Farm to Family Column: What Are You Thankful For?

By Curt Arens

Northeast Nebraska News Agency

November 18, 2007

DearFriends,

Thistime of year, it is easy to be thankful for the graces and blessings that weall enjoy. Topping the list, we are grateful for our families, maybe ourhealth, our churches, our communities, a good harvest, our neighbors and closefriends.

Thoseare easy pickings. The people we love most, although we sometimes take them forgranted, are still first in our minds when we start thanking the good Lord. OnThanksgiving, around a dinner table filled with homemade food, I am thankfulfor all of those things as well.

Thetough part is being grateful for those folks outside of our comfort zone, thepeople who push our buttons, who get on our nerves, who drive us crazy. Thewhole "love thy neighbor" thing gets more complicated, when we starttalking about our enemies, or at least the folks who annoy us.

Everyonecan think of folks who fall in that category. Even in our rural communities, weare a diverse people, with all kinds of temperaments, viewpoints, politics andreligious beliefs. Sometimes, we annoy the heck out of each other, maybebecause we've had a bad day, or maybe because our basic personalities clashlike oil and water.

That'sOK. We probably should be thankful even for the folks who we disagree with. Ithink of Teddy Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson, back in 1918. President Wilson andformer President Roosevelt were utter political and personal enemies. Theydespised each other. Wilson was a philosopher, a college president and athinker. One on one, he came off like a cold fish, terse and short, and quitecold.

Rooseveltwas a people's president. He got in your face, spoke in a high, shrill voice,with force that could not be denied. He, too, was an educated man who grew upin New York City, but he'd been a rancher in North Dakota too. He liked to gripyour hand firmly. He was warm, aggressive and passionate.

WhenWorld War I broke out in Europe in 1914, President Wilson promised to keep theU.S. out of war, no matter what. Roosevelt publicly called Wilson a coward.Roosevelt, bordering on war mongering, went around the country touting militarypreparedness and promoting the idea that the U.S. had a responsibility to jumpinto the fray.

Then,when a torpedo from a German U-boat struck the British ship"Lusitania" and American passengers on board lost their lives, theclimate changed. Wilson was eventually forced to join Allied forces at waragainst the Germans. Roosevelt was elated, and asked Wilson if he could head aregiment of volunteers into France, just as he'd done during theSpanish-American War twenty years earlier.

ToRoosevelt's chagrin, Wilson turned Teddy down flatly, partially because theex-president was getting old and was not in good health, but also because hedid not want Roosevelt to go over to France, die on the battlefield and becomea heroic American martyr. Roosevelt and his family, even today, have neverforgiven Wilson for not allowing Teddy one last adventure.

Inretrospect, Roosevelt and Wilson were good for each other. Wilson pacifiedRoosevelt to some extent, buffering his over-zealous calls for blood. AndRoosevelt brought Wilson along, ever so slowly, to the idea of being preparedmilitarily for the day when we might enter that war, which we ultimately wereforced to do.

Inhindsight, Americans should be thankful the two great men despised each otherso much, because, as titans of the time, their differences became theirstrength, and benefited our nation.

Ofcourse, this doesn't ring true all of the time, and it depends on the issues athand. But you have all been on committees and boards where someone whoseopinion you did not share, brought up a good point or an innovative idea, thatyou could not deny. So, as tough as it is, we probably need to give thanks forall of the diverse people around us, because we know not how their differenceswith our own views might help us see things in a new light.

Happy Thanksgiving.