We are so lucky to live in a country that holds the rule of law as the standard that protects all of us.

With the tumult of the wars that we fought, the unwise military adventures, the civil unrest of the 60s, the resignation of a disgraced president and the violence visited upon the civil rights movement, we have survived. The litany of mistakes of some of our leaders makes you wonder how we got this far. Well, don’t lay the burden down yet. The struggle is not over. It is never over.

The founders of this nation did not deliver to us Utopia, and they had no delusions about that. What they gave us was more of a guide to get us through the wilderness — a rough map that would be altered by necessity. This was a road that never before existed. How could they imagine that it would survive? My guess is that they had no idea that it would. They did, however, imagine that the Constitution as it was written may have to be changed from time to time and that feature for change is part of the original design of the document. The rules for change make it difficult to alter, and that was the point.

The fabric of this nation, on occasion, has been tested. Each time, we survived, but it’s not guaranteed that it will always overcome the stresses that are presented.

There are often many elements in our lives that we can be thankful for, and we should. But that great umbrella under which we live, the United States Constitution, must be protected by the participation of all of us.

Happy Thanksgiving!