So much to be thankful for, so little time:

For many Americans, Thanksgiving is a mere gateway to the holiday season eventually culminating in the celebration of the new year. For others, this uniquely American holiday is a time of reflections of the true blessings citizens enjoy in this country.

Wouldn’t it be nice if, at least on Thanksgiving Day, Americans offered thanks for some of the many wonderful things about this country?

Everyone can be thankful that 46 Thanksgiving Days have come and gone without this country’s president being assassinated.

American children no longer participate in mandatory air raid drills in anticipation of a Soviet invasion.

It is still permissible to attend places of worship of your choice.

At least for now, freedom of expression, including the right to criticize elected officials who fail in their constitutional duties, remains a right.

Grocery store shelves are typically full of items necessary for sustenance.

I am ever so grateful for food being kept fresh in refrigerators or in boxes in the pantry.

Where would we be without the electricity necessary to operate all the absolute necessities upon which we rely as we live our lives in relative peace?

It’s been 30 Thanksgivings since this country has had to wait in lines for a limited amount of gasoline.

How thankful I am that I can turn on a faucet and relatively clean water flows out.

How thankful I am that an American invented the practical light bulb. But for Thomas Edison, we would have to watch television by candlelight.

Although at times telephones are irritating, I am so grateful that an American invented the contraption.

How small the country became after a couple of American brothers succeeded in getting their monstrously unwieldy plane into the air. The Wright Brothers’ adventures led to those truly amazing flying machines for which so many are thankful, whether as transportation or employment.

Even though my laundry chore experience is limited, I am ever so grateful when I reach into the closet or dresser to retrieve clean clothes.

This will be the tenth Thanksgiving since being blessed with a beautiful, incredibly bright and confident granddaughter. No, I’m not prejudiced in the least.

I have so much grateful thanks for a 92-year-old mother who routinely engages in political discussions from her home in South Carolina, or from her many visits around the country and the world.

My thankfulness envelopes my heart for two healthy, well-educated and successful children

And I’m especially thankful that my wife of 36 years still doesn’t understand she married below her station.

Finally, we should be thankful that today’s information age still provides outlets for the free exchange of views, news and ideas. Everyone would be well served by remembering that freedoms enjoyed are not carved in stone.