Garnering Insight: A time for thanks

SKYE POURNAZARI/THE FORUM
Garnering Insight: A time for thanks

I wanted to start out this column with a little humor, as this may be one of the funniest Thanksgiving lines ever on television. If you want a good laugh and you aren’t a card-carrying member of PETA, check out the clip online.

Now that we’ve had a little laugh together, let’s talk turkey. Not the actual tasty bird, but a little about what I’m thankful for this year.

First and foremost, I’m thankful for my family. My wife in particular who tolerates a lot of my nonsense. Not all of it, mind you, but a good bit of it. I’m thankful for my two sons and all of the fun they have at my expense which I wouldn’t trade for the world.

I’m also thankful for my parents, who have loved and supported me in every stage of my life though they may not have always agreed with my choices. Believe it or not I am also thankful for my in-laws. No, truly, I really am.

Also, dear readers, I am very thankful for you and the trust you place in the Maryville Forum and Grant City Times-Tribune each and every week to provide you with fact-based, in-person reporting of the stories, names, faces and places that matter the most to you.

I am extremely thankful to my team here at the Maryville Forum, Grant City Times-Tribune and The Post, and I hope you are too. From reporting news and sports, to creating meaningful advertisements for our business partners. Those business partners are a key part of what we do at the newspaper, and we would not be able to bring our best to you each week without their support.

I am also thankful to be living in a country with so many freedoms, particularly the First Amendment — without it, I wouldn’t be able to write this column and you certainly couldn’t read it without some severe government censorship.

To those who stand on the front lines of freedom and the thin blue line and all first responders, I am especially thankful for you men and women who keep us safe.

Now to flip the table a little bit, I want to end this column with a brief game of “Thanks, but no thanks.”

Thanks, but no thanks for divisive policies on both sides of the political spectrum.

Thanks, but no thanks to millionaire athletes and celebrities telling me how I should vote and whom to vote for or not vote for.

Thanks, but no thanks to sports teams crying poor and needing public money to finance their operations.

Thanks, but no thanks to tanking sports teams.

Thanks, but no thanks to politicians who would rather hear themselves talk than focus on passing legislation.

Thanks, but no thanks to agendas being shoved down people’s throats.

I could go on longer, but you get the point and I don’t want to get full on hot air as I prepare to demolish me some turkey with all the fixings and a glass or two of wine and some fine bourbon over the next week or so of Thanksgiving celebrations.

So once again thank you for reading my columns this year and hopefully some of you are thankful for some of the words I have written in this space over the last year. Also one quick public service announcement — no matter how large a turkey’s wings are turkey’s can’t fly.

Ken Garner is the owner and publisher of The Maryville Forum and The Post.