We should all be thankful for something

It’s that time again – time to head home for a paltry five days of Thanksgiving vacation while plenty of our fellow college students enjoy either an entire week off or an epic fall break.

But wait a second!

Wouldn’t going home with that kind of attitude be contrary to the entire spirit of Thanksgiving? After all, Thanksgiving – aside from drawing turkeys by tracing your hand in first grade – is really about giving thanks for what we do have, even in the tough times.

As IU students, we should have plenty to be thankful for. Our new freshman class is better than ever. Indiana seems to be doing fine. Even if you adamantly wanted to ditch Gov. Mitch Daniels, you should be thankful that even in this downturn we have enough money to draft a functioning budget.

Just look next door: The Illinois General Assembly recently considered allowing Illinois voters to recall Gov. Rod Blagojevich,  who by some counts might have an approval rating as low as 13 percent. That I-69 extension doesn’t seem so bad now, does it?

Plenty of IU students were probably thankful that Barack Obama swung Indiana into the Democratic column for this election. We know 66 percent of Monroe County was.

But then, come to think of it, even though he hasn’t actually become president yet, Obama has already been a little disappointing. His plan to shore up the U.S. auto industry with a bailout probably isn’t change most IU economics majors can believe in.

Speaking of the economy, remember that awful financial crisis everyone kept screaming about? Not only is it getting worse, but the Treasury Department, to which we gave $700 billion dollars to fix the problem, doesn’t seem to have any idea what it is doing.

Maybe in that regard, it is still a good time to be a college student. Sorry seniors, it is a tough time to be in the job market. Thanksgiving break might be a good time to let your family know you are planning on doing a victory lap.

Oh, and all you Kelley School of Business students who wanted to go into investment banking ... well, never mind.

Wait, did we suddenly get negative again? And we didn’t even mention how thankful we should be that our football season is over, or how we should be glad bureaucratic paralysis essentially stopped IU from renaming the Ora L. Wildermuth Intramural Center the “We’re not racist” Ora L. Wildermuth Intramural Center.

Well, at least you should all be thankful for the sleep you will finally be getting.
Happy Thanksgiving!