As the war wages on across the seas, and our economy continues to suffer from record trade and budget deficits, as the rich get richer and the rest of us have harder and harder times struggling to get by and as the solutions to the problems of our country and our world seem further and further way, it is useful to stop and think about what we can be thankful for.

Our medical system is in crisis. The ranks of the uninsured continue to grow. Doctors are getting pressured by insurance providers on what gets covered and what gets paid for, while at the same time having to deal with ever increasing malpractice costs. It is becoming more and more difficult for seniors to make ends meet and cover their medical needs.

Yet, as I write this, my mother is recuperating from having a stent placed in an artery leading to her heart. I am thankful for those that contributed to the use of stents. To people like Charles Stent, Andreas Gruentzig, Charles Dotter , and Julio Palmaz who all contributed to stents being what they are today. I am thankful for those who cared for my mother, for the service employees at the hospital.

Today, there is an advertisement in the New York Times, by MyMoralValues.com, a project of http://PurpleOcean.org which is part of the SEIU talking about the moral values that matter. What matters is people caring for one another.

Yesterday, I spent time speaking with Ellison Horne, founder of Celebrating Solutions!. Celebrating Solutions is a multimedia effort to emphasize exciting solutions to neighborhood problems across the nation, to emphasize people caring for one another. We discussed how Civicspace might be a good tool to use for some of the web enabled aspects of the effort. I wrote a little bit about that on the Omidyar Network. It is another example of people caring for one another.

So, this Thanksgiving, give me something more to be thankful about. Reject the greed and materialism that is destroying our country, become part of the solution by being a person that cares for the people around you.