In a year in which four out of five Americans are either unemployed or underemployed and our economy is beginning to reach levels approaching the ’stagflation’ of the Jimmy Carter years sans the staggering interest rates of that era, as yet anyway, Americans take time to give thanks for that which we have and that we have been blessed with by our creator.




Despite the strident protestations of the secular left this GREATEST country in the world remains just that. A FREE country rooted deeply in JUDEO/ CHRISTIAN values and the principles of liberty, individual responsibility, freedom to make of one’s life what we will, freedom to speak our minds without fear of retribution, the freedom to govern ourselves, and to defend our homes, our families and our country from evil and oppression.




I thank God for my blessings everyday. But on this day especially. I thank my God, as I understand him, for the tens of thousands of American men and women in the Armed Forces of this truly blessed land with whose sacrifices on our behalf on a daily basis  I stand in awe.
As a United States Marine I spent a number of Thanksgivings and holidays away from home and a couple of them overseas in cultures very unlike my own. It’s a very lonely existence far from home, family and friends and in an unforgiving, hostile and sometimes dangerous environment.
We have simply the greatest military in history.




The world has a great deal to be grateful for on this day of Thanksgiving as well. It would be a far different place were it not for the thousands of Americans who have sacrificed their lives on every continent of this globe. Europe, Asia, the Pacific, Africa…all would be far different places without the expenditure of vast amounts of American blood and treasure. We are the most generous, freely-giving society in history. We are also the most open minded and forgiving.
Many of those who have benefited the most from our generosity have appreciated it least. But time after time we have turned the other cheek and continued to befriend our detractors.
This is the measure of the greatness of America.




God bless this great country and God bless you on this day of Thanksgiving.




Semper Vigilans, Semper Fidelis

© Skip MacLure 2009