DEAR ABBY: Thanksgiving will be here soon, and I hope you will help me spread a timely message.
Each year the media cheapens the holiday by referring to it as Turkey Day instead of Thanksgiving. Please remind your readers that the name Turkey Day is both inaccurate and inappropriate. While I think turkeys are charming and entertaining, our family does not gather on the fourth Thursday of November to celebrate the intelligence or majesty of these remarkable birds. Instead, we try to carry on the tradition of the Pilgrims who were thankful for their bounteous blessings after surviving their first winter in the New World.
I believe the expression "Happy Turkey Day" contributes to the dumbing down of America, and that we are falling further and further away from the real meaning behind the holiday with each passing year.
Please help to remind your readers to use the correct name for this important holiday, and let's all have a Happy Thanksgiving. Thanks for the opportunity to vent. -- MARK M. IN TAMPA, FLA.
DEAR MARK M.: I agree that it's important not to forget the true meaning of our national holidays. But perhaps the reason so many members of the media -- and others -- refer to Thanksgiving as "turkey day" is because it's the time we allow ourselves to "gobble, gobble, gobble."