About a decade ago, then-Republican House leader Newt Gingrich raised a big stir when he implied that a mother's drowning of her two children in South Carolina was the result of years of permissive rule by the Democrats. His political enemies struck back, and it became a major moment in the morality plays of the 1990s. Gingrich is gone, relegated to the sidelines of the talking-head circuit. But after a decade of his Republicans in control, the headlines don't seem all that different. In the same month of an election in which a fifth or so of the voters said they were most concerned about fuzzily defined 'moral values', Americans cringed at the news at home. A hunter slaughtering other hunters in Wisconsin. A mother hacking off her child's limbs in Texas. A woman locking two little girls in a storage unit in Maryland. Then, the sad spectacles of out-of- control 'athletes' and 'fans' in hand-to-hand combat in Michigan and South Carolina sullied the week leading into Thanksgiving. But in this season of thankfulness, all of those episodes of failed civilization demand context. There remain significant things to be thankful for. This can be said even in the shadow of terrorism and an Iraqi War that has claimed the lives of more than 100 Americans and countless Iraqis just this month. Consider: The brave and selfless 18% 19- and 20-somethings who have fought and died or were maimed in Iraq and Afghanistan, including those who endured the hell of Fallujah. Whether you believe in the war in Iraq or not, the pictures of mothers and fathers, siblings and friends mourning over caskets at Arlington National Cemetery deserve to be remembered this holiday season. Their sacrifice is unmatched, and beyond our ability to repay. Remember them the next time you see a foot- ball player flex his muscles at the 50-yard line or an entertainer complain about not getting the respect he or she deserves. Remember Pat Tillman, who quit the Arizona Cardinals football team to join the military? He died in Afghanistan. That's real tragedy and sacrifice, not some pro basketball player getting kicked off the court for a year for trying to take a spectator's head off. The political system. OK, list your grievances first: billionaires trying to buy the election of 2004 lawyers cynically exploiting loopholes of a freshly passed campaign finance law nasty words flying on the Internet and talk TV. About as many people remain distressed that President Bush won re-election as those who are glad he won. But despite all these caveats, you'd also have to agree that much of the world still changes leaders at the point of a gun or remains governed by blood or entitlement. Yet this country just persevered through one of its most bitter, hard- fought elections without violence or retribution. That must be worth something in these uncertain times. The best title of this passage is______.