The entry below is being cross posted from Marjorie Arons-Barron’s own blog.

This will not be a Norman Rockwell Thanksgiving. As the coronavirus rampages, in an abundance of caution, Thursday will be solely for my husband and me. If the weather obliges, (light rain is forecast), we can meet up with relatives for a walk. And the dreaded but essential Zoom is always available, and we’ll probably use it in some way.

Amidst the sense of disappointment, I am determined to focus on the positive. Right now, everyone in my family is well, hunkering down in different locations, but remaining safe.

I am hopeful that the nightmare of the post-election Trump scattershot viciousness toward the incoming administration and our national security will soon run out of steam. But even though the outgoing President, having had close to three dozen lawsuits rejected as lacking evidence, continues seeking to get his election determined by “his” U.S. Supreme Court, I’m thankful we still have judges who can make apolitical calls. Election officials from both parties have proven their mettle by carrying out their responsibilities in defense of the democratic process. We may yet recover from this authoritarian horror.

Despite every Trump effort to delegitimize the outcome of the election, Joe Biden won in the electoral college by 306 electoral votes, which, when Trump got that many in 2016, he called “a landslide.” (The term is incorrect in both elections, but 306 is a very solid win.) Biden’s percentage of the popular vote exceeded those of Richard Nixon in 1968, Jimmy Carter in 1976, Ronald Reagan in 1980, Bill Clinton in 1992 and 1996, and George W. Bush in 2000.

I am reassured by the President-elect’s wise, thoughtful, resolute and calm demeanor. He has assembled an impressive COVID-19 task force, and, in anticipation of tomorrow’s formal cabinet announcement, he has named highly accomplished careers professionals to foreign policy and national security positions.

I’m also thankful for the news media (and not because I was one of them for decades) because so many have uncovered and reported on the Trump administration fairly and objectively, tallied his thousands of lies, and stuck with the pursuit of facts and science, something with which Donald Trump has but a casual relationship. I’m even grateful that the straight news division of Fox News (not, emphatically, its nighttime bloviators) has covered these post-election shenanigans with an even hand, defying the President by referring to Joe Biden as the President-elect and annotating the lack of evidence behind Trump’s voter fraud claims.

I’m grateful for all my readers in the United States and abroad – from the blog itself, to its postings on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter as well as in assorted community newspapers online – who enter into dialogue with me, whether they agree with me or not. We learn from each other.

I recently extended an invitation to an in-person Thanksgiving dinner to my dearly loved family and some friends. I suggested we have our dinner in July or August or whenever the COVID-19 vaccine gets into broad distribution. Who said Thanksgiving must be celebrated in November?