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NewslettersThanksgiving 2008 finds us richly blessed
May we have your blessing to interrupt the drumbeat of depressing news long enough to acknowledge that we really do have a lot to be thankful for today in the Lowcountry?
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We live amid beauty that is rightfully the envy of people worldwide. Long before our waterways produced million-dollar views, their graceful strength provided us with recreation, sport and delicacies that made us rich when we didn't have two nickels to rub together.
We can be thankful to still be guided and comforted by our sturdy institutions, such as the St. Helena's Episcopal Church, the Brick Baptist Church, the Penn Center, the U.S. Marine Corps and a city government that is nearly 300 years old.
We have experienced a growing economy for so long that few remember the days of baloney by the slice, boll weevils, midwives and bateaux powered by oars.
Today we plan a $22 million high school, and an $8.5 million performing arts center at another high school, where not long ago young scholars were called to work in a field rather than at a computer-aided Smart Board -- and where "missionaries" came from afar to teach our children to read.
On this Thanksgiving Day, our property values seem low. But just two years ago, we complained because they were too high. Property values were soaring so fast that state law was changed in a clumsy effort to keep tax assessments from choking us to death.
On this Thanksgiving, too many of our school students qualify for free or reduced meals. Too many of the poor are hidden by the wealth that has transformed Beaufort County over the past half century. But at the same time, we now fight obesity where less than four decades ago "Hunger Tours" showed the world our children with stomachs filled with worms.
Yes, today many are experiencing financial downturns, at work and at home. Our trembling economy is reflected in the United Way of the Lowcountry's struggle to raise money nonprofits count on to address social needs here.
But because we live in a richly historic community, we constantly are reminded to take a longer view of things. The longer view shows that we are indeed blessed. We have much to be thankful for today -- so much that we should go beyond "thanks" and concentrate on the "giving" that the United Way and others need so much.
@Nyx.CommentBody@