A holiday to give thanks for freedom

The busy holiday season has hit us head on. Long Island shopping malls are jammed, festive decorations abound, and tree-lighting ceremonies have begun. In New York City, thousands swarm around Rockefeller Center day and night -- even though its landmark Christmas tree is still unlit.

The season is boisterous, busy and bright -- no different, it seems, from any other holiday season. And yet, things are not the same, in ways both seen and unseen. There are more police in our malls and outside some houses of worship, and there is an undercurrent of uneasiness in some minds.

That's to be expected. Concern and fear have seeped into our conversations and decisions after the terrorist attacks in Paris and Mali, and this week's lockdown of Brussels in Belgium. Those events are part of 2015's backdrop to Thanksgiving week, with its iconic swirl of parade balloons and floats, shopping, eating, and general merriment.

Many are celebrating this week in public, undaunted. They plan to attend the city's Thanksgiving Day parade to experience the same unforgettable moments and make the same vivid memories so many have in other years. Hundreds of counterterrorism officers will join the NYPD's regular patrols to assuage fears and maintain safety. But other people, including many who had planned to line the streets of midtown, will choose to stay home and make their memories there. That, too, is understandable.

Whatever your choices, we hope you enjoy the company of friends and family, and give thanks -- for your loved ones, for a region filled with vigor and energy, and for a country whose freedoms are at the heart of our celebration.