A nation that loses the capacity to be thankful is in a sorry plight. On Thanksgiving Day 2001, if we examine our position honestly, we will realize that conditions are seldom so bad that there is nothing for which to be thankful.

True, taxes are burdensome, and the international horizon is filled with foreboding. Nevertheless, we have the highest standard of living in the world, and we are internally at peace and strong. Our churches and synagogues, like our schools and universities, are well attended. The world looks to America for leadership. More important than anything else, we are a free people. Thankfulness, however, carries with it its own special challenge—to use properly the gifts and advantages given to us. Our standard of living is high, but what about our standard of life? We are strong economically, but how strong are we spiritually?

The paramount issue shaking the world today is the same that convulsed this nation some 140 years ago—the issue of liberty. Shall people speak and act and worship God as they choose, or shall freedom of speech, action, and worship be destroyed? In this crucial hour, the American people are fated to utter the deciding word. We will strike for freedom, of course. That has been our tradition, our way of life. From George Washington at Valley Forge, through Abraham Lincoln during the War between the States, and Franklin Roosevelt crushing Nazism and Fascism in 1945, America has so acted as to draw to us, in hope and yearning, men and women everywhere who were downtrodden and enslaved. But, as we well know, eternal vigilance is the price of liberty and democracy.

We must oppose the forces of tyranny and dictatorship that still plague the world. Despotism can never best democracy, and slavery can never prevail over freedom. May our next Thanksgiving Day see a world really at peace, purged of war and the threat of war. But, in any event, may it see America completely in possession of its soul, the same soul which came to it at its glorious birth, the soul which has been the inspiration of liberty-loving people everywhere, the soul whose other name is Freedom and whose origin is God.

Sidney S. Guthman is a past member of the Civil Service Commission of Long Beach, California. He is the former Grand Chaplain of the Grand Lodge of California. Recently, the Long Beach Veterans Administration Medical Center awarded him a special merit citation for his work as Chaplain, and he is Rabbi Emeritus of Congregation Sholom, Leisure World, California. A longtime member of the Long Beach Scottish Rite Bodies and Chaplain of Al Malaikah Shrine Temple, Rabbi Guthman was recently appointed Chaplain of the Long Beach Police Department, the first time a Rabbi had been so honored.