Thanksgiving is tomorrow.  It doesn’t surprise me how a lot of folks made a big deal out of Halloween and on Nov. 1 jumped right into the Christmas mode, as if there wasn’t this other holiday in between in which we are to celebrate our blessings.

Thanksgiving was intended to be a gathering in which to celebrate God for His blessings. While gratitude is important, too many folks are not acknowledging that God is the source of blessings.  Romans 11:36 says: “For from him and through him and for him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen.”

Too many folks today are sadly deceived into the Bart Simpson godless view of life for in one episode of “The Simpsons,” Bart’s prayer to God was this: “God, we paid for all this ourselves, so thanks for nothing.” While I’m sure the writers were trying to be funny, they probably think that way.

But what would Bart say when the ability to work to pay for the food on the table is stripped from Homer or Marge is stripped away because of accident or illness, would he blame God or truly call on God for an answer like healing?

I’m sure a lot of folks believe that and have completely dismissed God as the source for health and life and blessings. They fail to appreciate that even the poorest person in America, land of the plenty, are far better off than the poorest in other countries. There are no missiles raining down on our roofs. Can you imagine a poor kid in Calcutta having a free phone or able to walk down to the local church for bags of free groceries?

The onus is on us to be thankful to God. When we are, we tend to be a lot happier and a lot more grateful.

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It’s probably been 15 years since I heard Derek McGinnis speak in a local church and I haven’t forgot the lesson. McGinnis had his left leg blown off in Iraq when an improvised explosive device tore a hole in the Humvee in which he was riding. He also lost an eye in the attack and sustained head trauma.

McGinnis awoke in a hospital not knowing what happened only that he was racked with pain and missing body parts. He became despondent. He was no longer the physical specimen that he was before arriving in Fallujah. Derek suggested that his wife might leave him as he was “no good anymore.” With the prospects of many years of hard work in recovery and rehabilitation Derek felt life was over.

But he became a restored human being.

Why the turn around? Why the changed man? When Derek learned that his wife was pregnant, he resolved that he would have something for which to live. It wasn’t easy but today Derek McGinnis can run, surf and swim with the help of a prosthetic leg. He has a renewed faith in the God who saved him.

His life is characterized by “thanksliving,” or the daily practice of counting blessings, not recounting the curses.

McGinnis relates a poignant moment of his life in his book, “Exit Wounds.” Upon his release from an East Coast military hospital, one of the first things Derek wanted to do was visit a Starbucks as a civilian. As he ordered his drink, thankful that he was alive and home in the greatest nation on earth, he listened to a customer’s whine about the cream that was floating atop her drink. Apparently she went on and on, unaware that the veteran listening to her and been to hell and back. Derek believes that many Americans are like her – spoiled by pleasures with no real gratitude or thankfulness as to what we have been blessed.

I am afraid that I can be like that, too. But I’m trying to be among those who have an attitude of gratitude because I am sure that’s the key to being happy.

Thanksgiving is tomorrow and many are in circumstances that not ideal. Millions are without jobs and millions live in housing that is eating way too much of their paycheck.  The future of the economy and the mismanagement of the state and country is enough to make life seem especially gloomy.

But if we view our circumstances differently, it would change our outlook. Derek McGinnis once was asking God why him. Of all the people on the battlefield, why did the bomb hit his truck and tear his flesh apart? But the Derek McGinnis I remember had a change of perspective. He now asks God, “Why have you chosen to bless me in this way?” Today he is helping other servicemen and their families to deal with injuries and death – and he feels privileged to be able to do so.

One sentence that he said has stuck with me: “I am so blessed to be vertical.” We should all be so ready and able to echo his sentiments of thankfulness. We are living!

Sure, Derek is missing a leg. But he’s happy that he can bound around on an artificial leg. At least he can get on a surfboard and feel the sting of the ocean spray in his face. And one of his eyes doesn’t work but he has a good one to see the faces of his wife and children.

It takes work to be so genuinely grateful, especially when what we’ve possessed has been stripped from us.

Being the spoiled Starbucks complainer is a very unbecoming state of being. May we all make it our goal to thank God for what we have and live in a perpetual state of thanks-living.

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The Center for Disease Control and Prevention noted that 30 percent of girls in the United States have contemplated suicide in the past year.

As tragic as that is, we need to drill down and understand why this is.

I’m convinced that the mental health crisis is squarely a spiritual and moral problem for the two go hand-in-hand.

Adriana Kuch, a beautiful 14-year-old New Jersey high school student, killed herself after she was bullied and a video of it was posted on social media. Talk about cruelty heaped upon cruelty.

I think every child faces a bully in life. I know I did. But as time goes on there is a growing callousness in a lot of young people’s actions. Well-adjusted kids who are loved and feel secure in their families do not bully other kids. Bullies are broken people typically created in broken families.

The present mental health crisis grew worse with the pandemic but also comes at a time when belief in God and church attendance is abysmally tanking. A new Pew Research Center survey of more than 4,700 American adults finds that a third of Americans say they do not believe in the God of the Bible, but that they do believe there is some other higher power or spiritual force in the universe. A slim majority of Americans (56%) say they believe in God “as described in the Bible.” And 1-in-10 don’t believe in any higher power whatsoever.

If you go to church at least once a week, you’re among 16 percent of the U.S. population. Seventy-five years ago if you didn’t go to church, you were in the minority.

If there is no God and this life on earth is all there is, of course that’s depressing because after that, then what? Fade to black? Take away God and belief of an amazing afterlife and you’re bound to see life as hopeless and completely pointless. What gives life meaning and value is knowing you’re created by a loving God who loved so much he died for the sins of all. 

When I was a kid we didn’t have this crazy mental health crisis. But we also went to church and were uplifted there as loved creations of God. There was purpose and loving and serving others was part of that.

In the 1960s and 1970s we also didn’t have social media and let’s face it, that can make kids – indeed anyone – feel terrible and alone. Many start comparing themselves to others idyllic postings designed to make themselves and their lives look great, which leads others into thinking, my life isn’t that exciting compared to Joe, who has a prettier wife, Phil and Betty who got to go to Hawaii while I was stuck at home, or the Joneses who just bought a new RV while I’ve driving my 2012 Nissan with 233,000 miles on it.

And consider that as people spend more time on their smart phones (not using it to talk), the less time they have to interact with others who could be supporting them and not tearing them down.

No wonder people feel all alone!

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I love this quote by Thomas Sewell: “Have we reached the ultimate stage of absurdity where some people are held responsible for things that happened before they were born, while other people are not held responsible for what they themselves are doing today?”

Think reparations and being excused from criminal actions because of race.

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Speaking of reparations, have you noticed that Gov. Newsom hasn’t mentioned that subject as he grooms himself to become president? It’s a head fake to come into the middle because his radical policies will come back and bite him later. We haven’t forgotten who he really is.

He has a history of taking a stance during a campaign and reneging once he’s elected. Real Trojan horse material.

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As I detailed in last week’s column, the state will be implementing an April 1 increase in the minimum-wage for fast food chain workers to $20 an hour while the rest of the state earns $15.50 beginning Jan. 1.

The $20 per hour is for chains that have 60 or more restaurants, which means big chains we all know (McDonald’s, BK, Carl’s Jr., Jack in the Box, Taco Bell, Del Taco, etc.) Their food is already way too expensive and now the higher wage will price folks out of their establishments.

I was complaining about this to one local Jack in the Box manager and he informed me that he’s already planning to can some dead weight employees – the ones who aren’t working as hard as the others – to cut expenses since costs are going up. He’s also looking at raising the cost of a Jumbo Jack by 18 percent. He also told me that Jack won’t be building any new stores with dining rooms because dining rooms require employees to keep clean and other costs.

Minimum-wage and other California regulations are killing jobs. Just walk into the McDonald’s and see how employees have been replaced by self-serve order and pay stations.

This is horrible policy and I wish someone in the industry would file a class action lawsuit against the governor for destroying business in California.

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More bad news. Your PG&E gas bill will be going up significantly in 2024. PG&E wants to hike its rates as much as 26 percent to pay for infrastructure, like undergrounding power lines in fire-prone areas.

Did any of you see a 26 percent increase in you paycheck lately?

State Senator Marie Gil-Alvarado who represents Ceres, wants the state Public Utilities Commission to say no – at least until PG&E executives’ feet are held to the fire. She wants the PUC to demand from PG&E a comprehensive plan for improvements before any rate increase is even discussed.

TID serves the electrical needs of Ceres of course while the gas supplier is PG&E. We should feel fortunate to not be reliant on PG&E for electricity as are the mountain communities because they have endured public safety power shutoffs. According to the senator, 1,300 of her constituents in the southern part of El Dorado County experienced 11 outages in a two-week period between the end of October and first week of November. During the first weekend of July, over 5,600 constituents in Tuolumne and Calaveras counties experienced 13 outages over a three-day period during the heat.

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Okay, I know I’m nitpicking, my bad, but it doesn’t sound professional for a member of a City Council to pronounce library as “libeery” or use words that don’t exist like “irregardess.” And I bet I heard “you have the floor” 56 times at the last meeting.

The mayor regularly utters self-doubting statements.

Conflicting information, too. Vice Mayor Bret Silveira said Ceres was about a month to two months before water would be coming from the surface water project. Moments later Public Works Director Sam Royal reported that the first water came 3 p.m. that same day (Monday, Nov. 13).

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The Ceres City Council will meet behind closed doors on Monday to interview candidates for the city manager position.

Interim Ceres City Manager Doug Dunford is one of the applicants and it’s unknown how many other candidates are in the mix. A professional head-hunting agency is involved.

Last week an interesting email from Dennis Brazil, a former member of the Gustine City Council, was read by City Clerk Fallon Martin at the Ceres City Council meeting. Brazil suggested that the council speak to former or current council members and mayors who have worked with the candidates. He then thanked the councilmembers who took the time to return his call and mentioned leaving two voicemails and a text message to Mayor Javier Lopez that went unanswered. “I guess he’s too busy to return phone calls from the public,” said Brazil in an obvious dig.

Putting two and two together, knowing that Dunford served as city manager of Gustine from May 2017 to April 2022, there had to be an ulterior motive in Brazil’s request. So I asked Dunford what was behind Brazil’s comment and he said Brazil was mad at him and faulted him for the Gustine City Council not awarding a contract to Gilton Solid Waste because apparently Brazil and Gilton are friends.

It pays to dig a bit.

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On this happy occasion of Thanksgiving and the Christmas holidays coming up, please take your time getting to where you are going.

As this column was being wrapped up Tuesday morning we received a sad report of yet another tragic traffic death, this one that happened early Monday near the Fruityard at Yosemite and Geer. A 32-year-old man from Denair won’t be around to celebrate with friends or family because he was killed in the crash. The man was ejected from his car because he wasn’t wearing a seat belt.

Be safe and stay alive. Oh, and be thankful!

This column is the opinion of Jeff Benziger, and does not necessarily represent the opinion of The Ceres Courier or 209 Multimedia Corporation.  How do you feel about this? Let Jeff know at jeffb@cerescourier.com