Monica Crowley offers her take on Thanksgiving in
her column at the Washington Times.
“Gratitude
is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others.”
—Cicero
Today is a day of thanksgiving,
and a day of reflection.
There are two particularly
quintessentially American holidays: Independence Day, when we celebrate our
declaration of independence from the British, which began the most successful
experiment in human liberty ever conducted. And Thanksgiving
Day, when we offer appreciation for the wondrous blessings in
our individual lives and in the life of the nation. Thanksgiving
and Independence Day, as distinct as they are, have always been sort of
inseparable.
Thanksgiving
carries with it a special communal joy that is rooted in that most simple but
powerful human sentiment: Gratitude.
On this one particular day,
millions of people are doing the exact same thing at roughly the same time:
Cooking, preparing, sitting down at a shared table, praying together, eating
together, watching football or movies together. Not everyone is lucky enough to
have these blessings, of course. There is a lot of loneliness, despair, pain,
division and violence in the country and the world, so I t’s vital to keep
those suffering in your prayers today.
is part
of a long weekend for most folks, jammed with leftovers, family, friends,
parades, long walks in brisk air, even longer naps under cozy blankets, and the
start of the manic holiday season.
Given the exceptional origin of
this exceptional nation, Thanksgiving is the one
holiday that binds us all together as Americans. It reflects our birthright,
our legacy, our home. Thanksgiving is us. And
only us.
The fact that it’s rooted in
appreciation makes it even more important in an era of self-indulgence and
incivility. As Americans, today we stop to give thanks for our families and
friends, our faith, our Constitution and the many freedoms it guarantees, our
great and good country, and the extraordinary United States military, our
bulwark against tyranny, oppression and terror.
We
are going through tumultuous times, but we are truly blessed. There is still no
other nation like America. Never has been, never will be. God blessed this
country from the beginning. And He blesses it still.
You can
read the rest of the column via the below link:
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