In the Baptist church that I attend, the evening before Thanksgiving is an evening of “praise and pie.” We first praise God for His blessings, and then we dig into the various pies donated by our members. I love this combo of culinary artistry and the sublime!

Do we have much for which to be thankful this Thanksgiving? That depends on one’s perspective. For the purely materialistic, there is not much praising to be offered. Maybe the mansion in the hills was taken away by the bank, the real owner. Even “cash for clunkers” did not provide relief for the Maserati that the bank, the real owner, repossessed. Maybe a Madoff type absconded with the funds that were meant for the lazy days of retirement. Maybe the real Madoff made off with those funds. So there really is not much for which to be thankful if the focus is solely money.

If you really, really hate America, your Thanksgiving will be celebratory. There will be a huge turkey served on a platter in the shape of the USA, with trimmings of taxation, peppered with cuts in Medicare, with side dishes of reduction of benefits (rationing), and loss of jobs, served up to those middle-class dolts who keep up this drumbeat of God, family, friends and country. Where was that God Whom they so adore when their future was being carved up by 535 “butchers” clothed in non-traditional Thanksgiving garb? “My country tis of thee”? It is more like, “my country where art thou”? You who hate the traditional values of your country, are celebrating as you see those “right wing fanatics, domestic terrorist, God and guns-clinging” peons survey, not the wondrous cross, but their country impaled on a figurative stake. Pop a cork.

You in the Military….do you have much for which you are thankful? If you are at Fort Hood, you will try to celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday, but truthfully you are giving thanks that the terrorist attack on your base was not as bad as it could have been. Yep, I just named the slaughter a terrorist attack. That was not a “snap” judgment. Since we are in the season of the turkey, instead of a duck analogy, let’s substitute the turkey analogy. If the Fort Hood alleged slaughterer looks like a terrorist turkey, shoots like a terrorist turkey, makes terrorist connections like a turkey, by golly, it could be a terrorist turkey!

Those of you in Afghanistan….celebrating yet? I wonder if your Commander General McChrystal is even aware that it is Thanksgiving. He probably is more aware than the rest of us. He probably has one of those calendars that condemned men put up on their walls to count down the days to the trip to the gas chamber. No, he is not factually condemned to the gas chamber, unless that chamber is called “Ditherers Row.” He must have begun his countdown some time in August, and he is probably not thinking “my how time flies when you are having fun.” He is probably wondering if he included the year in his request for more boots on the ground, air and sea. Did he forget to mention that he means 2009?

How about, the “arrogant,” “divisive” American population, so described by your president? Are you giving thanks that you voted for “hope” and “change,” and a promise that your country would be transformed, and you have been conscripted in that transformation? Even the Thanksgiving turkeys must be wondering if they wandered into the wrong barnyard. Is that traditional Thanksgiving table laden down with trillions of dollars in deficits, gazillions in debt, 10.02 percent – 16 percent unemployment, instead of turkeys, yams, cranberry sauce and stuffing? Are you shouting curses, instead of giving praises when you finally face the fact that China owns the table, the table cloth, as well as most of the rest of your country, and Iran is ready to serve up a nuke, probably before the next Thanksgiving holiday rolls around? Should you even bother to decorate that table?

“Yes we can,” and “yes you should!” Bring out the pies and let us shout out the praises! The USA is wounded but there is still a lot of life in that body! The “gang of 535” sure heard from millions of the serfs via fax, e-mail, snail mail, in person and through the viral world, about excessive spending and that 2.5 trillion health care “reform” bill. Admittedly, the way this system works, is that the elites make the laws and pass them for the serfs to obey, while the elites are exempt from those same laws. But, until the last vestiges of freedom are overridden – and that is not a done deal – the elites still have to be voted upon. That is something for which we should all be thankful, and be prepared to defend this right to vote, to the death. “Freedom is not free.”

“Freedom is not free.” It is priceless. We have enjoyed our freedom all of these two hundred thirty three years, because of the ordinary men and women who perform extraordinary feats of daring, to protect us from enemies within and without. It is not an exaggeration to state that this country has the finest military in the world. Yes, partly because of the technical gadgets and “wizardry.” Even more importantly, it is the caliber of men and women who protect us. That is our ace in the foxhole. Their devotion and dedication are nonpareil. Thank you guardians of my, our freedom.

What else is there for which we should sound the trumpets? The president’s declaration that this is “not a Christian nation “ notwithstanding, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob still rules in this land! He, not the government, is Our Father, and we are His! We all, elites and peons alike, will stand before Him and give an account of the lives that He granted to us. Those who have ridden roughshod over His people and who have abused the authority granted by Him, as the Ricky Ricardo character on I Love Lucy, used to say, “will have a lot of ‘splaining to do.” Unlike the president’s explanation for those incorrect number of jobs created, supposedly the accounting of which is “an inexact science,” God’s science is inviolably precise and exact. Good luck in trying to fudge His books.

Finally, this is still the USA, “land of the free and home of the brave!” We are relatively free, so let us revel in this hard won freedom, while we can. Bring out the pies. Make mine a combo. Let us give praise for God, family, friends and country!

“Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise; give thanks to Him and praise His name. Count your blessings. Name them one by one.” Amen!