With Thanksgiving behind us and Christmas ahead, I think it’s important to take a moment of quiet reflection and remind myself what I’m thankful for this season. Personally, I’m thankful I come home to a woman I love, a small black cat I adore, and that I have two wonderful sons that are growing up into potentially wonderful people. I’m thankful I’m surrounded by the best family and friends a man can ask for. I’m thankful I have my health and the opportunity to write for you, dear reader.

That’s not all I’m thankful for, however...

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I’m thankful The Nevada Independent has smart, knowledgeable readers — readers smart enough to look at a map of, say, Assembly District 26 and recognize that it is, in fact, contained entirely within Washoe County.

Assemblywoman Krasner, I apologize for not realizing the first time around that, like Jill Tolles, you are a fellow Republican who won a Washoe legislative district. Congratulations on your re-election.

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I’m thankful that I read opinions from several points of view. For example, I found my fellow columnist’s objections to political speech during the holidays agreeable but unconvincing. Orrin Johnson wasn’t wrong, mind you (making the personal political is, indeed, a terrible idea) but I didn’t think it convinced anyone who disagreed with the idea that we should be unwilling to argue with our families during the holidays.

This, however, might:

Ethics is about making the world a better place.

Really. The point of doing any moral action is to solve a problem that is hurting someone. The point of ethics is to help us fix things.

Does arguing with your racist family make the world a better place? I super doubt it! If people could be argued out of racism then I think by now there wouldn’t be any racists.

That makes arguing with your racist family not the domain of ethics. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it — if it makes you happy, or lets you stand up for someone else in the room, or makes for a great post on the internet later, you can totally do it even though it won’t help. But you don’t have an obligation to do things unless they make the world better.

Read the whole thing.

If even that isn’t convincing, ask yourself this: what if your employer said you had an ethical obligation to talk positively about your employer’s products to your family during the holidays? Does the mere thought of such a request make the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end? I’m as pro-free market as it gets, and even I find that idea nauseating. It instinctively feels slimy, gross, and frankly a bit exploitative. For a lot of people, that’s how they feel about being evangelized to about politics (and yes, religion), too.

At the very least, don’t ask others to endure what you’re not willing to endure yourself; alternatively, never bring a weapon to a fight that you don’t want wielded against you. However you wish to look at it, if you think you can lecture your friends and family about politics or your latest entrepreneurial escapades and not receive an uninvited lecture in return, I have terrible news for you:  Your friends and family probably have strong opinions on politics and religion and salvation and turnabout is absolutely fair play.

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I’m thankful the Open Law Library has been launched. Imagine you see a typo in your city code, Nevada Revised Statutes, or the Nevada Administrative Code. How would you fix it? If you live in the District of Columbia and have a bit of technical acumen, the answer is you fix it yourself. Edit the file, ask someone to look over and approve the edit you’re seeking to make, and then it’s fixed. Simple as that.

To appreciate why this is a big deal, consider the Nevada Revised Statutes, which are edited after our biennial legislative sessions and the occasional special session. Until September 9, 2018, the online published version of the Nevada Revised Statutes was the 2015 version. If a layperson wanted to know what laws were actually in effect, they would have needed to take the 2015 version of the Nevada Revised Statutes that were available online, then check NELIS for any legislation in 2017 that changed the law. If Nevada adopted the Open Law Library or a similar technology, knowledgeable citizens could edit the statutes immediately after passage of legislation so that our published laws better reflect legal reality.

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I’m thankful Mexico is much more forgiving of our behavior than we would be of theirs. Could you imagine what would happen if tear gas from Tijuana irritated a single lung in San Diego? General Pershing’s ghost would rise from the grave and They Might Be Giants’ James K. Polk would be #1 on Spotify.

I’m almost thankful that, with a last name like “Colborne” and a skin color around, oh, Pantone P 52-1 C or thereabouts, my irritated lung might be controversial enough to potentially start a war with Mexico over. I’m torn, however, between sadness that we live in a country where some lungs are more equal than others and frustration that whipping people into an angry froth over the irritations of the right people is good for ratings.

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I’m thankful I don’t live in Turkey, where onions are rapidly becoming a controlled substance. Nevada has a lot of problems, but hoarding alliums as an inflation hedge isn’t one of them. On the contrary, Nevada is one of the top ten states in onion production, and one of only two states where tearless onions are planted.

As the Nevada Department of Agriculture’s license plate says, “People grow things here.”

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I’m thankful that (insert sarcasm here) with all of Nevada’s other problems solved, there’s apparently a few million in private donations lying around for the worthy cause of renaming our airports. At the risk of sounding like I was abducted from a Jacobin Magazine op-ed, is this really the best way to spend charitable dollars in this state? Where’s the “win-win” between donors and the cause of renaming two airports after past Nevada politicians?

Do I even need to ask?

Look, don’t get me wrong: Senator Pat McCarran is Nevada’s version of John C. Calhoun — a powerful historical figure who was awful even by the standards of his time. He’s part of Nevada’s legacy, but that doesn’t mean he needs the 27th busiest airport in the world, nor a regional ring road in Northern Nevada, named after him. One of the lessons we should internalize from his infamous career as a racist bigot and demagogue is that naming prominent Nevada landmarks after past Nevadan politicians is a short-sighted, regrettable, and frequently frankly venal practice that should be abandoned.

Rename McCarran International to Las Vegas International - or, if that annoys the fine folks in Henderson and the rest of Clark County, make it Clark County International or Southern Nevada International or Lake Mead International. Or just put the naming rights to public auction so everyone understands what the sponsors are paying for.

Similarly, rename McCarran Boulevard in Reno/Sparks to Washoe Boulevard, or make its state highway designation meaningful and just call it “the 659,” or borrow a page from our eccentric neighbors in Utah and call it something like 2000 N or 2000 W or some other numerical designation, depending on which part of the loop you’re on.

I’m not here to place my stick in the mud and declaim against the cause or costs of renaming all public landmarks. I come instead to express thanks for the opportunity to get it right one last time.

Let’s not blow it.