Forest Lake Press- Thanksgiving Reminds Us to Never Give Up
Three hundred and ninety years ago, the Wampanoag Indians came together with their new neighbors, the Pilgrims, for a simple celebratory feast. After all, these friends had much to celebrate that November.
During the horrible first winter in the “New World” (as America was then called), half of the Pilgrims perished. But when spring arrived, the surviving Pilgrims befriended the local tribe of Indians. With the Wampanoags’ help, the Pilgrims planted their first crops. After a successful harvest in November 1621, Governor William Bradford requested the Indians join his fellow Pilgrims for a feast of thanksgiving. They offered thanks, not only for surviving the winter, but for friends and an abundance of food as well.
Years later, President Abraham Lincoln gave a Thanksgiving Proclamation on October 26, 1863. His statement must have seemed ironic to Americans in the midst of the bloodiest war in the history of this nation. First, Lincoln acknowledged the tremendous loss of life and the unprecedented severity of the Civil War. Then he declared his gratitude to God for blessings like the ever-bountiful fields that spotted the American countryside and the relative lack of anarchy.
Lincoln went on to declare the last Thursday in November to be set aside as “a Day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens.” He knew his fellow Americans needed hope amidst the chaos of the war around them and they needed to look forward to better times as a nation.
This year, as we celebrate Thanksgiving, I cannot help but be inspired by the profound examples of perseverance I find within the history of this day. After all, Thanksgiving is the story of Americans overcoming hardship; whether it was carving a new home in an unforgiving North American wilderness or dealing with the tragedy of a horrendous war inside our borders.
Even today, we are dealing with a serious problem- a stagnant economy. With the slow devaluation of the dollar and the jobless rate at a record 9.0%, thousands are struggling to provide for their own families. Even worse, the latest report from the U.S. Census Bureau gives us a sobering picture of the economic state of America. They report over 49 million Americans live at poverty level.
But please take heart my friends. I am sure the Pilgrims had to wonder, as they buried their loved ones during that first horrific winter in Plymouth, if establishing this new country was worth this dramatic loss of life. Yet they carried on, laying the foundation for what would become the greatest nation on earth. Likewise, the Americans in the midst of the Civil War had to be rendered almost hopeless at the sight of bloody battlefields and long lists of casualties in their newspapers. Thankfully, they did not give up. They persisted and saw their country united again.
This Thanksgiving, we can draw on the examples of our courageous forefathers. We will persevere during these tough economic times. We should, as they did, unite as Americans in commitment to the preservation of our nation. And we should apply commonsense solutions to our economic and job-related problems, so that we can turn this country around.
As we gather with our families and friends on this Thanksgiving, we give thanks to God for seeing our nation through many hardships. May God continue to bless our nation.
Originally published in the Forest Lake Press.
During the horrible first winter in the “New World” (as America was then called), half of the Pilgrims perished. But when spring arrived, the surviving Pilgrims befriended the local tribe of Indians. With the Wampanoags’ help, the Pilgrims planted their first crops. After a successful harvest in November 1621, Governor William Bradford requested the Indians join his fellow Pilgrims for a feast of thanksgiving. They offered thanks, not only for surviving the winter, but for friends and an abundance of food as well.
Years later, President Abraham Lincoln gave a Thanksgiving Proclamation on October 26, 1863. His statement must have seemed ironic to Americans in the midst of the bloodiest war in the history of this nation. First, Lincoln acknowledged the tremendous loss of life and the unprecedented severity of the Civil War. Then he declared his gratitude to God for blessings like the ever-bountiful fields that spotted the American countryside and the relative lack of anarchy.
Lincoln went on to declare the last Thursday in November to be set aside as “a Day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens.” He knew his fellow Americans needed hope amidst the chaos of the war around them and they needed to look forward to better times as a nation.
This year, as we celebrate Thanksgiving, I cannot help but be inspired by the profound examples of perseverance I find within the history of this day. After all, Thanksgiving is the story of Americans overcoming hardship; whether it was carving a new home in an unforgiving North American wilderness or dealing with the tragedy of a horrendous war inside our borders.
Even today, we are dealing with a serious problem- a stagnant economy. With the slow devaluation of the dollar and the jobless rate at a record 9.0%, thousands are struggling to provide for their own families. Even worse, the latest report from the U.S. Census Bureau gives us a sobering picture of the economic state of America. They report over 49 million Americans live at poverty level.
But please take heart my friends. I am sure the Pilgrims had to wonder, as they buried their loved ones during that first horrific winter in Plymouth, if establishing this new country was worth this dramatic loss of life. Yet they carried on, laying the foundation for what would become the greatest nation on earth. Likewise, the Americans in the midst of the Civil War had to be rendered almost hopeless at the sight of bloody battlefields and long lists of casualties in their newspapers. Thankfully, they did not give up. They persisted and saw their country united again.
This Thanksgiving, we can draw on the examples of our courageous forefathers. We will persevere during these tough economic times. We should, as they did, unite as Americans in commitment to the preservation of our nation. And we should apply commonsense solutions to our economic and job-related problems, so that we can turn this country around.
As we gather with our families and friends on this Thanksgiving, we give thanks to God for seeing our nation through many hardships. May God continue to bless our nation.
Originally published in the Forest Lake Press.
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