Keller @ Large: Thankful For The First Amendment
BOSTON (CBS) - What are we thankful for today?
I could run down a long list of people; many of them are coming over for dinner and football later.
I feel lucky to have great professional colleagues and am definitely thankful for them and all they do. Then there are the people I don't even know who make us safe and help us thrive.
But this Thanksgiving seems like an especially good time to be thankful for 45 little words that appear in a 224-year-old document called the Bill of Rights:
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."
This First Amendment to the Constitution is a major part of what makes us a unique country. Strip it away, and we're England or France or another democracy that whatever its merits, likes to give bureaucrats the power to suppress speech.
Don't ever forget how crucial the First Amendment is to keeping power in check, whether it's political power, police power, prosecutorial power, or the power of money.
Don't discount what it means that a visiting pope can get such a warm welcome here in a country where Catholics were despised and marginalized not so long ago.
And whether or not you approve of the message behind a peaceful protest, remember the crucial role protest has played in building and improving our country.
Right now, as always, there are some who want to modify or scrap the First Amendment. I'm very thankful that so many others are saying 'no way.'
Listen to Jon's commentary: