Thanksgiving Day

We won the lottery when we were born in the United States of America.  We enjoy freedoms and rights and opportunities that no one else in history has enjoyed.

It’s more than appropriate that Americans have a day to say thanks for that win.

The Bible talks about birthrights and Thomas Jefferson described our birthright as Americans – “all men…are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights”. Those rights are embodied in our Constitution. They are our birthright.

Jefferson went further when he wrote: “…to secure these rights, governments are instituted…”  In other words, the government’s job is to protect our rights.

Then, to top it off, Jefferson wrote that governments secure “their just powers from the consent of the governed”.  From the consent of “we the people.”

Our country thrived because our Constitution reflected those words and we practiced them– as private citizens and public officials. 

No country has done more for the world than America. 

I read a story written by a man who, as a boy, was in a Nazi concentration camp.  As the war neared its end, the prisoners were afraid they would be executed and when they were loaded in a boxcar, there was terror.  The boy’s father was watching through a gap in the walls and when he saw a group of armed soldiers coming, panic ensued.  But he changed everything when he said, “It’s the Americans”. 

That perfectly sums up what being an American has meant to the world.  No three words – other than “He is risen” - have meant as much to so many as, “It’s the Americans”.

We in SCOPE believe in the Constitution as it was written. 

We believe in all the rights protected by that constitution - not just in the right to keep and bear arms

We believe the Constitution limits government in order to protect our rights.

Some tell us that our Constitution needs to be reimagined and America needs to be “transformed”.

We disagree.

As President Ronald Reagan said, our system of capitalism, free market and  private property works.  That America is a shining city on a hill and the last best hope of mankind. 

Before we meet, SCOPE members say the Pledge of Allegiance.  Its words have meaning and we unashamedly say under God.  But we should not forget the next word – indivisible.     We believe in a United States not split apart by class warfare.          We believe in uniting not dividing and that “We the people” are the true governors of our nation.

Our founders gave us the structure that made the United States the greatest country in the history of the world - if we can keep it.  It’s our duty to preserve our Constitution against all enemies–foreign and domestic.

On Thursday, we should give thanks for all that has been given to us and all the opportunities that “It’s the Americans” have to accomplish in the future.