Thanksgiving in Devout America
#27 of Maverick Hotel side content
Just another in-universe report I made up, detailing the state of Thanksgiving Day in my dystopian world of Maverick Hotel. Enjoy yourselves!
NOTE: To avoid shitposting and political ranting in the comments, let's all just agree that you're reading this because a) you're looking for some entertainment b) you want to read a dystopian furry story or c) the most likely of reasons, you want to read something that'll make you feel like a romantic horndog. Let's all just have fun. Alright? Alright.
Thanksgiving; one of the most traditional holidays in the history of the United States, especially going into the Devout American age.
The traditional Thanksgiving Day dinner has exploded in popularity, as well as the popularity of sports being played in the morning and into the afternoon. Over the years, there has been a noticeable rise in university students practicing this holiday from the comfort of their colleges as well as families not even practicing the holiday, either due to the wider array of freedoms college provides or how financially straining the holiday is on families who rely on rations respectively. State-controlled media within the D.S.A. tends to not focus as much on this significant class divide, instead airing classic pre-Devout Thanksgiving specials before airing the annual parade held within New York City.
The first Revenant Party President David Farthing has a tradition of spending Thanksgiving dinner with the current Devout President, either by inviting them to the Farthing family's estate, or the Farthings themselves being invited to the White House in Washington, D.C. Whatever the case, such an occasion is honored to any other members of the Revenant Party who are included in the invitations. Multiple attempts to take advantage of an occasion have been made by Defiant cells, yet all unfortunately fail.
One of the other more notable Thanksgiving Day traditions added by the Devout government has been Presidential pardons, not just for turkeys, but for ten criminals within Devout America. On such an occasion, the Devout President will present a pardon to ten randomly selected prisoners on national television (after these prisoners have admitted to the crimes they were charged with), and those pardoned will be given the chance to renter civilian society without a criminal record. Federal crimes such as treason, dissent, espionage, counterfeiting, terrorism, and some forms of murder are the exception.
While the Thanksgiving pardon is seemingly benevolent, rumors persist that either a significant portion of the citizens pardoned are actors paid by the state, or that they are real, but disappear quickly from public life to avoid scrutiny of their crimes. Sometimes, the notoriety of their crimes being announced on television has prompted citizens to avoid interactions with the pardoned, lest they risked giving the government an excuse to arrest them as well.
One example is a middle-aged wolf/fox hybrid named George Stavisky. He found himself pardoned by the President in 2007 after defecting from Devout America's Covenant Guard and refusing direct orders to assist in a mass arrest of a college dormitory allegedly printing out pro-liberal pamphlets. Mr. Stavisky literally found himself free from federal prison yet committed suicide after living on Manhattan's streets for ten months because no landlords would lease an apartment to him, nor would businesses risk to hire him as an employee.
Regardless, Thanksgiving continues to be a well-celebrated holiday within the Devout States of America. As the Second American Civil War--protracted or not--continues to go on in the background of the nation, however, many families give thanks that their children will not possibly be forced to go to the Disputed Zone to die.