Don't be fooled. We have a lot to be grateful for this Thanksgiving

I have more blessings than I can count this Thanksgiving, and I suspect many other Americans do too. My family is strong- three amazing adult children, a wonderful parent who is healthy and well, a brother I am proud of every day, and my bride of more than thirty years still my essential partner.

Our family won the pound lottery when we adopted Winston, some kind of bloodhound- lab mix who is hands down, the greatest dog. Winston and I walk every morning in our Chicago neighborhood.

Chicago never fails to surprise first time visitors with its beauty.  Those of us who live here see it too, and we aren’t ashamed to boast about the energy and commerce and art and culture around us. Chicagoans are comfortable enough with our diversity that we ask ourselves how to meet the challenges of poverty, racial inequities, immigration, crime, and a constantly transforming economy.  No place lacks difficult challenges. That we have the space, both geographical and intellectual, to wrestle with these challenges is a blessing.

We Chicagoans share in the benefits and burdens of our country. Right now across America, we are our own most dangerous enemy, which, when you think about it, is also a blessing. Much worse to suffer the fate of Ukraine or other weak nations constantly threatened by stronger powers. Even Americans who are not among the fabulously wealthy have an abundance unimagined a generation ago. We have freedoms that others dream of. And each of us has yet a power that is the envy of all: we are our own sovereigns. Each of us, if we connect with others has the power to shape our destiny,

This past year huge numbers of Americans contended together to do just that. To fight for or against a woman’s right to reproductive freedom. To fight for or against protecting voting rights. To fight for or against rules that fight climate change. To fight for or against regulating weapons on our streets. I am grateful that I live in a place where people who disagree on such important questions almost always fight without violence, and when a decision is made, we can accept it.

Now I know, right now there are folks who don’t accept any outcome except the one they want. They try to undermine elections or to find some backdoor maneuver that will empower their side to prevail despite the determined will of the people. In fairness, that’s always been true in America. Our democracy was never complete. We had Jim Crow. We came late to women’s suffrage. We built urban patronage armies. All these undermined the ideals of democracy. Today’s autocrats have a distinctly American heritage. And yet…

What’s different about this moment is not that we might lose our democracy, but that we might, for the first time, make it truly inclusive. The world has never had a great multi-racial, multi-faith democracy. Right now, we are closer than we have ever been to realizing that dream. And it is as awe inspiring today as it was when the idea was first sketched out the idea in 1776.

This is an amazing time to be alive.