Conservative intellectual giant William F. Buckley once lamented that too many Westerners “accept without any thought the patrimony we all enjoy,” and he wrote a wonderful little book called Gratitude about the need to show thanks by giving back to this country for the blessings it has bestowed on us.

“A country — a civilization — that gives us such gifts as we dispose of cannot be repaid in kind,” he said in a related speech. Yet, he said 32 years ago Nov. 29, ingratitude for American blessings, including “the freedoms activated by the Bill of Rights,” is a “near universal offense.”