Wellsir, we here in the U S of A are ready to celebrate/participate in one of our major holidays. We will have a Thanksgiving Day celebration and this is one time almost every U.S. citizen joined in. Even Americans who live overseas take a day, IF they can, and celebrate this day. Sometimes their work situation will not allow the time necessary to have a day off but they spend the whole day thinking about it anyway.The year we lived in Australia I spent the better part of the day trying to convince the deputy principal that I was supposed to have a day off. There was a program that allowed that but he kept looking and, strangely enough, he said it did not apply to me. I gave up trying somewhere in the early afternoon and finished out my day. That evening, Herself and I walked the kids down to Marubra and found a newly opened pizza place.
That sounded wonderful to all of us so that is where we celebrated Thanksgiving Day. The people in the small cafe were from Italy and only one spoke a little English. After having fun with each other’s attempts at making out what was going on we ordered some different pizzas. Then, while waiting on the order to be cooked, we explained to the kids the meaning and traditional beginning of our national holiday. The owners and workers were leaning on the counter and standing fairly close and listening to every word.
I do not know how much of it they truly understood but I suspect they could understand more English than they spoke, so it was probably much of what we said. That was one of the most meaningful Thanksgiving Days we ever had. My belief is that similar scenes are played out all across the globe every Thanksgiving.
We Americans have so much to be thankful for even though it appears, during these caustic political times, that is not the case. We hear that our country is a wreck and that the American people are degenerate. We are also trying to ward off the voices that are telling us that everything about our country is bad and getting worse. One overweight lady, who was in a "health establishment, was heard to say that “We don’t have any rights anymore. ‘They’ have taken them all away.” I bristled when I heard that comment and fortunately for the woman and me I was told after the fact. Think about it. She was in an establishment that caters to women who wish to improve their physical shape. No men, just women. She was obviously well fed so one could conclude she could choose her own diet. She was speaking out loud in public expressing her own opinion. She had driven there at her own choice and no official had made her go or stay. She wore the clothes she chose to wear and did not have a uniform or any required emblems. She could exercise at her own pace and did not have certain exercises she was required to perform to meet established goals. She could set her own goals. If she met certain rules, she could have had a gun with her in her automobile.
Those are not the only rights she exercised when she made that ridiculous statement, but that should give you the idea. Americans are among the most free individuals in the world, and furthermore, Americans are among the most free people to have ever existed on this planet. Now friends, that is something to be thankful for. Yessir, I know, that isn’t all.
There are some people who fall through the cracks and do not participate in our wondrous bounty. Those people need help for whatever reason they have so little. Even though there are more and more people who are trying to change it, help is available to them. The tradition of most Americans is to help those who are in need. I have heard it said from people I know that they had rather give something to a person and find that person didn’t need it rather than withhold help and find the person was really in need. We feel we should share what we have to help those who have not.
We can travel around the entire world without having to get anyone's permission. We can stay home and never leave our house or neighborhood, the freedom to choose is ours. We hold our personal freedoms to be sacrosanct. Even those massively selfish people who think their rights supersede any other person’s rights have to admit that each one of us has our own freedom. We are guaranteed our freedom and not given it grudgingly.
And that is the reason we are all thankful.
