Thursday, November 26, 2015

Thanksgiving - Time To Count Our Blessings

President Abraham Lincoln declared Thanksgiving a National Holiday in 1863 during the Civil War.  Since then, the last Thursday of every November has been a time for family and friends to get together presumably to give thanks for our blessings.  Eating a turkey has become part of this tradition, since it is big enough for a family feast.  Of course this holiday, like all holidays in the US have been commercialized into a day to watch football and to begin the Holiday Shopping season.  Nevertheless everyone living in the United States, no matter what our circumstances, should give thanks for the blessings we share especially as we see a world in turmoil.  

Most important, whatever our material condition, we should give thanks for the freedom given us by our Founding Fathers.  When these citizen politicians came together to implement the Declaration of Independence and then the US Constitution, risking their lives and everything they owned, little did they know that they were creating the greatest nation ever conceived in human history.   They got it mostly right in our Constitution.   What they could have never imagined is the material wealth that would be created by the Free Market Capitalism they were creating in our Constitution that comes from the rule of law.   And, since they were citizen politicians forced to act by the repression they were experiencing at the time, they had no thoughts of politicians serving for life and the corruption that would result. 

So, our Founding Fathers failed to add two provisions to our Constitution that are badly needed today; Term Limits and a Balanced Budget Amendment both of which would help address the corruption we see in our Federal Government.   And, though the Bill of Rights is exactly right, our Founding Fathers could never have imagined that we would have to continue the fight to protect our freedoms from both foreign foes and from politicians and judges that act to restrict our rights, so that they can continue feeding at the trough. 

So, the fight goes on as we seek to secure a more perfect union that is not politically correct.  And, yet whatever it is today, we still should give Thanks for the greatness of our people and our country, even if our elected respresentatives have betrayed us time and again to benefit themselves. 

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