With the big lug still moping in the White House when he’s not playing golf at his courses in New Jersey, Virginia, and Florida, it’s hard for more than half of Americans to feel thankful in this year of pandemic. Here are some thoughts on how we diverse Americans can envision this year’s Thanksgiving as a pathway to future gratitude.

The new president’s inauguration is Jan. 20. Inauguration means a “launching.” On that day in 2021 we can hope to launch forgotten ways of communicating. At last, no one will have to pay attention to the unceasing nasty tweets of the man with orangish hair.

News and opinion pages will fill with discussions of governing and policy rather than with “tales told by an idiot full of sound and fury signifying nothing,” as Shakespeare’s Macbeth says. The new president will pursue more gracious ways of speaking about his opponents than calling them losers, dogs, and stupid.

Specific to Colorado, our state legislature will probably be in session before inauguration day. Lawmakers and the governor will face the impacts of COVID and a faltering economy. They can take this time as an unusual opportunity to picture a state that will lean into a prosperous future based on good decisions made in 2021.

The largest need is to face up to the state’s decade long underfunding of public education. COVID has made a terrible problem worse. Consider the facts. Three superintendents of the state’s three largest districts have either quit or moved on. That’s over 220,000 students trying to learn in districts without a top leader and about 9000 teachers trying to teach in the most trying circumstances.

Public education faces short term and long term financial needs. Money must be allocated immediately to support children who have lost learning ground in the COVID year.

Teachers are working in difficult circumstances having to mix online, in-person, and hybrid teaching methods on short notice with insufficient training or support. COVID infections cause quarantines so teachers and children are in and out of school. Chaotic is a good description of current circumstances.

School districts and individual schools will need professionals who can identify where students have learning gaps, develop remediation plans, and enable their implementation. This won’t be cheap, but investment now will avoid expense later.

The legislature should also create incentives for young people to enter the education profession. Full student loan forgiveness would help. That’s what motivated young people in the 60s and early 70s to become teachers under the National Defense Student Loan program. A significant boost to teacher entry salaries would make the field more attractive. Starting salaries in the $50,000s rather than $40,000s, or even $30,000s in rural areas, would be helpful.

Any discussion of public school funding inevitably leads to TABOR reform or stronger efforts to increase funds through taxes. Colorado simply cannot adequately finance its public schools without more money. Other state responsibilities have at least limped along based on underfunding schools. COVID heightens the education damage to a point where underfunding is now immoral to current and future generations.

Colorado’s young adults showed their commitment to good government and policy in their votes in the November election. They want attention paid to Colorado’s environmental future. Many probably want an end to fracking. Colorado’s oil and gas industry could improve its chances of continuing operations by more fully cooperating with efforts to improve air quality, reduce environmental impacts, and skip complaining about drilling setbacks.

The Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) has approved regulations for 2,000-foot separation between drilling and residences. It’s stopping gas flaring. Next year, the COGCC will consider cumulative impacts of oil and gas extraction on air, land, and water. Drilling finances will change when bonding requirements for plugging and environmental remediation of wells are made more stringent.

Oil and gas extraction occurs in Colorado because the state allows it. Industry objections to these changes display an unthankful disposition.

All lawmakers, but especially younger legislators, have a special responsibility to look out decades ahead to imagine the economic and environmental foundations of the future. The leadership of now term-limited House Speaker KC Becker and current Senate Majority Leader Steve Fenberg started this envisioning for which Coloradans can be grateful now. Let’s foresee that we can be grateful for its continuation in 2021.