Thursday is Thanksgiving, and Thanksgiving, we believe, is more important than ever.

Yes, our country and our communities remain beset by divisive challenges.

Yes, we still reel from the loss and grief of a tragic pandemic.

But we also must take every opportunity to be thankful. Many of us are fortunate to be thankful for the love of our families. Many of us are fortunate enough to be thankful for careers that improve our communities and ourselves. Many of us are fortunate enough to be thankful for our friends and neighbors, for our children’s schools, our churches, our police and firefighters.

One hundred and fifty-two years ago, the U.S. Congress, following President Abraham Lincoln’s lead several years earlier, designated Thanksgiving as an annual holiday. The United States certainly was beset by daunting and divisive challenges in 1870. And yet, our country continued to strive, to work toward a more perfect union and a guarantee of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for all. We can all be thankful that the United States has overcome so many setbacks and acrimony in that work.

Warren County has many blessings. A sense of gratitude for these blessings grounds us. It provides context and direction for how we, as communities, can work together to confront the divisive challenges, whether they be war and strife throughout the world, inflation and energy costs, or crime or threats to our cherished liberties.

Because we know, from 153 years of gratitude, that we can improve. That we can appreciate the good and build upon it to overcome the bad. That our country and our communities can be better still.