Thanksgiving Day is over, but its message remains. I believe gratitude is a great – perhaps the greatest – quality that leads to happiness. Conversely, ingratitude is the greatest failing that leads to unhappiness, anger, and violence.

My uncles started with little in material things. They never finished high school. They spoke with accents. But they never looted a store. They were grateful for what they had: wives, children, a roof over their heads, food on the table, a peaceful place to live and work. They were grateful because they knew that elsewhere in the world, they might have none of these things. In fact they might be persecuted and have to flee for their lives.

So when they looked in a store window with their families and saw things they couldn’t afford, they enjoyed “window shopping” as it was called. And they resolved to work harder so they would be able to afford these things. Or, conversely, they simply said, “Who needs all that?” and went on their way.

They weren’t ingrates who felt entitled to whatever they wanted at the moment. They weren’t emotional 4-year-olds, they were adults. They wouldn’t dream of scooping up armloads of items, assaulting employees, then leaving the store without paying. As small children, they had been taught, “Thou shalt not steal.” They had been taught to believe in a just God who rewarded good behavior and punished bad behavior.

But most of all, they weren’t angry, entitled ingrates. And what does Critical Race Theory indoctrination produce? What does incessant overemphasis on race and economic class produce? You got it: angry, entitled ingrates. Those who advocate CRT and overemphasize race and class must realize that they are producing the store looters and smash-and-grabbers. They must realize that the ingrates they produce are tearing down the civilization they enjoy.

So why are they doing it? Because they are ingrates themselves. They compare America not to other nations that actually exist. They compare it to their fantasy of the ideal socialist state that never existed. Just as small children scream “I hate you” to a parent when they don’t immediately get what they want, they scream “I hate you” to their homeland when they are unhappy and unfulfilled for internal reasons. If we don’t turn off the TV, put down the snacks, get up off the couch, and do something, they will succeed in tearing down our country with their ingratitude.