I can’t say I was truly inspired by Donald Trump’s Thanksgiving speech last night.
As he persuaded Americans to unify and go forward with “one voice” and “one heart” à la Abraham Lincoln, I couldn’t help but picture the Green Goblin, offering Spiderman one last chance to join his team before he would cause death and destruction.
The president-elect also continued to pedal a message about the dangers of those “inner cities”, something to swallow down with your Pumpkin Pie.
While Trump plans to destroy the planet - literally - president Obama managed to crack a few dad jokes yesterday at the annual pardoning of the turkeys, standing beside his cutest, smiley nephews while he did it.
“Yes we cran,” he told the crowd gathered by the White House kitchen garden.
When someone made a funny noise at the back - it may have been a turkey - he said, "Come on, it wasn’t that bad” and laughed. He also did a wonderful “I don’t think so” face, which will be treasured in the viral meme world for years to come.
As he giggled over the gravy train, the “fowel” Thanksgiving traffic and “leftovers” of his legacy, it reminded me of the need for us to be overwhelmingly positive in the face of dark times.
If Obama can still have a sense of humour, so can we.
The two white, fat turkeys - Tater and Tot - will be spared and sent to a University (I'd rather they were sent to a green field). Yet millions of Americans and people around the world will not be spared from the next four, if not eight, years of Trump.
I also doubt Trump will pardon the turkeys as easily as Obama did.
"The turkeys were mean to me," he will tweet next year. "They were mean and nasty. Time to die!"
Life is not a Spiderman movie, but we’re as close as ever to a villainous, narcissistic sociopath taking over the Land of the Free as we may ever be during our lifetimes. Plus, this fabulously dark and spitting column from Charles Blow about Donald Trump after his meeting at the New York Times has emboldened me.
We can weep, send angry tweets, protest, etc. But on the day of Thanksgiving, let us crack dad jokes and be merry.
