What I Am Thankful For

I am happy about Barack Obama's reelection for many specific reasons. Here are a few of them:

• his election means that The Affordable Care Act ("Obamacare") will continue forward. Though far from perfect, the Act deals with insurance caps (Obama mentioned that in his victory speech last night and when he was at Mentor High School last Saturday), pre-existing conditions, allowing adult children to be on their parents' medical policies up to age 26, and so many other crucial aspects of health care. I think that in the future it will help control the increase in prices of health insurance (others vigorously dispute that--we'll see). Certain aspects of this Act need to be changed, the sooner the better.
• public television and radio are safer; these are national treasures, and it would be a blow to our democracy to have them defunded. My grandson Colin will still have Big Bird, as well as Elmo and Baby Bop.
• public lands are safer. National Parks, Forests, Monuments, etc. These national treasures are safe for a while.
• the poor and needy will continue to receive some help. This is a huge concern of mine; my wife and I serve meals to the homeless every week in Painesville, Ohio (Project Hope and St. Mary's). Helping the poor is one of the basic tenets of my Christian Catholicism (as well as a basic element of my Irish heritage!).

I know there are some negative sides to Obama's reelection. I feel deeply for my Right to Life friends and their passionate opposition to Obama--I understand them, I think.

But I have weighed the pros and cons of Obama's reelection, and I think the pros win out by far. We ask God to bless our leaders, keep them from harm, help them to do what is right and good. And God Bless our country.