We all have much to be thankful for in 2022 America on this Thanksgiving Day. We live in the greatest country in the world. Though our divisions may be large, they are small compared to what unites us.
Last night, Heather Cox Richardson wrote a beautiful meditation and lesson about the origins of Thanksgiving. The story of Thanksgiving is born in blood, fire, struggle, civil war and death. Sarah Josepha Hale, editor of women’s magazine Godey’s Lady’s Book, tried for 36 years to get the federal government to declare a national day of Thanksgiving. By 1863, America was torn apart by civil war. The battle of Gettysburg and the New York City Draft Riot took place in the summer of 1863.
In the fall of that year, Abraham Lincoln issued a proclamation, written by Secretary of State William Seward, declaring a national day of Thanksgiving. It is my honor to read it to you today.
On this Thanksgiving, I am so grateful for The Warning community — a place where tens of thousands of people are able to discuss, debate and provoke. We are a community of Americans. As you sit around your dinner tables today, give thanks for the sacrifices made and the freedoms that we have been afforded in this country. If there are young Americans at your tables, help them to understand that they, too, should be thankful for their great birthright. They are our future, and they will be the ones to lead us through unchartered territory in the years ahead as the great story of America continues.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Steve
Greatest country in the world? Sorry, it’s just not so. Divisions, hatred, bigotry run rampant. Gun violence rears its head and innocent Americans are slaughtered daily while bought and paid for politicians count their stacks of blood money from the NRA. Basic human rights are being taken away slowly but most surely, like the right to vote, or sovereignty over one’s own body.
The United States may have aspired to be the greatest country in the world at one time. It may even be again some day. But with the current and growing disparity between the haves and the have nots, with rampant white nationalism and amplified misinformation and outright lies, with denial of scientific facts and fundamentalist “Christian” movements that are hypocrisy incarnate, the US is anything but.
Thanks Steve. It was inspiring to listen to Abraham Lincoln’s Thanksgiving proclamation followed by your suitable update for our time. This was not just a polyanna proclamation but one that reflected truth in both recognizing the good in recounting our blessings but also sober in recognizing our imperfections. May we all do so today and many years in into the future together as one grateful nation recognizing that our strength comes from our diversity.