MUCH TO BE THANKFUL FOR!

2 PARAGRAPHS 4 LIBERTY: #391

Breaking precedent a bit by sending out this edition on a Thursday instead of Monday. But it is Thanksgiving and, in many ways, this is the best day of the year. Why? Because it is a holiday which, without being commercialized, is focused upon being with family and good friends, and appreciating our blessings. I am appreciative in so many ways. Part of this was described in the first sentence of the Prologue of my book Wearing the Robe, which said that the best decision I have ever made in my life was choosing my parents. They both were loving, supportive, interesting, boundary-setting and community-minded. And I think that this gave me a moral obligation to help those people who did not “choose” quite so well. Of course, I could have been born to a single mother with AIDS in Nigeria, or could have been raised in a home without a father, like so many men who are in prison today. I think of my parents almost every day, and am so deeply thankful to have been raised by them.

What else am I thankful for? I have lived a good life and am still basically healthy, with a loving wife, children who live close by and are doing well, and two grandchildren – and I am entitled to spoil them every time I see them! I confess to being deeply concerned about the direction our Great Country is headed both socially and economically, but I also believe we are resilient and will correct our course. So happy Thanksgiving, and I deeply hope you will consider how blessed we all are for living where we do, when we do and how we do!

Thus I close with my Best Wishes to our 2 Paragraphs Family and by passing along to you a Prayer for Thanksgiving that was taken from a recent Dear Abby column: “Oh, Heavenly Father, We thank Thee for food and remember the hungry. We thank Thee for health and remember the sick. We thank Thee for friends and remember the friendless. We thank Thee for freedom and remember the enslaved. May these remembrances stir us to service that Thy gifts to us may be used for others. Amen.”

Judge Jim Gray (Ret.) Superior Court of Orange County, California 2012 Libertarian Candidate for Vice President

Please listen to our radio show entitled All Rise! The Libertarian Way with Judge Jim Gray as we discuss timely ssues and show how they will be addressed more beneficially by employing Libertarian values and approaches. The series has concluded, but you can still hear any edition On Demand at https://www.voiceamerica.com/show/3883. And, by the way, these 2 Paragraphs columns are now on my website at www.JudgeJImGray.com, Facebook and LinkedIn at judgejimgray, Twitter at judgejamesgray, and wordpress at judgejimgray.wordpress.com. Please visit these sites for past editions, and do your part to spread the word about the importance of Liberty. In addition, my new book with the same title as my radio show is now available at Amazon.com., as is my wife Grace’s and my new novel centered about School Choice entitled 2030 KIDS: We are the Rising Heroes of the Planet. Please read and discuss them with your friends, and send in a review.