I usually reflect on the universal nature of this holiday and that is worth noting, and of course, it is still its greatest asset. But let us appreciate the specific elements of our society. When you pass a hospital on your way to work think about the myriad skills employed within those walls that are helping our neighbors, friends, and sometimes our own families. Are we thankful that they serve?

Down the road you pass a police station and a fire department. They are there to help when the most painful and dire events happen in our lives. Shouldn’t we be thankful for them?

Then we pass a courthouse and a law firm within those walls we resolve injustices that are sometimes in our lives. Such as law firms filing suits against Flint Michigan for causing poison in the water supply or suing the tobacco industry for promoting products that were killing us.

Along the way you pass a school and you know our children are getting educated by dedicated teachers. The teachers that helped you create the self that you are. You remember the coach that helped you find the confidence that still serves you to this very day.

Then there are the commercial and industrial buildings along the way. The places where our parents, our neighbors, our friends, and we ourselves work to carve out a living. Where bright, ambitious business people are creating a future for themselves and the country.

Then there are our government structures that are based on documents that are like roadmaps to un-ending betterment. We began this audacious experiment we call the United States of America still sanctioning slavery, depriving women of the vote, and we limited the right to vote to the propertied class. I think the founders were well aware of the shortcomings. I quote these words from the preamble of the Constitution.

“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”

Have we arrived at our destination? Not yet, but stay tuned we are a “GREAT COUNTRY” and we are always in the state of becoming.

When you sit down for Thanksgiving dinner and Uncle Charlie says something obnoxious, here is what you should say. “Pass the gravy, this is a great meal Happy Thanksgiving Uncle Charlie” (don’t forget to smile.)

Happy Thanksgiving – Ernie Fazio and the LIMBA team