Giving Thanks

During this holiday weekend, I think it’s appropriate to take a minute and reflect on all of the people and blessings in general for which we can be grateful. Here are some of mine:

Our service people all over the world, including our reservists, who make the dangerous and often lonely sacrifice to preserve our way of life (we can, as always, send our prayers and good wishes to both them and their families). With our people in mind, I should mention that Michael Moore's site has a link called, "How Can I Help The Troops," and the Friends of Bruce Cockburn site has a link to the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation.

Ukrainian leader Viktor Yushchenko, who survived dioxin poisoning, believed to have been administered during the campaign by government agents, and won the presidency in December after courts overturned the election of his rival. This is unbelievable to me – as much as I dislike Dubya and the conservatives, I would NEVER consider doing something like that to them.

(Yushchenko, by the way, is this year’s winner of the Liberty Medal, but due to schedule conflicts, he will not receive it until September 17th, Constitution Day, in a ceremony at the National Constitution Center.)

The governor of Washington State, Christina Gregoire, whose election was validated after two vote recounts against Repug challenger Dino Rossi

The rescue of one member of a U.S. special operations team in Afghanistan, which tempers somewhat the loss of 16 other special ops members when their helicopter was shot down in that area

The rescue of Shasta Groene in Idaho, and the community support that made that possible (Though the outcome for her brother doesn't look good, let's pray and hope for him also.)

The news about Karl Rove which Newsweek will blare out to the world shortly (which precedes, of course, the inevitable denials from Rove’s lawyer…what else can you expect?)

The fact that Howard Dean hasn’t said anything stupid for the last couple of weeks (continually keeping my fingers crossed on that one:-)