The Coconino sun., 1926-11-26

1AClC 10 dll OIu saying Llldl ICpuD-
lies are ungrateful. Apparently we
dition as that. Thankfulness is not
one of our shining virtues. We are
not swift to feel or express gratitude
to our public servants or to anyone
rendering public service, and then,
too, we readily forget the Great Giver
from whom all good things come On
the contrary we are inclined to be
critical We are prone to fault-find-
adopts in denunciation.
Our idea of liberty leads us to feel
we have right to say what we think
especially if what we think is dam
aging or disparaging. Our sense of
duty impels US to speak out, particu-
larly if somebody is to be condemned.
Our government has an enormous ca
pacity for laundering, and why should
not each one of us do his utmost to
set it right. The council at the city
hall are always muddling things. The
members of the state legislature are
always giving a fresh exhibition of
their incapacity and sometimes will
fulness. Yes, even the statesmen in
Washington in the national capitol
persist in doing things which we do
not like; and we say how is it pos
sible to keep still.
Before we are aware we are in a
chronic. state of fault-finding. The
whole temper and working of demo-
cracy seems to develop in people a
blindness to virtues and victories, and
a failing toward picking out short
comings and a tendency to dwell un-
duly on failures and acts which are
questionable if not reprehensible.
Our daily press helps along in the
same direction. For the most, it is
under the sway of that same tradi-
ton = that vice and crime are
most interesting forms of news. The
first page must be reserved for mur-
ders and robberies and if these fail
society scandals and commercial
crookedness must be given first place
The seamy side of life is Haunted in
our face every morning. Instead Of
the vile things being printed in small
type on an inside page, they are ex-
plotted in screaming headlines which
can be read across the street.
In this way the MIND is coarsened
by constant contact with the unsavory
aspects of life and conversation is
lowered and harmed by dealing with
things which belong in the garbage
can. UncOnsciously we adopt dis
eased and distorted notions of our
generation and see little reason to
be grateful for the privilege of living
IN such a disgusting country and in
such horrible world BY proclaim
ing from the housetops every day
things exceptional and abnormal, the
newspapers train us to place an ex-
aggerated emphasis on the sores and
ulcers of society. The press dries up
IN the heart the fountains of grateful
feeling by taking our thoughts away
from the wide areas of life, which are
beautiful and sound.
Of all people we Americans are
probably most in need of day of
thanksgiving, day on which we can
cultivate the faculties of appreciation
and praise, day on which we can
practice the high art of recounting
our blessings and endeavor to act in
accordance with that knowledge.
Sometimes even ministers of the
gospel have at times failed to realize
the higher meanings and uses of the
day. Instead of dwelling on things
beautiful and thereby helping their
people TO cultivate the grace of graf
ltude, they have made their Thanks
giving sermon a long drawn lamenta-
ton over the nations sins or have
depressed the heart by reciting sta
tistlcs of vice and crime. On Thanks
giving day we ought to think of our
national blessings and collect the rea-
sons for national gratitude. We can
not afford to waste our time on minor
and confusing facts. We ought to
sit down in front of the fact of AM
erica.
America, our country, is a fact,
great and bright fact through which
the glory of the Almighty is shining
and we ought to rejoice and be glad
IN it. Statistics of crime furnish
facts but they do not give us the
fact. Some facts are only incidentals
and what we nedd to consider is the
supreme fact. By focusing the at
tention on accidenta1s one may lose
entirely the essentials. Some students
of American life never tire of tell
ing US how many million dollars are
spent in year for chewing gum and
how many million dollars American
women spend for cosmetics; but such
figures do not assist one to under
stand the American people, or to
pass sound judgment on the fact
of America itself.
Look at America. "There she
stands. Go round about her, mark
well her virtues and bulwarks; con-
slider her palaces that you may tell
it to the generation following" See
the roads and the buildings, the great
cities and the tens of thousands of
beautiful homes, the factories and
mills, the colleges and universities,
the libraries and churches, all ere
ated within a hundred and fifty
years 1t is evident that Americans
have done something more than chew
gum.
Read the story of American wo-
manhood through century and a
half, a story of devotion and hero
ism and sacrifice unsurpassed, and
it is certain that American women
have not spent all their time in
painting their faces. One may fail
to see the forest because of the trees
and one may fail to see the one big
81 oro1;,,n, 4oo lopO on tho faofc