Editorial: Thanksgiving Day is a time to count our many blessings

On Thanksgiving Day it is again time to count our many blessings.
Actually, it helps one’s physical and mental health to be conscious of what is right around us daily. We’re always reading new studies on that. Focusing on the negative brings more negative results. Angry people get stomach aches and other nasty results.
To be specific: We are grateful today for Karen Mickens and Lettie Sanders in Sumpter Township who are feeding anyone who comes to their free Thanksgiving Day dinner at the community center. No need to register. Just come. Noon to 3 p.m. It “came upon our hearts” to do this, they say.
We are grateful for people like retired Belleville Police Chief Gene Taylor who, without worrying about the consequences, grabbed a teenager trying to kill herself in front of a train and pushed her mother to safety, with 1.2 seconds to spare, according to the CSX train video of the incident. He still is amazed at it all.
We are grateful for Carlos Velez who was overwhelmed with the need in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria and worked to set up a drive for provisions at the Fourth Street Square in Belleville that brought a huge number of donations. “They are starving,” he said simply.
For those individuals, and many others in the tri-community, we are grateful. And, we are grateful to live in the United States of America — the freest country in the world.