Thanksgiving is the most traditional of America’s secular holidays. It is a time for families and friends to gather and a time to reflect on shared history. Other cultures and other nations have days or periods of thanksgiving, but the observance we mark on the fourth Thursday each November is almost one of a kind in that we have a heritage that is unlike any other on the globe.
There is a reason for that. Americans are an endlessly diverse and fascinating people, the product of the proverbial melting pot that has fueled and supported the nation’s promise of individual freedom, unparalleled opportunity and prosperity. Few other nations can provide the same bond for those who live within their borders.
Though those promises are not always met for all who pursue them, Thanksgiving Day is still a propitious moment to rest, reflect and give thanks for the boons that we do enjoy as a nation and as individuals.
Time of uncertainty
This Thanksgiving finds America and many Americans enmeshed in uncertainty. Though some enjoy economic security, many more do not. That’s a sure sign that the American dream of a life of relative security remains an unreachable goal for many. There are some jobs available, of course, but many thousands here and millions across the Untied States are unemployed or underemployed. They simply cannot find meaningful employment with a decent wage and benefits at a time and in a place where political partisanship has elevated the desires and demands of the wealthy above the needs of the hardworking men and women who always have formed the essential core of the United States.
The economy is not the only issue that nettles America today. Crime, homelessness, a health care system under siege, a deteriorating education system, a collapsing infrastructure and a growing disrespect for the environment are problems, too. Real thanksgiving will occur only if those issues can be reconciled in a manner that serves the many rather than the few.
This Thanksgiving holiday is not without its worries. Members of the U.S. armed forces are in the field today. Many are stationed in Afghanistan, where men and women are fired upon every day, and where the number of killed and wounded rises with disheartening regularity.
Our troops remain in harm’s way elsewhere as well. Though casualties are down, U.S. forces in Iraq are not in a safe zone by any means. They are in harm’s way, as are other men and women who are stationed at posts around the globe.
Given the ease with which those who intend to harm Americans can move about the globe, there is no longer such a thing as “safe posting.” All those men and women far from home should and will be in our thoughts and prayers on this special day.
Americans gathered at home for Thanksgiving meals and the attendant holiday rituals might feel less secure this year than in times past. The recent upswing in the number of bombs on planes and other terrorist activities suggests just how vulnerable we might be. We must worry, too, about the home-grown violence that afflicts so many of the nation’s neighborhoods. There is understandable concern, as well, for those directly affected by the nation’s economic turndown, the loss of a job and attendant benefits or a health or other crisis that finally breaks an already stressed budget. For them, this day of thanksgiving is little different from a long succession of days when there is little joy or reason to celebrate.
Blessed country
Still, we in this country are blessed. Many Americans, even though times are tough, are relatively content and comfortable, safe from the ravages of the illness, the poverty, the plagues of disease, the political and religious repression and loss of individual freedom that disrupt everyday life in many other places around the globe.
Troubled as Americans might be on this holiday, the United States remains a place of hope and promise for the world’s most aggrieved and disenfranchised people.
Whatever the political climate and the bombast that sometimes passes for political discourse, democracy remains robust. Americans are singularly free to pursue their dreams in a pluralistic society where, for the most part, diversity is not only accepted but celebrated. That is most obvious in the religious freedom guaranteed to us all.
On Thanksgiving, as on every other day, Americans who wish to pray can do so in a manner that they choose. They can attend, without government interference or influence, the church, synagogue, mosque or other place of worship they choose. That certainly is a reason to give thanks on this day.
Shared vision
There is a temptation these days to portray an America divided by its differences. That’s simply wrong. A far more truthful image is to be had by portraying the shared vision and broad culture that almost all Americans accept and share. Even in tough times, Thanksgiving properly is a day of family, a time to give thanks for our myriad freedoms, for the beauty and bounty of life and for the bustling and energetic spirit that has infused the United States and those who have called it home since the nation’s founding.
It is that spirit, that we wish our readers a blessed, comfortable and joyous holiday.