Happy Thanksgiving
We all have much to be thankful for. A look around the world tells us how unbelievably lucky and fortunate we are to be in this wonderful country. Many of our ancestral relatives live in poverty, suffer from hunger, disease and labor under tyrannical rulers. My African DNA are Congo, Mali and Cameroon. I am grateful beyond words to have been born and raised in America rather than in any of those countries. Given the choice of living anywhere in the world, I choose here. Yes there are naysayers and critics who whine that this country is racist, intolerant and corrupt. But they are wrong. The country is none of these. Some people are, yes. The country no. I have often said to critics to tell me how they would change the country, the political system and the economic system to make it their ideal. I tell them that I will not critique their vision. Yet none have complied. It is though they would rather complain. Yet they benefit from living here and reaping the rewards from a system they pretend to detest. The irony is that those who claim the country is intolerant are themselves intolerant.
Those who are socialists should know better. They can only point to some nebulous socialist ideal because socialism wherever tried has always impoverished the masses and failed. Socialism only benefits the elites and the nonproductive. Many of you are familiar with the story of the Pilgrims who true to their English tradition initially had communal farms without individual ownership of the land. It failed and the settlers abandoned common ownership in favor of private property. William Bradford, the colony’s first governor said that the communal lifestyle was “found to breed much confusion and discontent and retard much employment … [f]or the Young men, that were most able and fit for labour and service, did repine that they should spend their time and strength to work for other men’s wives and children without any recompense.” After every family was assigned its own parcel of land to farm, “this had very good success, for it made all hands very industrious, so as much more corn was planted than otherwise would have been.” A lesson never to forget.
Much has been written about what makes this country great – and yes Andrew Cuomo – America is great. I contend it is individual freedom which entails private ownership of property. The United States may well have been the first country in the world not ruled by a despot. The freedoms denied in England were ingrained in our founding documents. Some detractors want those documents discarded because they were written by a bunch of white men many of whom were slaveholders. However, the documents transcend race and gender. It would be akin to reject the Bible because it too was written by a bunch of white men. Also one must recognize that the so-called evil white men had to willingly give up some of their power when the slaves were emancipated and when women were given the right to vote. White men also ruled that segregation imposed by other white men was unconstitutional and enforced the desegregation of schools and ensured the right of blacks to vote. Evil men lusting to hold on to power would have never ceded any of that power. But true to the founding documents of this country written by white men, other white men held those principles to be sacred and provided steps to equality enabling all to pursue the American Dream. Again I am grateful.
So this Thanksgiving and every day I am thankful to be an American. I am thankful for family. I am thankful for friends. I am thankful for my ancestors whose ten distinct DNA strains flow through my blood. And I am thankful for all those who have helped me along this journey of life. Similarly I am thankful for those who have stood in my way and tried to derail my journey for they have made me stronger and more determined. Most of all I thank all of you for allowing me to share my thoughts with you. I truly wish you and yours the best of times and a very Happy Thanksgiving.
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