“The walls we build around us to keep sadness out also keeps out the joy.” 

— Jim Rohn

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Here’s hoping your Thanksgiving lived up to its namesake. There’s indeed a lot to be thankful for.

With furthering that mission in mind, let’s dig into a few of the largely unnoticed blessings that surround us.

 Americans live well — Yes, it’s true that half of us go paycheck to paycheck, but we do some wonderous things with those paychecks. Count the people you know who don’t have a car, a roof over their head, widescreen TV or two or three, an iPhone, food when they want it, a tummy that reflects liberal food access, and an A1C level that affirms food deprivation or insecurity as a myth for most anyone who is able and tries even a little bit to work and carry their own weight. It’s the pursuit over the nice over the necessary that sets most of us up for financial distress.

Political insanity is losing traction — Gender exchange; revolving door justice; illegal immigration; immigrant child sexual abuse; indifference to new lives; converting our representative republic into a socialistic authoritarian state; endless wars; and minority rule are fading fast. Now if we can just make some headway on living within our national means; get real about the harms of crony capitalism; intercepting the left’s infatuation with lawfare, corrupting the voting booth, and destroying the sanctity of the US Supreme Court; and get Trump to continue his strong leadership while hushing his mouth — the sky’s the limit.

Our corrupted economy is reaching its limits — I know that doesn’t sound like a good thing, but for the past 50 years we’ve been putting more and more money and power in fewer and fewer hands while the rest of us became debt addicts. The 50-year mortgage suggestion by President Trump represents the apex of our economic insanity. They do that in Germany where owning your own home becomes a generational commitment. The heck with that — this is America. Our system was designed to work for the common man vs. special interests, power interests, elitists, robber-barons, the hyper-wealthy and political control-freaks. Unfortunately, greed knows no bounds and the predators in our culture have had the upper hand for too long. There’s suffering ahead, but the brilliance of the American system is that it’s self-correcting. We’re all going to face some hardship in that transition, but the pretense that our credit-dominated economy is healthy, balanced, fair, and free-market-based is about to be challenged for the farce that it is.

Healthcare is readily available — The left loves to tout the glories of socialized medicine, and facts don’t matter in the face of their fantasies. Look at the wait lists in Canada and the U.K. for a reality check on how their healthcare promises have the authenticity of a department store mannequin. Meantime, back here, most anyone who wants healthcare can find it. It’s hard sometimes, because we have this weird system of crony capitalism, socialized medicine, and hyper-regulation that’s clumsy at best. If we ever get around to turning loose the powers of a free-market, healthcare will become affordable like flat screen TVs are affordable. The absurdity of Democrat obsession with putting government in control of healthcare can be readily confronted with how well government does when they’re in charge of anything. Witness the USPS, the SNAP program, and the Department of Education for a front-row seat on their competency scores.

Illegal immigration checked — For too long, our politicians, chambers of commerce and everyone else wanting cheap labor and something for nothing have exploited our lax immigration laws and borders. President Trump is to be commended for putting an end to this irrational and hyper-expensive failure to govern. Yes, I know, those of you more concerned with affordable lawn care than the preservation of our country are busily protesting and crying crocodile tears for the poor immigrants. I get that. But this isn’t about poor immigrants. It’s about crime, drugs, failure to assimilate, exploiting our social safety net, education costs, terrorism and broad disruption of our cultural norms. While we’re at it, I’d like to suggest a few things for illegal aliens who’re here and want to stay here — (1) Don’t be a criminal (2) Don’t hang out with other criminals (3) Learn our language (4) Work (5) Bring the best of your former culture and leave the worst (6) Embrace the best of American culture and step over the worst (7) Assimilate – don’t isolate (8) Help uplift vs. exploit your new country (9) Take whatever small steps you can to pursue legal status (10) If you feel a need to protest, go back to the country you left and fix your homeland, before you try to fix us.

Yep, there’s lots to be thankful for.

But all those blessings come with a price. To the extent that nothing good is easy, why would we expect otherwise?

Be thankful you’re an American.

In the coming year, you, I, and a lot of other Americans are going to have to work hard to earn and preserve our blessings. 

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Conserve [v. kuhn-surv] To use or manage wisely; preserve, save...

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Carl Mumpower is a practicing psychologist and former member of Asheville City Council. He can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .