This is the time to gather around the table and truly appreciate what we have.
Let’s give thanks that we live in this great country, where food is plentiful, and a fresh meal is usually only a trip to the local grocery store away.
Let us give thanks that we live in this great county, in this great state. We live in a place where people spend their lives hoping to retire; a place where people living away spend their entire year looking forward to visiting for a week or two at a time.
Let us give thanks, that as bad as the terror hysteria has become since 9/11, the federal government has not yet reached the point of willy nilly kicking down doors and arresting the people inside, George Orwell style, not yet, anyway.
Let us give thanks that we live in a democracy, where even the poorest, least powerful among us have a say in who leads us.
Let us give thanks for our right to free speech, what an awesomely powerful thing that is; as beautiful and majestic in concept, as it is sometime crass and tasteless in application.
Let us give thanks for the men and women in uniform who are protecting our great nation. Men and women who will give their very lives to defend us, if needs be.
Let us give thanks for the men and women who serve us and protect us at home, the doctors and nurses, police officers, emergency dispatchers, firefighters, volunteer EMTs, our local town officials, selectmen, school board members, and our elected legislators.
Let us give thanks that we are still free to openly disagree with each other. Let’s cherish that disagreement. It is our sausage-making, messiness of a democracy that ultimately lifts us up.
Let us give thanks that for all of our problems, this is still one of the only countries in the world where a person can literally claw their way up from the fringes of society; a country where a little luck and a lot of hard work can go a long way to making a life or creating a legend.
For all of our foibles, this is still a nation where the sky is literally the limit.
Let us give thanks to the Founding Fathers, who somehow managed to craft the outline of a government that serves us still.
Today, this day above all others, let us give thanks.
