Jon Kyl, November 21, 2003

This Thanksgiving, American families will gather together around dining room tables, in front of a television tuned in to a football game, or at reunions with relatives they haven’t seen for far too long.

In some dining rooms, chairs will be vacant this holiday -- in the homes where a soldier is away fighting for our country or where a loved one has been lost in war, in an accident, or to sickness. For my family, this Thanksgiving will be the first since my father died (just before Christmas last year).

Regardless of the individual travails or personal challenges we’ve encountered this past year, Americans everywhere are united by one thing: our love and loyalty to our nation. At least, I hope we are.

A recent article in National Review addressed the question of whether "patriotism" has become a fad. It asked whether Americans still appreciate how fortunate they are to live here.

I think Thanksgiving is as appropriate time as any to think about this. For the first Thanksgiving was, in fact, a celebration of a people’s good fortune in having braved adversity to build a community in a new land. Since its first observance under President George Washington, our nation has traditionally used the holiday to offer God thanks for our country and its blessings.

I believe that patriotism is especially important to the United States because our country was founded on ideas - such as self-government and freedom -- and not simply by geographic accident.

I know to some people patriotism is a very old-fashioned notion. To the young, it may seem like something relegated to veterans who fought in a long-ago war or the rote singing of the National Anthem at a ballgame. That’s why, as parents and grandparents, it’s incumbent upon each of us to instill in younger generations national pride and gratitude for being fortunate enough to be citizens of a very special nation.

That does not mean that patriotism means acquiescence to whatever our government does. Americans have the right - at times the duty - to quarrel with their government when they believe the country is on the wrong path. By that same token, protest must not be distorted into hatred. Thousands of British citizens last week protested President Bush’s Iraq policy, for example, yet 70 percent of Britons polled said they considered America to be a force for good in the world. We can disagree on a policy, but still love the country.

This year, some Americans are anxious about our situation in the world - and perhaps our role in it. A great many, while sobered by the times we live in, are happy and hopeful, optimistic for our children’s futures, and proud of our nation.

And why shouldn’t we be proud? As noted classicist Victor Davis Hanson puts it, "If we in America . . . decide that the United States is not, and should not be, different from other countries (and is surely no better), then there is no intrinsic reason why any of us would be willing to sacrifice anything on its behalf."

Just think of how special this nation is. It was Americans who tore their country in half to end the abhorrent practice of slavery. When other nations sought accommodation, Americans fought Soviet Communism until its corrupt, unjust nature landed it in "the ash heap of history." Even this year, a young child in Iraq fell to his feet, crying "Ameriki! Ameriki!" as the first U.S. troops entered his liberated town, delivering badly-needed food and medicine.

And, of course, there’s Siegbert Freiberg. You haven’t heard of him, but he was a Jew in Nazi Germany who spent two years in hiding during World War II to avoid being taken to the concentration camps. Every day he feared he’d be caught, sent to the camps, and killed - like most of his neighbors and his mother, who he last saw being loaded onto a truck and driven away by the Gestapo.

Siegbert was separated from his father for 20 years. They could not unite until World War II had ended and Jews were safe again.

When they met at last, Siegbert said, "There's so much we both have to be grateful for that we can't begin to tell you now. But my father, who has learned just a little English, expressed it when I showed him the Statue of Liberty. He only knew four words. When somebody asked him anything in English and he didn't understand, he diplomatically said, 'Thank God for America’ -- and he meant it."

Happy Thanksgiving, America.

Senator Jon Kyl, a Republican, represents Arizona in the U.S. Senate.