Thanksgiving Wishes

I'd like on this Thanksgiving Day to wish all of our readers a wonderful holiday and to express my hope that we'll all take time to reflect upon the significance of the day. Perhaps one way to initiate that meditation is to cite the words of President Ronald Reagan on the Thanksgiving of 1985. Reagan said this:

Good morning, everyone. You know, the Statue of Liberty and this wonderful holiday called Thanksgiving go together naturally because although as Americans we have many things for which to be thankful, none is more important than our liberty. Liberty: that quality of government, that brightness of mind and spirit for which the Pilgrim Fathers braved the seas and Americans for two centuries have laid down their lives.

Today, while religion is suppressed in perhaps one third of the world, we Americans are free to worship the Almighty as we choose. While entire nations must endure the yoke of tyranny, we are free to speak our minds, to enjoy an unfettered and vigorous press, and to make government abide by the limits we deem just. While millions live behind walls, we remain free to travel throughout the land to share this precious day with those we love most deeply – the members of our families.

My fellow Americans, let us keep this Thanksgiving Day sacred. Let us thank God for the bounty and goodness of our nation. And as a measure of our gratitude, let us rededicate ourselves to the preservation of this: the land of the free and the home of the brave.

I think it is true that when we cease to be grateful for the liberties President Reagan mentions we'll soon cease to have them. Liberty is a fragile thing, and there will always be those who wish to limit it or to deprive us of it altogether. Only a people who appreciate their liberty are worthy of it, and only a people who are grateful for it deserve to keep it.