Happy Thanksgiving
Kenneth R. "Ken" Plum
 
        The Nation was in the midst of civil strife when in October, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln declared the last Thursday in November to be a day of national Thanksgiving.  While acknowledging that the country was "in the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity" Lincoln looked beyond the immediate conflict to the "fruitful fields and healthful skies" and the prosperity the country was realizing outside the war zone and called upon the Nation to give "praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens."
 
        Our Nation is facing significant challenges of a different nature today.  Our major financial institutions are in doubt; two wars test our resolve and strain our resources; there are too many poor among the wealthiest on our planet; there are too many people dying without ever seeing a doctor at a time and place when there is the best health care ever known in the history of mankind; our civil liberties have been compromised; and there is strife among peoples of the world.
 
        As Lincoln suggested, we need to take a day to look beyond the challenges of our time to see hope for the future.  Our institutions are resilient; our people are compassionate.  We can learn from recent experiences and build a stronger and more inclusive country.  We have just completed an historic election whose results give us reason to hope.  President George Washington issued a presidential proclamation of Thanksgiving in 1789 in which he gave thanks "for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been able to establish Constitutions of Government for our safety and happiness."  We can add to our list of thanks this year the maturing of our form of government and the progress towards establishing a more perfect Union.
 
        There has been an established tradition going back to ancient times to have a celebration of the harvest in the fall.  Our Thanksgiving tables reflect that tradition with the bounty of the crops.  The feast held by the Pilgrims in Plymouth colony in 1621 reflected that tradition.  "Our harvest being gotten in, our Governor sent four men on fowling, so that we might after a special manner rejoice together after we had gathered the fruit of our labor," Edward Winslow, one of the Pilgrims, wrote.
 
        The country's first Thanksgiving was held at Berkeley Plantation in Virginia in 1619 when the day of the arrival of the ships was established to be "yearly and perpetually kept holy as a day of thanksgiving."  Today we all celebrate as one the bounty of our crops, the strength of our people and institutions, and our hopes for the future while giving thanks to the Supreme Being we worship.  Jane and I wish you a Happy Thanksgiving!