It's getting to be the time of year when Americans reflect on the year, count their blessings and generally think fondly of friends and family.
In the spirit of this fine tradition, we take this opportunity to give thanks for the numerous advantages under which we prosper.
We can be thankful for the virtuous leaders of our nation, who have the sense to know what is good for us and protect us from terrorism, even if it must come at the expense of our constitutionally guaranteed rights and long-cherished privacy.
Additionally, we should be thankful that the access provided to the Justice Department as well as their extensive authority to act on information, sometimes gathered from extraordinarily mundane realms--where we use our credit cards, the books we check out from the library and letters written the editor of the newspaper--are certainly enacted with our security and best interests at heart.
When giving thanks, our blossoming career prospects are never far from mind. While we not only attend one of the most prestigious universities in the world and among the least expensive public schools in the Big Ten, Madison is conveniently located just a couple hours away from Chicago, where we can funnel our Wisconsin taxpayer-funded education into the nearby Illinois economy.
Cynical is, justifiably, the word most frequently used to describe our age group.
We should give thanks also that the current administration has relaxed environmental standards both in the United States and worldwide through its adjustment of arsenic levels and exit from the Kyoto Treaty to name just a couple instances.
But things are not all so gloomy.
Despite cause for concern, however, we are fortunate to live in a nation with significant individual freedoms.
While more and more people entering the workforce are armed with bachelor's degrees, we stand to earn hundreds of thousands more throughout our lives than our high school peers without college education. We are united in our good fortune to be on our way to degrees which will significantly impact our quality of living to our benefit.
The best gift we can give ourselves and those around us this Thanksgiving, though, is the gift of our time. Whether it is as noble as donating time, money or food at a soup kitchen this Thursday or simply spending a little more time with relatives, this is the time of year to celebrate others with our notice and appreciation.
And we can be genuinely thankful for the simple pleasures which are so often the happiest. As we push on through exams, we can be grateful for the long vacation this weekend and time with our families. The friends we have here are the friends we will likely know the rest of our lives.
