Authored by Armstrong Williams via The Epoch Times,

Thanksgiving is a time for both festivities and reflection.

The United States has had the best of times and the worst of times, prosperity and depressions, the joys of peace and the privations and cruelties of war. But throughout these vicissitudes, there has been one bright constant: the decency of ordinary Americans unhesitating in risking that last full measure of devotion under the banner of liberty and justice for all.

That has been our inspiration and our deliverance from despair over our chronically flawed leaders earmarked by avarice, narcissism, megalomania, and duplicity.

The history of America is largely a history of the courage, industry, ambition, thriftiness, and selflessness of ordinary Americans.

The roots trace back to immigrants fleeing Europe at great risk in the quest for religious liberty and economic opportunity. They didn't confront death for money. They sought to create a "city on a hill" as a beacon to all peoples seeking government by the consent of the governed.