Are you able to be thankful and grateful on this Thanksgiving?

Basketball superstar LeBron James and former ESPN broadcaster Jemele Hill have teamed up for a Showtime special that underscores what a mixed bag this Thanksgiving seems to be.

On one hand, as always, we should be thankful and grateful for what we have in our lives that brings happiness and comfort. On the other hand, it is one of the more troubling times I can ever remember.

The special, which is a riveting 60 minutes, is titled “Shut Up and Dribble,” which comes from the truly regrettable remark by Fox News commentator Laura Ingram, who used it to end her criticism of James for speaking out on escalating racial issues in this country.

The show will certainly infuriate conservatives, because its slant is of the overt racism that has grown since the election of Donald Trump. But while James claims that repressed racism has been given a new license by Trump, the special clearly depicts how acts of domestic terror have increased dramatically in the last two years.

From the NBA’s lifetime ban of racist Donald Sterling, the former owner of the LA Clippers, to the National Anthem protest initiated by Colin Kaepernick and politicized by Trump, it raised my heart beat and pulse as I watched it. It left me both thankful and scared.

As a more liberal and affluent place to live than most, Chapel Hill and Carrboro can be insulated from the turmoil but also deeply bothered by it, depending on how much cable news you watch.

But even if you stay away from the tube and current event websites, the concern over where we are as a United States of America floats above like a stomach ache below. And when you choose to watch a controversial special, as I did last night, being unaffected and fully relaxed is difficult.

While we may be thankful for the happiness and abundance in our lives, it’s hard not to include thoughts and prayers for our children and their children in the years to come. Do have a Happy Thanksgiving.

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