Giving Thanks

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America is a land with many, many blessings. Every day I look around in wonder at how my neighbors and coworkers and I can go about our lives, largely unaffected if we choose to be, while our countrymen and women are fighting and dying in a very real and frightening war.

Our country is at war, but we're affected by no rations, no blockade, no military draft, no air attacks, no artillery shells, no tanks rumbling through our cities and past our homes, no citizens fleeing. Living in America, I drive to work and conduct my business just as when there was no war. I share moments with my family, I play and commune with friends, dine out, go shopping, enjoy movies and music, read books, check the weather forecast, go to the park, tend to the garden, wash the car.

I come home and watch our countrymen and women on television as they fight this war, each of them doing more than most of us ever dream of doing to make their country and the world a better place.

I think about how American servicemen are confronting unspeakable dangers far from home while I go to bed safe and warm, knowing I'll wake up the next morning just as safe, amidst the countless blessings of life in America. And there lies the beauty of an ugly war: I know that's just the way our men and women in the armed forces want it to be.

People are dying, and unimaginable trauma and displacement have come to the lives of so many in many countries. I've many difficult thoughts and feelings about the war, a terrible human tragedy. One stands out: I am blessed. All of us in America are incredibly blessed.

What a remarkable thing, a blessing unlike any other, to be an American -- a nation with servicemen and women who are risking their lives for a country and principles they believe deeply in, who fight with honor so that I and my neighbors can love and live our lives in peace and without fear.

To everyone in our armed forces: Thank you for fighting for us.

David Younker
April, 2003