Thanksgiving is the most American of holidays. It is rooted in our founding myths, in the struggle of European immigrants to understand and survive in a new land. In the triumph of perseverance and neighborly virtue over the harshness of the world we find ourselves in. We gather together with family and friends and eat new world foods to celebrate the survival of our founding settlers and the most beautiful time of the year for much of our country.
This is my third Thanksgiving in America since spending the prior five Thanksgivings in England. Living there gave me a much greater appreciation of what it means to be an American, to have rights, and to fight for those rights. I am immensely thankful that I am an American and that we have rights for me to defend.
There are were some days when I would be discussing politics or read some item in the news and I would think, “No wonder we rebelled.” The British are still subjects of their Queen. Their civil liberties are privileges granted to them by leave of her Majesty and the Prime Minister. While I was there those liberties were eroded without legal recourse by majority votes of parliament. Lawyers in England argued to me that there is no such thing as rights.
We have rights. Americans were willing to kill and die in order to rebel against the British and establish those rights. Those rights are what make us American and makes America a nation worthy of our respect and love. We must continue to fight and struggle to defend our rights and the rights of our neighbors. Anything less would be Unamerican.
American has wonderful values and traditions, and I will not stand idly by while those are eroded and decay. We are the land of the Free, and must remain so. We cannot permit the stench of fear to turn us in to cowards afraid of our Virtues. My rights have no value unless you are willing to stand up and defend them on principle. It is how we treat our citizens who seems least worthy to practice their rights that we prove our commitment to liberty.
In recent history, we have been asked to give up our freedom to protect our freedom. As Benjamin Franklin resized long ago this is a false choice, “The man who trades freedom for security does not deserve nor will he ever receive either.” When our fear permits us to spy on our own citizens, imprison them without charges, torture them, intimidate them from traveling, and silence their voices then we have increased the risk of threats both foreign and domestic. Even worse we have turned our backs on the sacrifice of our forebears who many who lived and died to secure those rights for us.
As we gather this Thanksgiving, be thankful that we still have the freedom to pursue non-viloent means of defending our freedom. Talk about what makes you proud to be an American with your family. Resolve to take part in our Democratic process, and fight for the candidate whom you think best understands how important it is to defend our Rights as Americans.
