The theme of this holiday is never hard to identify. That is because we live in a country where there is so much for which to be thankful. But one day I heard someone say “you can’t trust anyone these days”. I could not disagree more. We trust other people all the time and with important stuff. Like our lives for example.

Earlier this year I was on a tour bus threading our way through mountain roads and following hairpin turns. The terrain was most unforgiving and if that bus driver was not as skillful as he was tragedy awaited around every turn. Why was I and the rest of the passengers trusting this operator when none of us ever met him before going on that trip?

There is an army of people we may never meet. They sit at consoles guiding pilots to land and take off in a safe manner. There are train engineers we trust to read the road signs and obey the railroad guidelines to get us to our destinations. These are not super human beings. They are well trained in their craft, but otherwise ordinary people

We trust because we must. Life is not possible without that precious element. We trust the airlines to safely reach their destination without incident. We trust our doctors to successfully complete operations and keep us healthy.

We trust our government to protect our rights, our property, and our freedoms. Do we always guarantee that we will be safe? That we will not be betrayed some criminal element? No, I’m afraid that is not possible. That is why we have police to help prevent crime and courts to help us redress our grievances when they do occur

We live in a country of approximately 330 million people. The vast majority of our citizens are unfettered, and unencumbered by restrictions on our movements. That’s because until you do something that requires closer scrutiny you are free.

The next time you see a cop, a service person, any public servant and all the good people who will be working as we enjoy our holidays, just give them a smile. It may very well make their day.

Happy Thanksgiving!

From the LIMBA staff