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Time to be thankful

An elderly woman in a nursing home discussing her mounting physical ailments with visitors typically ended the litany by thanking God she was doing as well as she was - thereby acknowledging not only that her condition could be worse, but that her life, put into perspective, wasn't all bad.

An elderly woman in a nursing home discussing her mounting physical ailments with visitors typically ended the litany by thanking God she was doing as well as she was - thereby acknowledging not only that her condition could be worse, but that her life, put into perspective, wasn't all bad.

That's an important point in today's America, where Thanksgiving has become more about shopping, and football, and eating - though not necessarily in that order.

Some families still say grace at the dinner table, and some take a few moments to individually express what makes them thankful. Not very often, someone will even spend a few moments to extol the virtues of the nation they call home. But don't hold your breath waiting for anyone to give thanks for our government, which sadly makes sense.

It's hard to think of another time when our national leaders were held in such low esteem, though there likely was one. Of course it's their fault. They can't get anything of consequence done. The partisan divide has so stymied Congress that some suggest our political system is broken and needs to be altered, if not replaced. The time seems ripe for an alternative party to rise to power, but one that aspires to do more than gripe about what it doesn't like.

No issue facing the nation is truly insurmountable, yet Congress and the White House seem to prefer dueling to working together to solve problems. Cooperation would require them to admit the other side is sometimes right, too. Even when they agree, as some Republicans and Democrats did a year ago on an immigration reform package, they lack the will to withstand the siren song of partisanship and slink back into their respective corners to await the bell for the next round.

Even so, there are good reasons to give thanks for living in America. Look at the economic situation now compared to five years ago, when the Dow Jones tanked at 6,547. All this week, it has hovered around 17,800. That means some Americans are getting rich. Maybe they will be thankful enough to share their wealth by creating more jobs here, instead of overseas.

Five years ago, no one knew when the Iraq war would end. In fact, it's starting to look like it didn't end, given the current tenuous situation. But President Obama's decision to send military "advisers" back to Baghdad is a far cry from the 150,000 U.S. soldiers once stationed in that country. The key now is to avoid returning to such a huge investment of personnel and resources in another war.

It would be naive to dismiss problems facing this country - including stagnant wages, bad schools, deteriorating infrastructure, and an evolving health care system - as being easy to solve. But history provides numerous examples of effective leadership sprouting from a seeming void. It can happen again, even among the current Washington crowd, if enough people shake off the pessimism apparently left over from 9/11 and the recession.

As that elderly woman mentioned above noted, life isn't so bad when you put everything in perspective. Unfortunately, perspective has become a casualty in today's America, where too much is viewed through a political lens that pits "them" against "us." It's time for that to change.