I Am Thankful (BY DANIELLE)

 It is Thanksgiving weekend once more. Once more the foliage is beautiful and our TPW
friends are amazing, loving, and special. While I am deeply grateful for my friends and
family, this year I am also grateful for something else. I am grateful for rage. Yes, rage.
At the end of banned book week, I am grateful for those whose rage and courage gets
them up in the morning. Whether it is to stand up in library and school board meetings
to fight against the forces that try to keep books from the hands of kids, or gets people
organized to work in food banks – and then rail at governments that think food banks
are a solution to poverty. I am grateful for the rage that gets kids to form banned book
clubs and picket the school board meetings. I am grateful for the dear friend who in
mourning for a cherished family member is enraged at cancer, the disease that took her
niece’s life. I am grateful for the rage that gets the scientists working to develop
vaccines and treatments for terrible diseases into their labs each day. I am grateful for
the rage that brings hundreds of protesters into the streets in cities in the U.S. where the
military is now patrolling those streets. If you can put on a chicken costume and stand
outside an ICE detention centre, your rage is admirable. It is autumn and the days grow
shorter. Dylan Thomas told us what we need to know. “Do not go gentle into that good
night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”