It's time to give thanks.
Enough with the things we hate: the recession and mindless campaign commercials and cash-strapped schools and unceasing cries to blindly cut taxes and congressional sex scandals. (Actually, I'm very grateful for congressional sex scandals.)
As we prepare for the holiday season, I feel grateful.
I'm grateful to have a job in journalism in a year where hundreds of my friends, colleagues and former students across Florida have been laid off from their journalism positions.
I'm grateful to continue to have a platform to write about issues that matter, like our suburban sprawl and need for better transportation. A year ago, I wrote that we needed to "Fix it now," citing 10 problems our community and state faces. We're not much closer to solving them today.
I'm grateful for people like Mariella Smith, Kelly Cornelius, George Nieman, Dee Layne and countless other civic activists in Hillsborough County who stood up for protecting our wetlands and never let up on Republican blowhard politicians. I'm grateful for their moral courage, even as Hillsborough commissioners demeaned their own Moral Courage Award by naming it after a late partisan ideologue.
I'm grateful that Kevin Beckner stepped forward into a race that very few thought he had a chance in (myself included) and stayed on-message about our need for fiscal planning and conciliation as he removed incumbent Commissioner Brian Blair from office. Beckner's swearing-in ceremony last week attracted an overflow crowd that astounded even the jaded employees who thought they had seen everything down at the County Center.
I'm grateful for the incredible traffic that Sarah Palin brought to my blog during the presidential campaign. I'm disgusted, however, that I have to resort to writing about such crazies to get traffic, when important civic issues and dialogue draw a fraction of the audience.
I'm grateful for Mayor Pam Iorio. I know, I've been critical of her on some issues, the lack of speed in embracing the green revolution, for starters. But Iorio is steadfast in her march to bring a rail transit plan to the ballot in 2010, despite the objections of some other leaders on the regional transportation board TBARTA who want a slower, larger approach. With the election of Beckner to the County Commission, she will likely have her opportunity to see a vote on this critical issue.
I'm grateful that voters in Hillsborough also saw the wisdom in approving up to $200 million in a special property tax to conserve property through the Environmental Lands Acquisition and Protection Program (ELAPP). We already own 44,000 acres of land that are being protected from development, and extending the program could double that.
I'm grateful to the members of the St. Petersburg City Council who didn't get blue Rayhawks and become total homers for the team, despite its incredible success this year. The council, after all, still must decide one day if it is in the taxpayers' best interests to help fund a new ballpark for the Rays, and it would be nice if they appeared at least somewhat objective in that task.
I'm grateful that Dan Ruth pissed on local politicians in his Tampa Tribune column for more than a decade. I'm disgusted that he got laid off without even being able to write a farewell column. Shame on Trib Editor Janet Coats.
I'm grateful I got to see a modern political version of Don Giovanni staged by the St. Petersburg Opera Company at The Palladium at St. Petersburg College this year. Mozart's compelling score was a nice accompaniment to the real-world campaigning that was going on.
I'm grateful to Google Reader for putting thousands of headlines in front of me at a glance, making me dizzy with news.
I'm grateful that we haven't blown up as a community over the giant Confederate flag that flies occasionally at the I-75/I-4 junction. I'm hopeful we can have a discussion as a community about what the flag means to different people and not just degenerate into the usual "it's racist vs. it's a symbol of Southern pride" thing.
I'm grateful for the WMNF Evening News, one hour of pure civic journalism that is unrivaled by any other newscast in the area, all done by host Mitch Perry and a cavalcade of volunteers and part-timers.
I'm grateful to all the people who try to make our community richer and more diverse, from the Saturday Morning Market in St. Petersburg to the Tampa Downtown Market on Fridays; from Anne Vela's funky-cool Café Hey to the civic involvement of Tre Amici in Ybor City; from the stogies at the Cigar Loft to my friend Don Barco's King Corona Cigar shop in Ybor, where you can spend the afternoon blogging on the free WiFi, smoking a Churchill and watching the world go by.
I'm grateful to be able to sit outside and drink a pint at Mad Dogs and Englishmen, just a five-minute walk from my house, where I always see old friends and remember just how great Tampa Bay can be.
I'm grateful — despite all the times I cursed it this year and wrote about its warts — to live in Tampa Bay.
This article appears in Nov 26 – Dec 2, 2008.