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Happy Thanksgiving, Everybody! Now Don't Forget To Donate To LBEH!

As Americans world wide prepare for Thanksgiving many will reflect on the things that we cherish most and for the majority of the year take for granted. We are thankful for our families, we are thankful for our health, for the food we receive, for the homes we live in, and for Gods blessing on America. This will be the third time in my adult life that I have spent time in a foreign war torn land. Thank you God, that I can come home to the land that you have graced. The everyday life I have seen would bring tears to the eyes of most civilized people, put fear in their hearts, and pity in their souls. It is the simple thing that we should remember as well, drinking water from a hose if we want, eating at the dirtiest restaurant without fear of food poisoning, walking across a field without fear of a booby trap, pulling over to the side of the road with out driving over a land mine, living in a land that has more ice cream shops than prosthetic leg stores.

I for one am thankful for so many of the simple things America has to offer, toilet paper, toilet seats, more varieties of food than one could count, traffic laws, roads, street lights, police officers, fire departments, sewage systems, on and on and on. But what we all need to be thankful for is our country itself. We have got, without a doubt the most wonderful country in the world to live in. We have the choice to start a church or open a porno store, the choice to have any job we choose, the chance to start over again, the chance to fall in love and marry whom ever we wish, we have the right to say what we want to say, where we want to say it, in any medium whatsoever. We have the right to view and worship God in the way we feel in our heart. We have the right to defend ourselves and redress grievances against our government for injustice, choose our leaders, and more recently fire our leaders.

We have clean rivers, pristine mountains, lush vegetation, parks, and undreamed of recreational facilities. Can you imagine if you could instantly transport a person from Kosovo or Afghanistan to Las Vegas or Disneyworld, they would go into shock? Oh, there are those who would complain about the United States that prejudice is rampant, that crime prevails in epidemic proportions throughout our land. These people have never been outside of the United States, ok maybe a trip to Europe. Here, Balkans, the Mideast, there is no such thing as prejudice, it simply is called hate or blood debt, it can last a 100 generations. Here when they deny you a job there is no court you can address your complaint with. Here when they show prejudice, and in many places in the world, they just hang you, or bomb your favorite pizza shop, our burn down your house and rape your children.

The average American cannot tell the difference between a Tajik, Pashtu, or Hazzara. Chances are that less than 1 in 1000 has even heard of these ethnicities. However, in Afghanistan it can mean fear beyond a normal Americans understanding. What makes America so great is the genius of our founding fathers. All men are created equal and endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights, among these the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. What simple words, what a deep philosophy. We are a nation of laws, rules, regulations, and bureaucracy, and while some may think we are losing rights, these very things provide us with security. Sure, it is a pain to travel a 75 MPH when you're the only one on the road, sure its pain to have building inspector endlessly review your permits and work, what a pain to pay taxes, ...What a blessing to know the rules, have them enforced and then, then if we really disagree with the statute, we then have system where by we can change the rules because each year we have the opportunity to go out in vote. Someday this will be a world wide right, yet, we are so blessed that only a small fraction of those who can do vote.

I love the fact that we can fail, well I hate failing but, without the option of failing who would take the risk. I would say in American business we are the greatest risk takers in the world. And guess what, we are the largest economic power in the world, heck California by itself would be the fifth largest economic power in the world if it were a separate country ...like republic of Texas! Oh, finally a plug for the Army, a lot Americans do not feel good that their loved ones are overseas, fighting, living, and some dying so far from their families and loved ones. And I know for a fact there are a lot of soldiers that do not like it much either, I am raising my hand now.

But each solider, airman, sailor and Marine knows the importance of their job and what it means. Today, our American Army with her allies, and yes the Germans and the French are with us here, are keeping the horrors of war and terrorism away from America and Europe. By waging the good war here, so far from home, those who have designs on would wound us at home are forced to engage their energy and forces here. We have disrupted their terror cycle. Yes, they can still hurt us on the home front, we should never let down our guard, but we have and will continue to put a dent in there effort. We will wage the war in where we have to, we will win the hearts and minds, we will bring the blessings of prosperity and liberty to places that have only know war. We will build their Armies, build their roads, we will help the orphans, we will build schools, we will build land of promise not of fear, we will build bridges to peace.

God bless you, God bless America, and during this time of thanks we should all whisper a small word of gratitude to the grand Architect of the Universe who has blessed us and our land.

LTC David Francavilla
United States Army

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