Thanksgiving

As always, I am looking forward to Thanksgiving. I thoroughly enjoy the food, the football and gathering with friends and family. Of course, we have well-established Thanksgiving traditions in the Kane household. Those traditions include giving thanks for all we have as individuals, as a family, and as citizens of our great nation.

As parents, Marcy and I will give thanks, as we do every year, for the precious gifts of our son, Aidan, and daughter, Deana, who we adopted as infants from South Korea. We will express our gratitude for all the people who bring such great joy into our lives. Undoubtedly, your family has its own Thanksgiving Day traditions and, hopefully, much to be thankful for. Unfortunately, that is not true for everyone.

Fortunately, there are a great many volunteer organizations that work hard to provide for those who do not have the means to join in the Thanksgiving celebration. Those of us who are able donate turkeys or other needed items to help these wonderful groups make the day festive for others. Many families make volunteering at a soup kitchen or a holiday dinner an important part of their Thanksgiving celebration. These are all wonderful ways to show gratitude – and those interested in making donations and volunteering as part of their Thanksgiving can easily find out how by inquiring at their places of worship, doing a quick internet search for local food drives and community dinners, or by seeking out media reports of holiday volunteer opportunities.

As proud citizens of the United States, our family’s Thanksgiving Day celebration would not be complete without expressing gratitude for the ongoing sacrifice of the brave soldiers who will not be spending the day with their loved ones. The rights and freedom we hold dear as Americans means so much to them that they are putting themselves in harm’s way to protect those of us who will be celebrating Thanksgiving in safety. Not only should we be grateful to these soldiers, but also to those they left behind. If you know someone whose husband, wife, son, daughter, grandchild or friend is serving our country far from home this Thanksgiving, please remember to thank them.

Keep in mind that American soldiers have fought throughout our nation’s history to protect all of the many rights and freedom we sometimes take for granted as citizens of the United States. We have the right to elect our government leaders. We have the right to worship, or not, as we choose. We have the right to freely express our opinions about our government, our personal politics, our individual religious beliefs, and any other issue that matters to us. Millions of people not fortunate enough to have been born citizens of our country risk everything to come here. Indeed, we have much to be thankful for.
I wish all of you a very Happy Thanksgiving!

As always I welcome the opportunity to speak with you regarding the important issues facing our state. I can be reached at my legislative office at 1-800-8423-1421, or via e-mail to [email protected]. I look forward to hearing from you.

Senator Rob Kane represents the 32nd Senatorial District, which includes the communities of Bethlehem, Bridgewater, Middlebury, Oxford, Seymour, Southbury, Thomaston, Roxbury, Watertown and Woodbury.