Keller @ Large: No Politics At Thanksgiving

BOSTON (CBS) - Are you looking forward to gathering with friends and family around the Thanksgiving table a week from today? It's one of my favorite holidays, but this year is a little different.

The election has left many people unusually upset, angry and spoiling for a fight.

Just the other day, a United Airlines pilot warned passengers engaged in a loud political argument that he would turn around and eject them if they didn't simmer down. As he put it: "Have the common decency to respect each other's decisions."

Normally, even after a hotly-contested election, there's a quiet period where everyone steps back and awaits the inauguration, but not this time.

Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton and President Obama tried to set the right tone with their immediate post-election comments. But from protests in the street to scattered but ugly incidents of violence, to the immediate drawing of red-hot partisan lines over the president-elect's appointments, the climate seems to be getting nastier than it was before voting day, if that's even possible.

The news media is going to go after controversy wherever it flares up, we all know that, or should. But the partisans seem eager to continue sniping at each other, and Donald Trump didn't model an end to that with his latest flurry of tweets lashing out at the New York Times, which just serves to inflame all sides and draw more attention to their critiques.

So if we can't depend on our leaders to chill things out, we have to do it ourselves.

I am declaring Thanksgiving dinner at my house a "no politics" zone. And if people don't like it, they can enjoy their turkey in the backyard, with the dog.