VICTOR JOECKS: How thankfulness makes you more conservative

Here’s something you should be grateful for this Thanksgiving but probably haven’t thought about recently — your hot water heater.

A couple of Sunday nights ago, I walked into my laundry area and noticed water on the floor in front of the washer. I inwardly groaned as I thought about the process and expense of looking for a new washer. My wife, however, noticed the water was coming from our water heater.

Let’s just say that — whatever your opinion of my columns — my writing ability far exceeds my handiness around the home. But a call to my father-in-law put me on the right path. Turn off the gas and the water coming into the tank. Attach a hose and drain the tank. Flip the pressure release valve, too.

But the shutoff valve wasn’t shutting off the water.

Uh oh. As the tank drained, it was filling up with more water. Not exactly a development approved by the Southern Nevada Water Authority. So I shut off the water to the house.

It’s easy to take running water for granted. Of course, water is going to come out when you turn on the faucet. Of course, there will be hot water. Of course, you can turn it off when you want it to.

Modern life is built on this convenience. Readily available water is used for essentials such as drinking, cleaning and flushing. Take that away, and everything stops or becomes much more laborious. A few hours were long enough to drive that lesson home. Thanks to my friend Clint and the local hardware store, water was flowing the next day.

Now, imagine you want to remodel your cramped house by knocking down a couple of walls to open up the floor plan. But if your plans would cut off access to tap water, you would be a fool to continue. No matter how much you need the space, you need running water more.

Here’s the point. The United States has so much freedom, opportunity and wealth that people risk their lives to come here. It’s easy for natural-born citizens to take that for granted because it’s all many of us have ever known. That’s why thankfulness is so important. It makes you remember what we have in America is precious and worth conserving. Just look at those poor souls fleeing socialist and communist governments, such as Venezuela and Cuba. Look at those in Afghanistan who clung to the tires of a departing U.S. military aircraft.

Sure, our country has problems. But the solutions shouldn’t include destroying the things that have made our country so desirable and unique.

Yet progressive critical race theory proponents openly advocate for tearing down Western institutions, such as capitalism and limited government, and societal norms, such as marriage and the family.

Those are the things that have produced the freedom and material abundance they take for granted. They want to take away your home’s water supply with the promise of making the layout more functional.

Trust me, it’s a bad trade-off.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Victor Joecks’ column appears in the Opinion section each Sunday, Wednesday and Friday. Listen to him discuss his columns each Monday at 7 a.m. with Kevin Wall on AM 670 KMZQ Right Talk. Contact him at vjoecks@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4698. Follow @victorjoecks on X.