A letter from Washington by Charles R. Larson

If you call an American a “turkey” or refer to some purchase (say a small appliance or anything mechanical) with the same word, you’ve used a derogatory term: the person is a loser, lacking in some basic quality; the item is defective or broken. 

Yet on Thanksgiving in the United States, most Americans celebrate this quintessential holiday by cooking and eating a turkey along with other traditional dishes. Thanksgiving 2009 (November 27th) appeared to combine both the festivities of the occasion and the negative aspects of a broken economy.  Worse, because of increasing poverty in the United States, a growing number of people who traditionally cook a turkey - considered affordable for most people - were without food or homeless on that day.


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