On Thanksgiving, I will give thanks for the opportunity to be of service and for the strength and health that allow me to work hard at that mission every day. I will thank God for the wonderful parents who trained me up in the way I should go and for the beautiful children who have blessed my life.

Week after week in these commentaries, I have shared with you the accomplishments of our neighbors, people who have become extraordinary in the course of their dedication to others. These are the leaders who are shaping our children's future, the true guardians of our children's health, education and safety.

So, when I give thanks next Thursday, I will also be thinking about the principled example of Florence Butler and all of the other dedicated people at Healthy Start as they work to reduce infant mortality and assure healthier newborn babies in our Sandtown-Winchester and Middle East neighborhoods.  I will be remembering all of the other neighbors who are working so hard to give our children the love and educational opportunity required for full participation in the Information Age.

We owe more than we can ever repay to all the people whose faith and effort nurture our children's future in quiet places like the St. Ambrose Outreach Center and our many other Head Start programs.

We should not forget committed educators like Dr. Deborah Wortham at Rognel Heights Elementary/Middle School and Dr. Sarah Horsey at Pimlico Elementary School. With their colleagues throughout Baltimore, they are transforming the learning process at their schools and uplifting the lives of their students.

Brilliant teachers like West Baltimore Middle School's Beth Wierzbieniec are succeeding against formidable odds. Coppin State President Calvin Burnett and Morgan State President Earl Richardson have re-committed their institutions of higher learning to the task of rebuilding our schools. With the help of Ms. Bernadette Forman and P.T.A. volunteers throughout Baltimore, our schools are once again becoming communities of learning.

On Thanksgiving Day, I will thank God that people like these live among us.

As we bow our heads on November 23, all Americans will give thanks for the safety of their children. In Maryland, we will know that all of the children in our state are far less likely to be abused, neglected or poisoned in their own homes.

We will have good cause to be grateful to the thousands of Maryland volunteers who advocate the rights of children as members of Prevent Child Abuse Maryland, the Maryland Children's Action Network, the Maryland Citizens' Review Board for Children and the Coalition Against Childhood Lead Poisoning.

We will silently applaud leaders like Chief Leonard Hamm of the Baltimore City School Police and Dr. Andrey Bundley at Walbrook High School, practical visionaries who have reduced the threat to our children through policies of mutual respect and trust. 

We will find comfort in the knowledge that our young people themselves have taken the lead in the struggle against drugs as members of the Baltimore Prevention Coalition and Students Against Destructive Decisions. 

Each of us will have many reasons to be grateful on November 23. The dedication and generosity that we witness in Baltimore every day of the year provide a lasting Thanksgiving message to people of conscience everywhere.

Despite short-term political conflicts that fill the news, their example demonstrates that Americans are not divided in our ultimate sense of mission.