Every year, my extended family gathers at my house to celebrate Thanksgiving. One of our Thanksgiving traditions is when my dad goes around to all of my relatives and asks them what they are thankful for this year. Before we eat dinner, he reads everyone’s answer aloud, but keeps the person anonymous. Some answers I expected—my spouse, being an American, the Steelers, getting good scores on the medical board exam, my favorite blue-and-yellow-striped shirt, being healthy enough to complete a triathlon, Thanksgiving dinner, modern medicine and technology. One answer I did not expect—not much.
Not much? Upon further reflection, I could see why one of my relatives might give that answer. On Monday, the National Bureau of Economic Research found that the U.S. economy has been in a recession since December 2007. Numerous financial and manufacturing institutions are failing. Terror attacks have killed nearly 200 people and shaken India’s financial capital. Pirates are hijacking ships off the coast of Somalia. Russian warships are conducting naval exercises with Venezuela in our backyard, and former Soviet intelligence agents, authors, and filmmakers alike are predicting the end of America.
It is easy to lose sight of our blessings in the midst of chaos. Add in the stress of final exams and papers, and students may feel like the world is crashing in around them. Just to keep everything in perspective, here are a few things for which we should all be thankful:
We just experienced an election where 46 percent of those who voted cast their ballot against the winner. That’s 58,343,671 people who, on Nov. 4, did not support now president-elect Barack Obama. Yet there has not been any massive protest or violence that characterizes many elections around the world. There has been no threat of secession even though certain regions of our country voted for the other candidate. Ethnic violence has not rattled our election process. We are the first country with a white majority to elect a non-white leader. President Bush is cooperating fully in transition efforts. He is not trying to rally military leaders behind him to keep his hold on power.
Congress has record low approval ratings. Citizens are upset—and rightly so—with its handling of recent issues, such as the lack of oversight in the use of funds from the massive bailout passed last month and the continued corruption of our elected officials. However, there are no riots like those in Thailand, where protesters have taken over airports in an effort to topple the current government.
There has not been another large-scale terror attack in the United States since Sept. 11, 2001. Despite many terror scares, as recent as last week’s warning of a potential bombing at Penn Station, our worst fears have not come to fruition.
We have good relations with our neighbors. There is no threat of invasion from Canada or Mexico. As Americans, we take this for granted, but many places around the world are in constant border disputes, as we saw this summer in Georgia. We enjoy the longest unguarded border in the world with Canada, our number one trading partner.
It’s also important to keep in mind that while we might be in a recession, the U.S. is still doing relatively well economically, compared to the rest of the world. The U.S. economy is still the largest in the world, with one of the highest gross domestic products per capita. The unemployment rate, 6.5 percent, is high by American standards, but underdeveloped countries, as well as most of Europe, can only dream of having an unemployment rate that low.
Notice that no one is talking about the default of the U.S. government. Investors are fleeing to 10-year treasury notes for safety. The debate was over whether the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. should cover up to $250,000 per bank account, not whether the FDIC would be able to insure the savings accounts of defaulted banks’ customers.
Despite all that Americans have to be thankful for, I constantly find myself surrounded by complaining students. Some frequent complaints I’ve been hearing recently: we don’t have enough days off for reading week, professors are slow to respond to e-mails, there isn’t enough money for certain departments, housing isn’t adequately accommodating, and students are apathetic and don’t show up to campus events.
This is not saying that we are a “nation of whiners” or a university of complaining, spoiled brats. As long as we take action to fix the problems we complain about, our criticisms can be constructive. In fact, I think that some of our constant efforts to improve our country and University are a sign of the boundless American optimism of our citizens and classmates. If we didn’t think that we could make our society a better place, we wouldn’t spend so much time and energy trying to make changes. But we should be careful to remember in our criticisms of our nation or our University that despite our shortcomings, we are extremely fortunate to be living in America and going to any college at all. As we work to improve our surroundings, keep the blessings we do have in mind.
Lauren Salz is a Barnard College sophomore. She is the Executive Director of the College Republicans and the Communications Coordinator of the Columbia Political Union. Check Your Premises runs alternate Wednesdays. Opinion@columbiaspectator.com