Many Americans have understandable cause to feel desolate this Thanksgiving during an economic calamity unlike any in the past 70-plus years. Yet, even in times of high unemployment, devastated household income and families separated by war, blessings can be found in generous supply.
In a world ablaze with wars and suffering, Americans have the freedom to find unfettered comfort in their religious faith and worship. They're free to speak their minds in lively fashion. And they've just enjoyed a freedom denied in dozens of nations—the freedom to elect a new president as well as hundreds of other officials that govern the nation, states and cities.
Many of those in terribly bleak circumstances this year can also be mightily thankful for another wondrous American trait—generosity and charity. Families short on food and gifts will find neighbors pitching in to make up the losses.
And finally, Americans can be thankful for one of our most enduring qualities and virtues—the healthy ability to hope for better times in the midst of seemingly impossibly bad times.
Hope is the force that rejects defeat. Hope is what kindles the search for solutions to humankind's abysmal misbehavior. Hope breeds more determination to conquer civilization's devastating diseases.
Thanksgiving is no mere holiday. It's a spirit implanted in the American culture by colonists hundreds of years ago who had very little, except their thanks for a new life and new personal freedoms. It's a spirit worth celebrating—every day.
