Faithful readers of this column will recall that Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. It is uniquely American and focuses on that most simple and important act of gratitude.

When I was a soldier, Thanksgiving was held in special regard. After all, it was in the dark days of the Civil War, in October 1863, when Abraham Lincoln offered a proclamation: “I do, therefore, invite my fellow-citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea, and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a day of thanksgiving and prayer.”

Michael J. Hicks

When deployed, every effort was made to deliver turkey, dressing, and all the fixings to the field. Thanksgiving 1990 saw me in the Saudi Arabian desert readying myself for an attack into Iraq. The holiday marked my second hot meal in three months. I was especially grateful for the hard work that delivered that meal to me.

When soldiering in the U.S., every effort was made to allow soldiers to take leave or pass. For those of us who remained on post, the meal itself was served by officers in dress blue uniforms. In many units, officers filled wine glasses in mess halls, with captains and colonels waiting on privates.

I’m past that now and instead looking forward to welcoming one of my kids home from a challenging year in college, and two from very tough training in the Army and the Air Force. If fortune continues to smile upon me, I’ll get to spend some time with some of their close friends who will join us over the holiday weekend, along with extended family. Being in the company of young people committed to serve their country and community is a superb gift, for which I am enormously grateful.

I’ll be praying for all the young people with me over the holidays and wish them Godspeed with their duties over the coming year. I’ll also take up the wine pouring duties with extra zest, minus the dress uniform.

We Americans are enormously blessed on this Thanksgiving 2024.

In the years since the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, our economic recovery has outpaced every other developed nation. We’ve seen the strongest labor markets in more than 50 years, bringing unusually strong wage growth for the bottom 90% of American households. Job growth has been robust, with nearly all the growth in full-time jobs. As evidence of this, the number of workers who hold more than one job are now below 2019 levels.

Inflation is now within the Federal Reserve’s target of 2.0-2.5%, allowing the Fed to cut interest rates. This means mortgage rates have been in decline for more than a year, as has cost of borrowing for autos, appliances and other consumer items. At the same time, household debt as a share of income is now near record lows.

Inflation-adjusted GDP growth has averaged 3.1% since the COVID vaccines were introduced. That is a full percentage point better than any comparable period of the Trump or Obama presidencies. In fact, we’ve only had four equal stretches of GDP growth like that since 1970.

Wealth held by the poorest half of Americans, which might be the most salient measure, has grown more since 2001 than it did in the previous two decades. For Americans, particularly poorer Americans, the current economy has never been stronger.

Older and more affluent Americans have just been through the longest and largest increase in equity valuations in American history. Stock market portfolios for the most affluent 60% of Americans who hold stock or mutual funds just exploded in ways we’ve not seen before. So, everything from teacher to public safety officer retirement funds to flush 401(K) accounts have boomed like never before. As I write this, the stock exchanges are all at or near record levels.

Of course, abundance is measured in more than economic performance. Life expectancy for Americans in the top 90% of educational attainment continue to rise. The root cause of declining lifespan for the other 10% of Americans — drug overdoses — appear to be lessening substantially. This will be welcomed by families across our blessed nation.

Crime rates, which rose in the summer of 2020, are back to pre-COVID levels, and currently at levels not seen since the mid-1960s. This is true for all types of crimes, violent and nonviolent. Our streets have never been safer.

We have never enjoyed so much freedom. We remain free to express our opinions, marry who wish, worship where we wish, go to school where we wish and build a family as we wish. Few occupations are restricted from our choice. Of all the times and places to be alive, we are in the best.

All is not perfect, of course. I write often of the many challenges before us, from a huge federal debt, ill-considered economic policy proposals and evil foreign enemies who reek of malice. Some in our country do not share in the opportunity that is the broad marker of our Republic. Many are angry that the world is different than before, and uncomfortable with the freedoms others may enjoy. For all of this, I will pray for peace and acceptance.

But, in writing about that, I am thankful for the most important of our gifts.

The American experiment, of which we remain a vital and living part, gives us the tool to remedy those problems. We call that tool our Constitution, the clarion words of our Republic. It codified the God-given right to speak freely, to worship as we wish and assemble. When Lincoln called for Thanksgiving, it was because it was clear to him, only in late 1863, that our Constitution would survive the crises of our Civil War.

On this Thanksgiving, let us pray that the coming years continue to bless us with a strong Constitution and robust economy. Without it, we can expect none of the freedom and little of the prosperity that has so amply blessed us.