Op-ed: I give thanks for these fine Americans

Is anyone surprised that at least one poll this year, by statistics database Statista, found that Americans’ favorite holiday is Thanksgiving? Expressing thanks, after all, makes everyone feel good.

In fact, numerous studies have shown that gratitude can lower blood pressure by as much as 16%, an even greater reduction than the 10% derived from petting a dog.

So, in the interests of promoting social harmony, as well as prolonging your life, consider sitting down after the holiday feast and using your right hand to write a Top 10 list of people and things for which you are grateful while petting your beloved pup with your left.

Here are my Top 10:

* Martin Cooper, our own Chicago-born engineer who from 1972 to 1973 invented the mobile phone, a descendant of which I’m using to make this list. Little did Cooper know (or maybe he did) how he would change the world.

* Dolores Deasy, a former colleague and guidance counselor at Chicago Vocational High School, who used her connections to get me an interview for a job as an adjunct English instructor. That job eventually got me to heaven, also known as the College of DuPage, where teachers are granted the pay and administrative support to explore, create and teach with optimal effectiveness in the most impactful profession in America.

* Fani Willis, district attorney of Fulton County, Georgia; Alvin Bragg, Manhattan district attorney; and Letitia James, New York state attorney general, three intrepid civil servants who have withstood threats and racist harassment in order to seek justice, accountability and the preservation of democracy for the American people in two state criminal cases and one state civil case against Donald Trump.

* H.E.R., the dynamic singer-songwriter whose performance of the national anthem this year was the undisputed highlight of the lowest-rated TV broadcast of the World Series in history, a competition that was won, mercifully, in just five games by the Texas Rangers. Gabriella Sarmiento Wilson, a Grammy- and Academy Award-winning artist, christened herself with the pronoun, the better, she believes, to focus on the music, which is attracting more and more attention because of her 50,000-watt voice and intricately smooth guitar playing.

* WGN Radio, my hometown’s century-old AM radio station, for pioneering the soap opera by broadcasting in 1930 the first installment of “Painted Dreams,” a daytime serial about the trials and tribulations of a large Irish American family. Since the sponsors were makers of detergent, the show, along with others that it spawned, became known as the soaps, which filled the daytime hours for many Americans, including yours truly. “General Hospital” and “One Life to Live” provided the necessary relief and distraction I needed between college classes.

* Neil Young, musical genius and anti-war, anti-racist environmentalist, who pulled his songs off Spotify and won’t restore them until the digital music and podcast service stops broadcasting “The Joe Rogan Experience,” whose propagation of lies about COVID-19 vaccinations potentially endangered the health and lives of countless innocent people.

* Chris Zorich, long before he became a celebrated All-American at the University of Notre Dame and a defensive tackle with the Chicago Bears, was a role model in my sophomore English class at Chicago Vocational High School in 1985. His curiosity and interest in literature, particularly poetry, inspired his classmates to adopt the same serious attitude toward education that he had.

* Sheriff Javier Salazar of Bexar County, Texas, for recommending that unlawful restraint charges be filed in connection with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ efforts to deceive and prey upon innocent migrants and surreptitiously fly them from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts, all just to score political points.

* Wally Joslyn, Vietnam War veteran, retired Illinois Bell executive and a buddy for 50 years, who in addition to cherishing his friends, his grandchildren and big band music, is a steady, decent and temperate history buff and who, in a rapidly changing technological world, reliably reminds me to see the forest for the trees.

* Tom Skilling, legendary WGN meteorologist, for covering the city’s notoriously unpredictable blizzards, tornadoes and heat waves for the past 45 years, and for proving that nice guys can finish first in the living rooms and the hearts of Chicagoans. A workaholic who’s been teaching us about the forces of nature, Skilling plans to take a “busman’s retirement,” splitting time among Chicago, Hawaii and Alaska, whose weather patterns he will monitor and research to satisfy his curiosity and maximize his joy!

Happy Thanksgiving to you all!

David McGrath is an emeritus English professor at the College of DuPage and author of “South Siders.” He can be reached at [email protected]

More Top Picks Best Power Racks For Powerlifting

Submit a letter, of no more than 400 words, to the editor here or email [email protected].