Thanksgiving Readings

Blogging will be light today, and my stomach full. For the latter, I'm especially grateful. Not just for the big meal, but for the unexamined fact that I didn't have to worry about having this huge feast, so cheap and bountiful is food in America. When conservatives examine the reasons for this bounty, we usually seize on the miracle of modern agriculture and the science behind it, and the liberties that allow men and women to take risks, innovate, buy and sell. And we haven't even mentioned the virtues by which we're free to live, or our traditions that give meaning to our lives, and so much more.

George Will's column this morning reminds us both of the extraordinary bravery of those who settled the West, and of how many creature comforts we take for granted. It's about the immigrants from Norway, German, Sweden, and other northern climes who took advantage of the Homestead Act of 1862 to risk life and limb for a chance to improve the lot of themselves and their children. At this time of Red State/Blue State conflict, it's also important to remember that these humble folk were moving to the Dakota territory, a region that today embodies flyover country to coastal elites.

Max Boot has a piece on our modern military, an appropriate topic in this time of war. His gift today is to shine a light on the success that our volunteer services are, a success so complete that, like the peace and prosperity they protect, we take for granted their skill and professionalism.

He writes: Some antiwar protesters want to spread the idea that the military is composed of victims who have no alternative but to become cannon fodder. Nothing could be further from the truth, especially in front-line combat units in which everyone is a volunteer twice over.

But it would be a mistake to overlook the simplest and most obvious motive of all: patriotism. People pull on their BDUs (battle dress uniforms) out of a desire to defend a great nation. Such sentiments can sound corny in today's ironic culture, but the military is one place where old-fashioned pieties are uttered without a subversive smirk.

Amen. And we should feel free, anytime and anywhere, to profess our own thanks for this marvelous nation, and to do so in the face of smirks. Remembering the sacrifices of those past and present is a crucial act of piety upon which our pursuit of gain should rest, the better to provide a firmer foundation and to put our lives in starker, more accurate perspective. Let's also remember that the non-smirking public is vastly larger than the smirking elite, and that the latter are today weaker than in the recent past.

For the larger, more profound importance of giving thanks, I urge anyone who hasn't read Wilfred McClay's blog "Think on These Things" over at Mere Comments, the blog of Touchstone Magazine, to do so.

Update: James Kushiner follows up on Wilfred McClay's post at Mere Comments with a moving remembrance of Thanksgivings past, and future.

Update II: Writing from Australia, Arthur Chrenkoff has a brief observation on Thanksgiving Day.