Let’s spend this week, or at least one day, concentrating on gratitude; being thankful.

The first Thanksgiving was a celebration by the Puritans and the Wampanoag. The surviving Puritans (Pilgrims) had grown enough corn and other crops, with advice and help from the native “Indians,” to get them through another year in Massachusetts. The main course for their celebration was deer meat (venison), not turkey.

So, Thanksgiving is based in agriculture. Thanksgiving is a time for us to celebrate a bountiful harvest. We are so efficient in this country that 2 percent of us on farms and ranches produce enough food for the other 98 percent.

Thanksgiving is a time to be grateful for our blessings, and look ahead to a brighter future.

Be thankful that we have a Constitution with a Bill of Rights that has allowed this country to endure more than 200 years. We’re thankful, most of us, for the Ten Commandments, even if we don’t follow all of them all the time.

We’re thankful that President Biden will celebrate his 81st birthday tomorrow. As Neil Cavuto, Fox Business News, joked, “81 is the new 80.”

We’re thankful for President Jimmy Carter who is grieving tonight. Rosalyn Carter, his wife of 77 years, passed away today at age 96. They were an amazing couple, almost their entire lives, starting and ending in Plains, Georgia. “Rosalynn was my equal partner in everything I ever accomplished.” From a man who is acknowledged as the best former president this country ever had, that is high praise.

I’m thankful for my faithful readers and a country where I can write opinions with no concern of being thrown in jail. Will Rogers wrote syndicated newspaper columns from 1922 to 1935, and I’ve written my Weekly Comments since 1997. I’m thankful to have good health and energy to continue speaking and writing, playing a small role in keeping alive the legend of Will Rogers.

Historic quotes by Will Rogers:

“Tomorrow is Thanksgiving. The more turkey you eat at dinner the less hash you will be bothered with the rest of the month.” DT #92, Nov. 24, 1926

“Tomorrow is Thanksgiving. [President] Coolidge asked us to thank the Lord, but to kinder hint to Him also that we are aware that a Republican Administration had assisted Him in providing this plentiful bounty.” DT #729, Nov. 27, 1928

“If I run for something, this would be my platform: No part of any turkey served later than Sunday night after Thanksgiving.” DT #1972, Nov. 29, 1932