Thanksgiving? Here again? It’s almost stylish these days to say: “Thankful for what?” Well, let’s just look back a bit. One in particular noteworthy year in my life was 1963. Fresh out of college and my military service behind me, things never looked any better. I was glad to have my military service behind me. The hard times of working my way through college had left Pat and me with sighs of relief. A new and first baby boy in our family was for sure a joy. And I was living and working in Ada. How could it get better?

The president of the United States had just landed in Dallas for a series of speeches with his vice president Lyndon Johnson. We had our radio on in the pharmacy of Bayless Drug in Ada as the parade made its way through downtown Dallas — when the shots rang out. Chaos and confusion broke out and we soon knew JFK had just been murdered on the street. Suddenly, we had a new guy in the White House. Lyndon Johnson. It was sudden and it changed the way I looked and felt about my country. America.

Had John Kennedy not been shot he would have made a short speech in Dallas, gotten back on AF-1 and flown down to Austin. What was in that never delivered speech? Well, here is a piece of it. “In today’s world freedom can be lost without a shot ever being fired. By ballots as well as bullets.” As I think back about those days since Kennedy lay bleeding in the back seat of a White House limo with his bloodied wife trying desperately to help him, I think about how much change, discord and division in our nation has eroded and gnawed at the strength of America by just one half-witted gunman. Since Lee Harvey Oswald had just visited Cuba and Russia, both arch enemies of the USA, it’s a wonder a new war didn’t break out.

We got through that hard time. Sort of. Johnson took a minor conflict and ballooned it into a major conflict that defined our era. It was Vietnam. We did indeed get over Kennedy’s assassination, but will we ever get over Vietnam? Vietnam created a new era of dissention, separation, and political problems in this country we still struggle to solve. The many racial divides in America widened and went from toleration to intolerant. We found new ways to insult and hurt one another. Corruption? Rampant.

Now we dismiss corruption with a wave of our hands. Cynical Americans say “Oh, they’re all corrupt.” But we let them go ahead with it. They talk about “Trillions” of dollars and we are trying to figure out what a billion is. We let them go ahead as long as they keep our favorite programs (such as Social Security) going and keep the roads paved and so forth. Socialism? What is that? Can we even define that? Do we even care who Bernie Sanders is? But we still have freedom of speech, don’t we? And that 2 nd Amendment. I can still have my guns, can’t I. But so can everyone else. Yep. I’m getting a little bit scared lately. But still, I’m thankful. Sort of. Can we still say, “America, my country, Right or Wrong! My country.”

Here’s one more right we have. The freedom to worship. And to thank God for our many blessings. Or do you still go to church? You should. And be sure and take your family when you do. You will be blessed.

Wayne Bullard, DPh cwaynebullard@gmail.com