The American Spectator

Each year at this time, I devote this space to giving thanks to the Almighty for his various and sundry gifts to the American people; but this year, things are different. Having been informed by the Seattle School District that Thanksgiving Day is seen by some native Americans as a “time of mourning,” and “a reminder of 500 years of betrayal,” I’ve decided to follow their lead.

And so, as I write this in Connecticut — which, in the language of our current casino magnates, means “the place of the long tidal river” — I will temporarily replace my attitude of gratitude with one more befitting our guilt-ridden, leftist brethren and join them in their grief. But my mourning isn’t confined to events that happened centuries before anyone on this planet was born. This year I’m mourning that I live in a country where:

* The majority party in the U.S. Congress is invested in the defeat and demoralization of our troops in the field — where they were sent by an act of the same Congress — primarily for political purposes. In truth, the Democratic Party should be grateful for the Iraq War, seeing how it has no positive issues to promote and certainly none that so galvanizes its far left wing.

* The cruel and inhuman treatment of dogs is loudly lamented by those covering the Michael Vick story, while the yearly murder of nearly one million American babies goes virtually unnoticed. The abortion industry should go down on its knees in gratitude to the mainstream media for ignoring most pro-life news and views.

* After this year’s Super Bowl saw my beloved Chicago Bears go down to defeat at the hands of a much better team, both coaches were criticized for praising God. The Chicago Sun-Times’ Rick Telander was particularly aghast at the way Tony Dungy repeatedly used the words, “God,” Lord” and “Christian” at the post-game interview. And even worse for Telander: “His religious expression even trumped his honor at being the history-setting first African-American coach to win a Super Bowl.”

To put the love of God over hyphenated racial victimhood is the second greatest sin in the left’s short list. The first? Intolerance! As in the fact that Dungy is affiliated with “a nonprofit conservative Christian group that recently filed a brief to the 7th Court of Appeals asking that prayer be allowed to start each day on the floor of the Indiana legislature,” and another that is “gay-repressive.” With liberals, the charge of intolerance is reserved for those who choose not to tolerate the intolerable — they should be thankful that people of faith are tolerant of them.

* The greatest fear of our Founding Fathers appears to be coming true, especially as regards our religious freedom and cherished national customs. It would seem odd to those great men, that they shed their blood and pledged their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor in order that a handful of folks might not have their feelings hurt. George Washington, who instituted the first official Thanksgiving observance once said:

[I]f the laws are to be so trampled upon with impunity, and a minority…is to dictate to the majority, there is an end put at one stroke to republican government…for some other man or society may dislike another law and oppose it with equal propriety until all laws are prostrate, and everyone will carve for himself.

So, as we prepare to collectively carve what Ben Franklin thought should be our national bird, let us turn away from self-defeating mourning and pray that God will continue to bless our still-great nation. On my part, I would like to thank him for every goodness he has showered on me; not the least of which is that he and my grandparents made me an American.