Thanksgiving - A Day To Count Our Blessings

Last week, our parish was visited by a missionary from Cross International, a very worthy charity that aids the poor in Asia, Africa and the Caribbean. Originally from the Philippines, the priest gave us his brief background relating how he had become a Canadian citizen but was now proudly an American citizen. He then told us how lucky we were to be here in the greatest country in the world and that we should thank God for this. This Thursday, Americans will be celebrating Thanksgiving, a tradition dating back to the pioneer years of the 19th century but frankly, I don't see many Americans appreciating what this nation is all about. Whining and complaining seems to have replaced the concept of gratitude and this pertains to many Western Europeans as well.

Those rioting in France and Greece seem to be able-bodied men free to express their angst against the government because of monetary issues. Many protesters in France appeared to be quite young and yet they were protesting the retirement age being raised to 62 instead of 60 as if they would be imminently affected by the change.

Perhaps it's because I was raised in a very poor environment that I still can't get over how the little luxuries of life that I now enjoy are taken for granted by so many Americans blessed to be living in this great country. Thanks to modern technology and at a reasonable cost, I own a programmable coffee pot that allows me to wake to the smell of its delicious aroma. The refrigerator churns out ready-made ice cubes yet I can still remember our family icebox and the iceman that "cameth" every week delivering the frozen block to fill it.

I can take a steaming hot bubble bath and soak while recalling that as a child living in a barrio tenement, my baths had to be shared with siblings because the faucet took forever to fill the tub. The tank over the toilet bowl leaked and we needed an umbrella to use the facility. There was a very funny film, "Popi" in the '60s starring Alan Arkin as a Puerto Rican that mirrored my environment perfectly.

A co-worker of my husband was finally able to bring his grandmother here from Cuba and when he took her to Pathmark, she was stunned at the amount of goods and couldn't believe they were actually allowed to go in the store. That kind of abundance available to all of us in America is only restricted in Havana to the party elite and Hollywood celebs like Sean Penn and Michael Moore.

According to a recent survey taken of products of the largest retailer Wal-Mart, inflation is back and is a harbinger of what may be a repetition of the '70s and the hapless Carter administration. Many young people today can't recall the shortages of oil and the high grocery prices that climbed every week but I was a young stay-at-home mother who had to struggle with feeding a family on only my husband's salary.

Well, we survived and we did it by adapting our life style - no eating out, shopping for clothes at thrift shops and preparing nourishing but inexpensive meals. We also relied on the kindness of close friends and relatives who shared their bounty with us during the hardest times. I can't count the number of times that I personally witnessed the truth of the "Lilies of the Field" parable.

What we did not do was rely on the government because to do so would have been fatal for our independent spirits. Star Parker wrote a great autobiographical book: "Uncle Sam's Plantation: How the Government Enslaves America's Poor and What We Can Do about It." Once a self -described welfare cheat, she is now a successful author and conservative messenger and her story should be a lesson to all about how government handouts are more crippling than helpful when doled out indiscriminately.

Glenn Beck recently aired a show showcasing the small town of Wilmington, Ohio and how residents there were dealing with the current economic crisis. This town had originally been featured on a list of "100 Best Small Towns in America" in 1995. When Wilmington's major employer DHL closed their facility at the airport due to the economic turndown in 2008, the town of 12,000 had 2/3rds of the population laid off. CBS' 60 Minutes dubbed Wilmington the Ground Zero for the Unemployment crisis.

Instead of turning into a ghost town, the community turned to one another to help and Glenn Beck described their efforts as: "They have come to embody and represent the true American spirit. They look out for one another. They're working together. They are rebuilding a little town they call home and the government isn't involved - the churches are."

Once again the lesson seems to be that to survive hardships one must turn their lives over to a higher power. Whether it's a family attending Sunday Mass or one celebrating Shabbat on Friday together, these are the ones who manage to weather even the toughest of times. In this increasingly secular society, that lesson has been forgotten and I know that to many this all sounds like so much pap. They will hear the inspiring stories of the people of Wilmington and dismiss them thinking it won't help them in their own dismal lives. They have forgotten to count their blessings and prefer to wallow in despair.

Before the missionary I spoke of exhorted us to be grateful for being Americans, he had described the horrific poverty of the third world countries where children eat paper to survive and die of malnutrition. On an earlier visit another missionary told of the starving children in Haiti eating dirt while just a few hours away, children were feasting on Big Macs in Miami. We need to count our blessings by asking ourselves these questions: What makes America the country that people risk dying to get here?

There are plenty of countries with resources as rich perhaps even richer than ours. What is it that makes America work? What makes us unique is that we are made up of all the people of the world who have the desire to be free and independent. We are not restricted by class. Those willing to work hard will succeed regardless of their birthright as long as the government stays out of their way... Happy Thanksgiving. C

Alicia Colon resides in New York City and can be reached at aliciav.colon@gmail.com and at www.aliciacolon.com