I write this Thanksgiving column with three potentially inharmonious thoughts in mind. The first is that our beloved country is indisputably in a mess. The second is that I have no right to muddy the rivers we will cross by dwelling on our problems during this simple holiday. The third is that I must on the eve of Thanksgiving point out some spots of sunshine between the drifting clouds we contemplate.

The worst thing is the state of the economy. Unemployment continues to rise. The private sector continues to lose rather than create jobs. People respond to this gloomy situation by not spending, which speeds the downward cycle.

The public figure being measured for villain of the piece is Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner. I found myself last week making the case to call for his dismissal -- a mean thing to be doing, no doubt, given that it is unlikely that any possible successor, even Oprah or a superhuman "New Moon" vampire, could do better at this point.

The problem now is that Americans, tired of watching the Bush and now Obama administrations nurture the people who drove the economy over the cliff want to see remedial action. President Obama's sacking of Mr. Geithner won't do it.

The performance of the Troubled Assets Relief Program catches it in a nutshell. The relief went to Goldman Sachs, set to pay $17 billion in bonuses this happy holiday season, by way of the American International Group, apparently due to Mr. Geith- ner, head of the New York Fed when the deal was made. The taxpayers were the Asses in the TARP who paid for this. They remain Troubled, still trying to dig their way valiantly out of job losses, foreclosures, furloughs and the assorted maneuvers of credit-card firms, insurance companies and drug manufacturers not to let their profits slip even as we suckers look at the now-at-rest Thanksgiving turkey with envy as well as hunger.

So, spare Mr. Geithner, along with the National Turkey, but scare him. If Mr. Obama canned him he would probably have to go back to Wall Street, where his ungrateful beneficiaries would probably deny him even pecking room. The virtue of Mr. Geithner is that he should know all the tricks of the gangs of New York. Let him finally use that knowledge to our benefit, for Thanksgiving and for the rest of Mr. Obama's term.

The treatment of the health-care reform bill in the U.S. Senate last weekend came out right, in a way, although it came close -- thanks mostly to the Republicans -- to throwing many Americans' better well-being out with the turkey bones. It is almost hard to imagine that the Republicans in the Senate, led by wattled Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, wanted to prevent the Senate from even debating the health-care bill.

One result of the Republican effort was to give prominence to one of the Senate's true turkeys, Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut. But in the end, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada was able to get the Democrats to flock together to at least allow the Senate to discuss the bill. (Why do images of 100 stuffed, browned, headless birds steeping in pans keep flashing through my head?)

In other words, we can now celebrate Thanksgiving with hopes that legislation to stop the destructive rise of health-care costs and extend medical insurance to the one-in-six among us who don't have it is still alive. We can be thankful for that, and hope that the legislation will continue to wend its way through Congress in spite of the lobbyists and desperate Republicans seeking to pluck Mr. Obama's feathers.

We can also be grateful that some things in this country still work, and that we remain capable of fixing things that don't work. Americans recently have had the opportunity to see two instances of our justice system in action without prompting the need to cluck disapprovingly. Five of the 9/11 accused will be pulled out of the U.S. Navy base in Guantanamo, where they have been imprisoned "extra-legally," to be put on trial for their alleged crimes in a proper U.S. civilian court.

The idea that the United States can't handle the confinement and trial of these people in the homeland is insulting to us as Americans. "They might escape!" How? "New York might become a target." It was already.

We have a Constitution which enshrines due process of law. The actions of Mr. Obama and Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. brought us back to that principle for which we should be thankful this Thanksgiving.

The other reminder that we are a nation of laws came in the handling of accused Fort Hood mass killer Nidal Hassan. Whatever should be his ultimate fate -- and I don't imagine my thoughts on that subject are substantially more inhumane than those of most Americans -- his treatment at present is as it should be. He wasn't "finished off" at the scene of the shooting. He is receiving medical care. He will be defended in court. We should be thankful for that as our hearts go out to the families, friends and fellow soldiers of his apparent victims.

Carmel, Calif., where my wife and I are spending the holiday with my precious mother-in-law, is no place to despair. It is much better for giving thanks. (The dog likes me.)

So we shall, and welcome you to the challenge of looking at two wars, oceans of debt, mounting unemployment and still to give thanks for what is going right this Thanksgiving 2009.

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