Tomorrow, most people in Vicksburg and Warren County will gather with friends and family for a feast of turkey with trimmings, fellowship, football and the good times that always accompany the holidays.

But there is a group of people in the area who won’t be able to sit down with family and friends or sit back and enjoy the holiday — they’ll be working.

These are not the store employees who will be at the stores when the doors open Thursday night for the Black Friday sales. These are the people who ensure we can safely enjoy the holiday knowing they have our back and ensuring we’re safe from danger.

That list includes the servicemen and women overseas in faraway places like Afghanistan, Turkey and Germany and on ships at sea on the world’s oceans, and the city and county’s first responders — the police officers, sheriff’s deputies, firefighters and paramedics, the doctors and nurses who man the emergency room at Merit Health River Region Medical Center, and the city utility workers who are on call or on station at the city’s water treatment plant and wastewater treatment plant who will be working this holiday weekend.

These people are giving up their holidays so we can enjoy ours with the knowledge we are safe in our homes and have someone who can help us in a crisis.

Our police, deputies and firefighters, like our soldiers and sailors overseas, are ready to give their all and put their lives on the line to protect us. Paramedics and the doctors and nurses in the hospital emergency room are ready to provide immediate aid to people suffering from injuries or illness. The utility workers ensure we have water when we turn the tap and other city workers are ready to give up their holiday in the event of a crisis like a broken water main or gas line.

So while we sit at our tables and say the blessing over the meal, while we’re sitting back watching the day’s gridiron classics, let’s remember those people who are in the fire stations and hospital emergency rooms, out patrolling the city and county streets and roads, on patrol in Afghanistan and the Pacific and ready to protect us so we can have a wonderful day.

These are the folks we should be really thankful for.