

Hopefully, you and your family enjoy yourselves, Pat.