Our opinion

We often forget to be thankful at Thanksgiving. We make overt and obvious gestures of thanks; a little too uneager to reveal the things we truly are thankful for. Even the part of our lives we sincerely are thankful for, we seldom acknowledge thanks genuinely.
We all know we have endless blessings for which we should be grateful. We know and yet still take those blessings for granted. We assume we are entitled to many of those blessings, often forgetting we are exponentially blessed compared to others.
As Americans, we should be thankful daily we live in the greatest nation on Earth. Many times, we maximize our problems instead of gauging them against the problems of the world. We pity ourselves our minor inconveniences, often lamenting the sad state of our affairs. It truly is a shame our lives are so hard.
It's easy for us to think of ourselves instead of those suffering abroad and here at home.
But, each of us can think of thousands of things to be thankful for, from the richest of the rich, to the poorest of the poor. Blessings are relative.
But there are some blessings we enjoy that we should all be universally thankful for.
We live in a free society–free of fear and oppression. Our society affords us freedom of worship, speech and expression.
Our form of government offers citizens a voice in their leadership. And every vote counts–as we saw just two weeks ago. We are thankful we live in a society of participatory government, where we can assemble and prompt change and progress in our communities.
We are thankful we can choose to worship or choose not to worship the god of our choice. Our religious beliefs are not legislated or mandated, but encouraged on an individual basis.
Individually, we should be thankful for our families, loved ones, homes, jobs and health.
We often paint our blessings in broad strokes, overlooking the fine details of our lives. But without those individual brush strokes of magnificent, complimentary colors, the pictures of our lives would be incomplete.
This Thanksgiving, dwell on the details, so not one small blessing may go unnoticed. And then, to truly appreciate your blessings, share them with others.