As so many of us return home this week, drive or take a train across a continent, or fly across the country, we’ll have a little bonus time to reflect on what we’re thankful for this Thanksgiving Day.

Family, friends and home will come to mind for most of us. And these are all legitimate things to be grateful for, to be sure. But if we think a little deeper, maybe we can ask: What makes those things possible? Who and what preserves and protects them? There are many answers to that.

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There are the Founders who made it all possible. There are all those who fought and sacrificed for us. There are the entrepreneurs, the dreamers, the scientists, and so many others who risked their livelihoods and reputations to give us a better way of life. And there are the millions and millions of everyday citizens who live here and love this country. Especially those who might feel at sea and worried given the recent presidential election result.

But this Thanksgiving, let’s call attention to a particular group of men and women as well. When we are thankful for the many opportunities the United States bestows upon all, let’s stop for a moment and think about who safeguards us in our homes and on our streets day in and day out. We need to be thankful for the brave members of our police departments and law enforcement personnel.

 

After a year when so many were unfairly pilloried by Democrats and leftists, those very same people would call the cops if their lives or property were in danger.

Police officers and law enforcement personnel walk out the door to go to work and their spouses, their kids, and they themselves have no idea if they will return safe and sound on any given day or night. Sadly, sometimes they don’t.

What do they get for it from society? Long hours, relatively low pay, a potentially deadly work environment, and the knowledge that if they do their job flawlessly they could still, in the end, wind up the person who is arrested.

We’re not saying the police are perfect. There are idiots, fools, and bullies in their ranks, as there are in any organization. But that meager percentage does not obscure the valor and sacrifice of the vast majority of law enforcement officers.

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Any one of those men and women could have chosen another path, perhaps a job where they are almost sure they will come home safe, another profession where they wouldn’t be public scapegoats for the benefit of thugs, miscreants, and terrorists. But they decided to wear a badge and we as a society reap the rewards from their hard work.

We also must realize what they protect. An orderly law abiding society, if we have that today, combined with a functional free-market republic is the exception to the rule of world history. The vast majority of orders from time’s beginning until now have been chaotic regimes that featured one group’s oppression of another to a degree that the oppressed group became chattel. There was no rule of law or any profession sworn to uphold the law. But our law enforcement personnel have changed that history and they lay their lives on the line every single day to perpetuate order and freedom.

That’s one of the reasons why this nation, the United States of America, is such a special place deserving of our thanks. And that’s why those who protect it on our streets, in our neighborhoods, and across our towns deserve our heartfelt thanks.