Citizens of Massachusetts, we live in a great state. Really we do. For this we are thankful, very.

While much of the world erupts in killing, in torture, in a million unnecessary cruelties, we in Massachusetts bond together and treasure the future.

While much of the nation lets go of grace and descends into negativities of all kinds; while many decide that fear is their Daddy; while all too many pursue an appetite for revenge, we in Massachusetts embrace our fellow human beings, feel enriched by their diversity, engage in pluralistic discussion that leads to innovative policy and enhancing the dignity of all.

While college campuses across the nation evidently debilitate in racial foolishness and gob-smacking claptrap, here in Massachusetts our university students keep their eyes on the sparrow of acquiring the skills needed to obtain prosperous employment, or to invent the future.

While the police forces in so many American cities pursue a policy of enforcing the peace not by protecting citizens but by sending death messages to those they should be policing, our police forces in Massachusetts commit to all the citizens they serve — and prove it every day. In this regard, special thanks to former Boston Police Commissioner Bill Evans and to former Superintendent, now Commissioner Bill Gross.

While the political communities of may states give in to the worst impulses of their voters, our political community in Massachusetts accepts the challenge to improve state services and encourage the inner confidence of all who live here. Our political leaders never disparage anyone, never blame the victim, never find in diversity 100 occasions for dividing us from one another. In this regard, thanks to Boston Mayor Marty Walsh for his passionate leadership, and to the new Boston City Council for its demonstrated confidence in both business AND community. And lastly, a special thanks to Governor Charlie Baker, Lieutenant Governor Karyn Polito, and Attorney General Maura Healey for their personal moral witness — which they demonstrate every day — as well as their commitment to careful reform.

Personally, this writer is also thankful for my wife and my kids, for my Here and Sphere partner Heather Cornell, for my many brothers and sisters in House Music nation, for my fellow journos (you guys rock !), and for my even larger circle of colleagues on the political battlefields of Boston democracy.

And let us not forget that Thanksgiving began here, in Plymouth, as a haggard group of refugees joined their Indian rescuers at a rough, wilderness meal of thanks redolent, for those refugees, of the last Supper, a meal of hope and of bonding with their fellow human beings on this harsh but promising coast.Today is the 394th re-enactment of that meal.

Onward and forward on this day of giving thanks.

—- Mike Freedberg / Here and Sphere