Ray Mariano: Even in a world in turmoil, a time for us to be thankful

Sometimes it seems that the world is on fire — literally. There’s a war raging in Europe and another in the Middle East. Climate change is burning up parts of our country, flooding other parts and creating tornadoes and hurricanes to flatten other parts. Mass shootings are a regular occurrence — almost 600 so far this year — and drug overdose deaths have never been higher.

Even if you haven’t personally witnessed or experienced any of these tragedies, you can easily suffer from PTSD just by watching the evening news.

On top of all of that, our politics have become so contentious that police departments are advising citizens not to put political bumper stickers on their cars so that they can avoid being attacked or harassed. And if you are Jewish or Muslim, it’s probably best if you avoid leaving home.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Personal thanks

I had an old friend who taught me a valuable lesson: if you think you’re in a tough spot, just look at the people around you. It’s a great lesson. There’s always someone much worse off. Today, as we struggle to get through the week, it’s important that we take a moment to be thankful for all of our blessings.

We should be thankful for our families. Sure, your son may be having trouble finding a job or has a new tattoo on his neck that makes you want to gag. Or your daughter might have shaved one side of her head and colored the other side purple. Well, when I was at the housing authority, I saw so many lonely people with no one to visit them, no one to love, not even someone to argue with. They’d happily trade places with you.

We should be thankful that we have a place to live. There are people who sleep in doorways in the winter and there are families who stuff their children into an old beat-up car at night and hope against all odds that they will find a place to stay the next day. They won’t.

With a growing number of Americans going to bed hungry or facing food insecurity, we should be thankful for the meals on our table. I can be thankful now that I’m older and my parents aren’t trying to force me to eat liver.

We should be thankful that our children and grandchildren have good schools to go to. No doubt that our schools can do much better but there are places where girls aren’t even allowed to attend school. I have a 2-year-old granddaughter who is strong-willed and opinionated. In too many countries, she wouldn’t even be allowed to attend school. Here we dream that she will be elected president.

We should be thankful for the beauty of nature all around us. While we get to enjoy the colors changing on the leaves or a babbling brook, others are forced to live on desolate lands or a bomb-scarred landscape.

And we should be especially thankful that, except perhaps in places like Florida, Alabama and Texas, Americans are free to be who they are and free to love who they choose. That’s a death sentence in some places.

Thanks for the freedoms in America

When my children were growing up, I often told them that simply by being born in America, they started out ahead of most of the other children in the world. If life was a 100-yard dash, they were born starting at the 50-yard line.

In America, we have the freedom to vote for our leaders. Yes, I know it’s not perfect and that some people believe that a dead guy in Venezuela is trying to manipulate our ballots, but with all of its faults our system is a true blessing. In some countries they have to stand in front of tanks in protest so that they might have a chance to vote freely. In other countries, citizens risk terrorist attacks if they dare go to the polls.

We should be forever thankful for our freedom of speech. Sometimes when Marjorie Taylor Greene opens her mouth to complain about Jewish laser beams in space or some other nonsense, it’s not always apparent why we should allow free speech. But the freedom to make a donkey of yourself in public is an amazing gift — one that so many of us take advantage of regularly.

Of course we should be thankful for our free press — although lately we have less to be thankful for. Local newspapers are going out of business and the ones that remain don’t have nearly enough reporters to do much more than cover the news that falls into their laps. In their place we get a plethora of bloggers who do their best to fill the void. But they can’t, not really.

We should also be thankful that we live in a country without a state religion. In America, it’s acceptable for the son of a former president to go on television and tell you that he doesn’t believe in God while, at the same time, a former vice president is on television telling you that he seeks God’s guidance to explain why no one wants to vote for him for president.

In some ways the world really is on fire. But, from time to time, especially as we approach Thanksgiving Day, it’s important that we reflect on our many blessings. If you look around, you will see that you really do have so much to be thankful for.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Email Raymond V. Mariano at rmariano.telegram@gmail.com. He served four terms as mayor of Worcester and previously served on the City Council and School Committee. He grew up in Great Brook Valley and holds degrees from Worcester State College and Clark University. He was most recently executive director of the Worcester Housing Authority. His column appears weekly in the Sunday Telegram.His endorsements do not necessarily reflect the position of the Telegram & Gazette.

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Ray Mariano column on giving thanks on Thanksgiving Day