Thanks

A delicious aroma fills our home. The sideboard groans under the weight of covered dishes and baskets. The table is set. The chatter of friendly voices filters down the hall to our little home office; we have no immediate family this side of the Mississipi, so we generally invite friends over to share Thanksgiving.

A timer just sounded.

I'll be carving a nineteen pound turkey in just a few minutes.

I give thanks for good friends. I give thanks that we are able to provide a roof, a bed, and a meal for our family. I give thanks that we have our health (can't do anything about knees and age - and why bitch about the memories the twinges always recall?) and our that our happiness is on the plus side of life's ledger.

I'm grateful that I was able to hang up my Budweiser license more than five years ago and give thanks and all credit to the higher power that made it possible for me to quit.

I give thanks that the most wonderful woman in the world roped me out of the herd. I give thanks for two beautiful daughters and pray for (yet more) patience and calm as the roll of "nice young men" coming to visit grows ever longer.

Most of all I give thanks that we still have men and women who will stand for good. People who consciously sacrifice creature comforts or the comforts of home, and sometimes much, too much more.

Not many folks read the stuff that I write here. That's perfectly o.k. - this blog is more an opportunity to shield the One True Love from the worst of my compulsive political junkyism than it is any serious attempt to draw an audience.

I'm glad you dropped by. Thankful, even.

But if you have read this far, please read the rest:

Thank a serviceman/woman for their duty. Thank the families of those in service. If you have a congresscritter who shows fight, you might drop them a line of support, too. I don't have any advice for you if your representation is Democrat, unless he's Joe Liberman. If your rep or senator is less a statesman that you wish he or she was, still get in touch - and tell them what's on your mind. PR, polls, or whatever happens to be oozing out of the TV set or theater right now fades to insignificance when our votes are counted. We are an imperfect nation, but we are people and that means we'll never get everything right.

The United States of America is still the last best hope for this troubled world. Even imperfect as we are, we can still keep trying to get it right. Today we fight for a world of freedom - for a "world without dictators", as Tom Grey would say.

I believe that all men can be free. I also believe that it takes a lot of work to make it happen.

I believe that our blessings as citizens of this shining city on a hill come not from chance but are instead based on the hard calls of men long dead and the two hundred plus years of argument, politics, and sacrifice since. I believe we can always be better tomorrow than we are today.

Y'all have a fine Thanksgiving.

And thanks for stopping by.