The Thanks in Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is our own native-born American holiday. We invented it and that makes it special. For me, it brings back loving memories of a huge gathering with all of my family, cousins, aunts and uncles, and friends, in Lincoln, Massachusetts, at my uncle's enormous home for an aromatic turkey feast. Outside the days were always wintry with autumn leaves laying on the lawn. Inside it was a warm, cosy, occasion, akin to an annual reunion. (But, of course, I didn't always want to see so many relatives, and they probably felt the same way.) While we were not an especially religious or spiritual clan, we seemed to acknowledge the virtues of this unique celebration. Today I feel the same way about what is right with our extraordinary nation:

We are a country that has overcome monarchial rule, revolution, slavery, mistreatment of Indians, robber baron capitalism, class strife, two world wars, segregation, discrimination against women and gays, and crippling depressions. (Yet we have much more to do.)

We are a democracy that works for the most part -- witness the sweep by Democrats in the 2006 congressional elections. (Still we've had our troubles with elections, as in the 2000 presidential contest. Churchill said it best: "Democracy is the worst of all systems except for all the others.")
We are a society that, despite multiple religions, races, ethnic groups, ideologies, nonetheless is the fullest triumph of pluralism in the world today. (We still have a ways to go.)

We have a constitution which gives us full freedom to speak out against abusive rule despite living under the most autocratic and demogogic president we've had in decades. (Let's keep it that way.)