Were you ready for it? The celebration of Thanksgiving this year. I’ll be honest: I wasn’t and still am not. Just knowing that Christmas now is even closer gives me the jitters. I am not ready for that either.
And then, of course, it will be the New Year! Yikes! Talk about not being ready!
Perhaps it’s the news coverage that gets the best of us. Every day, whether we get our news from print, radio, television or the internet – or a combination of all of them – it just keeps coming. Trying to keep some kind of handle on what happened when and where and how and what it all means and who is responsible gets more difficult every day.
Part of the problem is that today, the “news” is infused with partisan opinion. Unfortunately, most of that is negative, and as a result it creates division among people regardless of their political affiliations.
I wonder what goes through the minds of young people as they begin to take interest in politics and register to vote. How do they make sense of what is going on and what it all means?
How do they decide which party is the one for them, what it stands for and whether or not they agree with it? Just voting for the party of their mother and father is not a good answer.
In the media, we have Democrats railing against Republicans in viciously presented attacks and vice versa. Are the young people supposed to believe that interminable fighting is what is expected of all of us throughout our voting lives?
It doesn’t matter whether we’re thinking of Chuck Schumer, Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi or any of the other high-profile politicians just recently in the news. They all spew venom against the opposition, and there seems to be no end to it.
The image they present to the public, and especially our young voters, is something they should really be ashamed of. But they’re not. They are infused with a sense of power, and they will not relinquish that, regardless of the negative effects on our citizens and, in fact, our country.
If one were to listen to them, you would think our country is a place to be ashamed of. What is the matter with them? We have the most successful country in the history of the world. We have a country that gives and maintains freedom for all of its citizens. We welcome people from other countries to come here and become citizens and benefit from our guaranteed freedoms. Our country is beautiful and free.
Over the years, we Americans have recognized our faults and have taken steps to correct them. We have overcome negative aspects – think slavery – and reached a balance no one would ever have thought possible.
Yes, we have problems. Yes, there are aspects of our society that need changing and adjustments, but people who rail against everything about the United States are asking us to throw it all out – for what?
That may be what they want, but it is not what I want, and I suspect I am not alone. We have something that some regard as almost a gift from God. It’s called “freedom.” Think of it. Most of us live our lives without having the government looking over our shoulder at every move we make. We can live our lives freely – choosing our professions, where we live, how to create our families and how and where to worship.
For the people who find nothing good about the U.S. – I would suggest they move to another country where they find the rules and regulations to their preference. I suspect they would find that those rules would chafe and bother, and ultimately, they would realize they made a poor choice.
But honestly, I wouldn’t want them back. They had the best opportunity to look at what we have and give thanks for it all – and they chose to criticize and leave.
To them I say “Sayonara” – and don’t come back.
For the rest of us, I thank God for what we have. It’s the best in the world. I pray we can keep it.
All of that is why we have Thanksgiving – our opportunity to look at our blessings and be grateful.
Happy Thanksgiving!
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