Giving Thanks
In recent weeks, one could be forgiven for taking a gloomy or even fearful view of the world. Terrorists murdered over 120 innocent people in public in Paris. The day before, in Beirut, 40 people were murdered in suicide bombings.
A few days later, 21 people in Mali were murdered at a hotel.
Brussels, home of the European Parliament, was put on its highest security alert throughout the entire weekend, as the Belgian government warned of a “serious and imminent” terrorist threat. Dozens of people were arrested for terrorism-related charges.
One can hardly keep up with the bloodshed. It can seem like the world is out of control.
But we have a lot to be thankful for.
The days are getting colder and darker, but let us not miss the light that is always in front of us, and the hope that is always within us.
Evil never has the last word. Evil takes good people, and good things, and uses them for the wrong reasons. Evil presupposes goodness: if there were no good, then there would be no evil.
The terrorists’ attempts to destroy civilization only show the value of civilization. Their hatred for freedom of speech, for economic prosperity, and for religious liberty only highlight why we value these things. Indeed, darkness can make light easier to see.
Moreover, the callous destructiveness of a few has once again brought out great solidarity and love in the many. People around the world have united in opposition to the despicable hatred of the terrorists. World landmarks from the Sydney Opera House to the Bhurj Khalifa turned red, white, and blue in an expression of compassion. Few bonds are as close as those born of shared suffering.
The brevity and the contingency of every day can be frightening, but they remind us that each day is a gift.
Because the threat of terrorism is so daunting, in addition to the countless other areas of daily political contest like our mounting national debt, one can get the impression that the world is getting worse.
But in many ways it is not. And these ways are not trivial.
From 1990 to 2010, the share of the world living in serious poverty was cut in half, from 43% to 21% as almost one billion people rose from indigence. In China alone, 680 million people have escaped poverty since the market-driven reforms of Deng Xiaoping (a drop of 74% in proportion). According to the World Bank, 2015 is the first time in history that fewer than 10% of the world lives in extreme poverty.
One result of this massive, free market-driven rise from poverty is equally staggering increases in life expectancy. Due largely to the decline in infant mortality, life expectancy in the West has increased by around 50% since 1900. In 1900, male life expectancy in the United States was 46. Today it is 79. Indeed, according to researchers James Oeppen and James Vaupel, the highest life expectancy for women has steadily increased by about 3 months a year since 1840. No increase in life expectancy or quality of life on this scale had ever happened in world history before. According to Nobel laureate Angus Deaton, a girl born today has a 50% chance of living to age 100. In 1910, that number was .001%.
Even despite the shocking terrorist attacks and wars shown on our television screens each day, our ancestors in some ways lived with worse threats of violence. According to Harvard’s Steven Pinker, the murder rate in Medieval Europe was thirty times what it is today.
We ought to give thanks for being Americans. We should give thanks for this country we love. We have 40,000 veterans, for example, living in the Sixteenth District. We have heroes all around us. And not only my fellow veterans, but everyday heroes like teachers, first responders, and local community leaders who show that where evil abounds, goodness abounds all the more.
The proper response to a gift is to give thanks. If we were entitled to everything, then it would not be a gift; it would merely be the just reward that is due to us.
We can — and indeed ought to — give thanks. And that itself is a gift.
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