I'm Pete du Pont with the National Center for Policy Analysis. It's Thanksgiving, and I'm thankful for this: the right, guaranteed by the First Amendment, to say whatever I like.
It's not a right I abuse. I try to be thoughtful, to back up my points with evidence, and to draw on my own experience and that of others.
You don't have to agree with me. You may not like me. If enough of you didn't, market forces, would probably grease the slide and I'd be replaced.
The point is, I'm especially thankful for the privilege, because I know that in many countries around the world I wouldn't have the right; indeed, in Afghanistan and Iraq, North Korea and China, I'd be arrested for trying to talk, and you'd be arrested for trying to listen. The means of communication are either controlled by the state, or there's an explicit understanding on the part of those who run the media that some opinions are acceptable and some just aren't.
So I'm thankful I'm here, and that you are too. Have a good Thanksgiving.
Those are my ideas, and at the N-C-P-A we know ideas can change the world. Visit the ncpa website at http://www.ncpathinktank.org/. I'm Pete du Pont. Next time, social security.