Of Peace and Bounty

This holiday season most Americans are fortunate. Though a few hundred thousand of our soldiers and their families will experience some anxiety and separation this holiday season, mixed with their love and warm thoughts of loved ones, the vast majority of Americans enjoy peace and civil calm here at home. We should give thanks.

Though a few hundred thousand in America may die for lack of shelter, or go hungry for lack of food, or lack awareness of it even being a holiday season for lack of psychiatric care, the vast majority of Americans are bountiful in creature comforts and wealthier than most in the world today. We should give thanks.

Though civil, religious, and ethnic strife strike fear and panic into the hearts of 10's of millions of people in countries like Iraq, Sudan, and Chechnya, Americans enjoy a nation devoid of internal civil war. And except for inordinate numbers of violent crimes, America enjoys peace within her borders. We should give thanks.

Americans have lived through holiday seasons steeped in world wars, steeped in civil wars, steeped in Revolutionary War, steeped in race wars, steeped in gang wars, steeped in depression, steeped in privation, and steeped in natural disasters. But not this holiday season. We should give thanks.

But to this holiday season we owe more than just thanks to good fortune. To those who fought our wars in the past, to those who put their bodies in harm's way for women's suffrage, an end to apartheid and segregation, an end to worker exploitation and child labor, to those who rose to public office to serve and were cut down by assassin's bullets, to all these and more, we owe our effort and commitment to continue the peace, the equality, the social justice, the security of our homeland, and the prospect of stability in America's future.

Those who died and were maimed for a better America, want not our idle and empty thanks. Those who died and were maimed to make the dream of America a reality, as set out in our Constitution and Declaration of Independence, demand that we too work to preserve that dream of America with peace, prosperity, security and liberty, for all Americans who reside within our United States.

It is not enough to say thanks and go on about our lives. To do so is a grave dishonor of those who gave so much so that we could enjoy so much. To do their sacrifice honor, we are duty bound to grow our will, summon our exertion, steel our resolve, and give of our bounty to insure that the peace, prosperity, security, and liberty they fought and died for grows and is strengthened to withstand the forces within and without, that would spit on the sacrifices of those who went before us.

At great cost, we are a United States. Let us not allow politicians to divide the states of America. At great cost we are a nation where a Mormon, an African American, and a Woman may run for President without fear. At great cost we have become the wealthiest middle class of people in the world. It is not enough to simply enjoy the fruits of their sacrifice.

We must preserve and defend these blessings provided us by our forebears, for those who will follow us after we have been laid to rest. America is an idea of peace, prosperity, security, and liberty which should endure, grow, and withstand all attempts to bring her down. That is the burden and responsibility we must shoulder, and be ever thankful for the opportunity and blessing to do so.