“Forever, the optimist,” a friend commented on reading my latest column — “It’s an amazing time to be alive.” This optimist’s column emphasized how fortunate we are not to have pain as our ever present Sword of Damocles. I am thankful medicine and science can manage most of our pain, compared to past centuries, when pain relief during operations was limited to a bottle of whiskey and biting a bullet.

Furthermore psychological studies — Erik Erikson et al — show that optimists lead healthier, happier lives.

I am grateful that I can entertain my own thoughts, and from time to time express them without deleterious repercussions. Of course we all are free to do or say what we want. As an American my First Amendment rights give me the right to say what I think. Contrast that to citizens of a theocracy such as Saudi Arabia or Iran. Acting on one’s thoughts can result in jail time or death.

This Thanksgiving, I give thanks that we live in a democracy though it is being tested in more ways than we ever imagined possible. The document written by the Founding Fathers had previously never been contemplated, never been written before to include all possible, imaginable safeguards.

I give thanks to live in this country where the Founding Fathers thought about the inheritance they were building for future generations. Could they have anticipated Trump’s MAGA movement?  Or visualize a rowing team of a Supreme Court, Congress and president all pulling in the same direction? This has caused indescribable consternation for my friends. But for me, it’s an amazing moment; a time nothing of this sort has ever seen the light of day. It’s time for the curious to watch, study and learn, and to ask: “how does the bus of democracy that’s in the ditch right itself?” It will, because the majority will again rise and vote for a new team. 

As much as we don’t compare nations’ degrees of generosity, to me Americans are the most generous people on earth. That’s been proven by the times America has gone to rescue victims of any number of disasters around the globe. Before USAID’s lights were extinguished, its helping hands plucked many from burning infernos, evacuated drowning multitudes from climatic catastrophes, and tended to the sick everywhere. 

The Bush administration’s PEPFAR program, launched and funded in 2003 has saved 25 million — women and children suffering from HIV/aids. I’m thankful to think that my tax dollars went to fulfill such merciful missions. I hope a day will come when we realize that what USAID did distinguished America from China, Russia or India — the giving, healing hands of Uncle Sam.

 I have watched public school children from certain families succeed and rise to heights that distinguish them from their classmates. Ours is a system of individual endeavor and opportunities. Yes, poverty, neighborhood location, and property values determine the sort of education open to an American child, but I’m thankful that some take the available opportunities  to become outstanding citizens. 

Compared to many other nations, I think we, the people of the United States, are more democratic, more tolerant. I’m well aware that the left and right of our nation pull at the flag at each end of the nation like two angry mastiffs. That which they fight about is quite small compared to what divides people in many lands and nations. It is often said, and it is true: What joins Americans is so much more than what divides them. That division and the frothing rhetoric of groups that believe in their rectitude over others, is unfortunate; it expends so much passion and energy that the nation could use to power so much that’s good and constructive. 

In the never-ending struggle for our better angels, Americans argue openly about justice and injustice; about what’s right and wrong.  But we are a nation willing sooner or later to correct our wrongs. 

Like millions of immigrants, I am grateful I was given the opportunity to serve the sick; to see the wide range of emotions on their faces: love in some and indifference in others; gratitude and taking for granted in others. I’m thankful for the thousands of American lives my hands saved; men and women who joyfully sit with their families to enjoy their Thanksgiving dinner; the bounty of the land we all call home. I am optimistic about the nation’s ills. They will heal. 

Pius Kamau, M.D., a retired general surgeon, is president of the Aurora-based Africa America Higher Education Partnerships; co-founder of the Africa Enterprise Group and an activist for minority students ‘STEM education. He is a National Public Radio commentator, a Huffington Post blogger, a past columnist for Denver dailies and is featured on the podcast, “Never Again.”