Commentary

Here we are with the holidays just around the corner, and one with long tradition in our country, Thanksgiving.

In addition to the turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, and pumpkin pie, we’ve always had an affinity to the holiday, for which we’re thankful, as brothers Edward and Samuel Fuller, passengers on an English ship that sailed out of Plymouth, England, in 1620, are counted among our family tree.

Four hundred years later, we find we’ve got plenty to be thankful for.

We’re thankful for being citizens of the United States. In spite of the picture painted by the national news media, of divisiveness and unrest in certain cities across the land during the past few months, we enjoy liberty and are free to pursue happiness as we see fit. No matter what, this nation, the first to be based on an idea rather than a lineage, will hopefully continue to be the standard bearer for freedom and promise to other cultures of the world.

We’re thankful that we have a business that serves a significant purpose within the community, and we’re thankful for those individuals and businesses—big and small—that make use of the newspaper for communicating with the residents of Dayton, Starbuck, Columbia County and environs.

We’re thankful for family and how much closer we’ve drawn during this tumultuous year. Twenty-twenty will be good to see fade into the rear-view mirror, don’t you agree? It started with bright hope, as every new year does, but was quickly put in shadow by a cancer diagnosis of our sister-in-law Patty, my brother Charles’s wife. In May, our daughter suddenly became ill and passed away. In September, our favorite uncle succumbed.

COVID-19 reared itself at the beginning of March and we’ve been whirling and twirling to that tune ever since.

Through it all, we’ve stayed connected and supportive of one another, and that’s been a good thing. Life can often make far-flung relatives less involved or close. These circumstances have changed that.

We’re thankful for this corner of Washington State, which essentially doesn’t follow other areas of our state which hold different values. We’re proud of our rural lifestyle and those values, and we’re thankful that the craziness of other regions in the United States didn’t take hold here.

Lately, another surge in coronavirus infections has engendered a mini-panic, it seems. Again, (and why is a big question!) people are grabbing all the toilet paper off the store shelves. We’re thankful that isn’t a big panic around here.

And we’re very thankful that the United States has the best medical care in the world. I remember a story of an Olympic skater who was injured while in the U.S.S.R., pre-Soviet collapse. A fellow Russian skater arrived at the hospital carrying gauze, bandages, syringes, etc., all the things that are readily available in this country, to help his skater friend. None of that was available, at any price, in that Russian hospital.

I was recently the subject of a couple hospital visits, and so far, so good. My procedures were all handled very well, and the prognosis is good. Very thankful for that.

It is our hope that your Thanksgiving holiday is one in which you count your blessings.

Happy Thanksgiving!