Stephen L. Carter, Columnist

13 Ways to Be Thankful If Politics Got You Down

What makes America great? For starters, there's "The Americans."

November 23, 2016 at 4:35 PM UTC

Stephen L. Carter is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist, a professor of law at Yale University and author of “Invisible: The Story of the Black Woman Lawyer Who Took Down America’s Most Powerful Mobster.”

Turkeys Tater and Tot have a presidential pardon to be thankful for.
Photographer: Win McNamee/Getty Images

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If your family is like mine, chances are that at some point Thursday afternoon or evening, you’re going to have to say something upbeat. A family member will suggest going around the table, so that each of us can tell the group what we are thankful for. Given that so many people seem so low just now, not a few may have trouble coming up with anything. In the Thanksgiving spirit, therefore, I present a baker’s dozen of suggestions on how to answer. All of them represent serious reasons to give thanks. If none of these lift your spirits, please -- please! -- come up with a list of your own. It’s worth the effort.

1. Around the world, infant mortality rates continue to plummet. Not fall. Plummet. It’s true in every region of the globe.