In a year of unprecedented disruption, many of us are not feeling particularly grateful.

Yet it’s more important than ever to be so, even if you’re not feeling it, according to Robert Emmons, professor of psychology at the University of California Davis. Expressions of gratitude, he believes, help us deal with bad news and to overcome setbacks.

“In the face of demoralization, gratitude has the power to energize,” Emmons wrote in Greater Good magazine in 2013. “In the face of brokenness, gratitude has the power to heal. In the face of despair, gratitude has the power to bring hope.”

Thanksgiving, therefore, is a timely opportunity to refill our souls with hopefulness. And I wish to take full advantage by giving thanks for the following exceptional Americans:

Pope Leo XIV: Not since the splendor of Michael Jordan has anyone made Chicagoans and suburbanites so proud. Born in Chicago and raised in Dolton, the pope feels more like “Uncle Leo” with his warm approachability and sense of humor. When someone in the crowd at the Vatican shouted, “Go Cubs!” he gamely responded, “Han perdido.” (They lost.) His Holiness recently displayed his South Side moxie by speaking out for the rights of immigrant detainees in Broadview, and by becoming the first pope to meet with Ending Clergy Abuse, the international organization of clergy abuse survivors.

Chappell Roan: The 27-year-old Grammy Award-winning musician has inspired millions, including the NHL’s Edmonton Oilers, by rising to the top of the musical world as a gay artist who emerged from a conservative small town in Missouri and struggled with a diagnosis of severe depression. Roan is an outspoken advocate for LGBTQ+ rights, and her song “Pink Pony Club” is the most physically energizing hit to reverberate around the globe since the U2 anthems of the 1980s, so much so that the Oilers adopted it as their team anthem.
Chappell Roan performs on the T-Mobile stage during Lollapalooza at Grant Park on Aug. 1, 2024. (Eileen T. Meslar/Chicago Tribune)

Ron Chernow: While the Swedish Academy does not award a Nobel Prize for longest book, I must say thanks to the 76-year-old journalist and author for his gargantuan 1,000-plus-page biography on Mark Twain, which took some seven years to write. Yes, there are many other 1,000-page books in print, from Leo Tolstoy’s “War and Peace” to James Michener’s “Texas.” But Chernow, who has already won awards for books about Alexander Hamilton and George Washington, manages to render every event in the humorist’s life as compelling as a scene in a Ken Burns documentary.

Tom Doyle, a former Chicago Vocational High School teacher and vice principal at Washington High School, in August 2025. (Tom Doyle)

Tom Doyle: Though we were rookie English teachers together at Chicago Vocational High School, Tom was light-years ahead in classroom management and teaching skills; we traded our eighth-period English classes a couple of times so that I might gain helpful experience. When we met after one, Tom handed me a sign reading, “Kick Me,” which he confiscated from one of my students who had tried to tape it to his back. Turns out it was Bernard McCullough, an irrepressible class clown in freshman English who went on to become the world-famous actor and comedian known as Bernie Mac. Thanks to Tom for his support and sense of humor as a college classmate, teaching colleague and friend for the past half century.

Lia Sophia Lopez: A senior at Little Village’s Lawndale High School, Lopez is a student organizer for social justice who led a late October march involving students from the four schools on the campus to protest the brutal acts by federal agents against local citizens and immigrants in her community: “We need to protect our people’s peace,” Lopez said. “We need to protect their freedom and dignity. Because if we don’t, no one else will.” At a time when lawyers, judges, advocacy groups and many adults are speaking out against the aggressive tactics of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Border Patrol, young people such as Lopez stepping up for freedom and justice inspire our greatest hope for the future.

M. Stanley Whittingham: I did not envision the outboard motor of my boat not restarting one blustery evening when I was miles from shore. But thanks to Whittingham, a professor of chemistry at New York’s Binghamton University, and his genius development of lithium-ion technology for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2019, I was able to jump-start my Yamaha with a battery charger the size of a sardine can. Today, the technology powers everything from smartphones and electric vehicles to power grid energy storage for entire communities.

Danielle Sassoon: The former clerk for the late conservative Supreme Court Justice Anthony Scalia was appointed by President Donald Trump as the acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York. Sassoon resigned rather than drop corruption charges against New York Mayor Eric Adams. She had been ordered to do so by then-acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove in exchange for Adams helping the administration with its immigration crackdown. Standing on her principles in refusing to accommodate a preemptive pardon of the mayor in a quid pro quo maneuver, she deserves America’s gratitude — and perhaps a medal for her bravery.

Danielle Sassoon, the acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, in Washington on Jan. 31, 2025. (Kent Nishimura/The New York Times)

Jerry Lemoine: My fishing partner and pal from Miami, Jerry was a seasoned mariner who taught me how to handle a boat in 5-foot waves and release a barracuda without losing any fingers. He had a voice like Nick Nolte’s and was a generous and compassionate listener on long trips offshore. He died in August, so this thank you is dedicated to his wife, Karen, who should know I still sometimes hear that laughing, gravelly voice when I’m alone on the high seas.

Jerry Lemoine on author David McGrath’s boat in the Gulf of Mexico west of Placida, Florida, circa 2019. (David McGrath)

Your turn, readers. Derive hope, healing and energy by listing a handful of folks you’d like to thank.

Happy Thanksgiving!

David McGrath is an emeritus English professor at the College of DuPage and author of “Far Enough Away,” a collection of Chicagoland stories. Email him at mcgrathd@dupage.edu.

Submit a letter, of no more than 400 words, to the editor here or email letters@chicagotribune.com.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/11/27/opinion-giving-thanks-americans-chappell-roan-pope-leo/