20061121 WE Giving thanks WE

Giving thanks

My Westminster Eagle column for Thanksgiving is on the Westminster Eagle web site.

For my past Thanksgiving columns and posts – go here.

Crablaw has George Washington's Proclamation of Thanksgiving from The Massachusetts Sentinel, October 14, 1789 – here.

Attila shares a Psalm for Thanksgiving here.

Maryland Conservatarian is “unabashedly thankful for having the good fortune to be an American.”

The Baltimore Reporter hopes “you have a good one!”

Go here for Lincoln's Thanksgiving Proclamation from Washington, DC—October 3, 1863

And Monoblogue is mumbling something about helicopters, WKRP and flying turkeys.

Hopefully you have spent Thanksgiving with family and loved ones. Please be sure to say a special prayer for all our men and women in uniform, in harms way.

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Giving thanks for history, and future, of America

11/21/06 By Kevin E. Dayhoff

This Thursday, America celebrates the American version of the "Harvest Festival," gathering families together and watching football; though it should be noted that this annual holiday originated as a celebration to give thanks for the annual harvest.

Of course, outside the United States, the Thanksgiving holiday is known as "Thursday," or "Jueves" in Taneytown.

Muchas personas piensan del d’a de acci—n de gracias como una maravillosa celebraci—n, que les permite tener un largo fin de semana disfrutando de una suculenta cena.

Today, there is no holiday that is more quintessentially American than Thanksgiving, according to many people -- including Hampstead Mayor Haven Shoemaker, who shared his comments in English.

Our household has once again extended a warm invitation to Martha Stewart to join us for Thanksgiving. We're happy that she is out of the Big House, as it is imperative that America make room for more congressmen; especially since the last election has provided us with so many more great new prospects for "Club Fed."

In honor of the holiday, homage is paid to Ms. Stewart by delivering each and every paper to your door folded in the shape of a turkey.

(If yours did not arrive this way, call the editor immediately. And tell him I said, "Happy Thanksgiving!")

The layout for the newspaper was made-up of joyous and colorful words cut out of old political ads. To deliver your paper, I got up extra early, around 10 o'clock, and made an exact replica of the first Rural Free Delivery wagon used by Edwin W. Shriver to delivery mail in Carroll County on Dec. 20, 1899.

I constructed it out of scrap wood gathered from leftover stakes for political signs Ð and a glue gun.

I then created a jackass to pull the wagon, using some DNA lying around from the last election.

Thanksgiving in America was actually first observed at Berkeley Plantation, by the Virginia Colony on Dec. 4, 1619.

In the beginning of another American Thanksgiving tradition, 102 Pilgrims left Plymouth, England, in July 1620 to escape religious persecution.

They came to the New World as illegal immigrants to find a better way of life and persecute others who don't believe as they do or speak their language. But essentially they wanted to practice their religion without government interference, and since the ACLU did not exist at the time, they were allowed to do so.

The trip to the New World was planned by a government committee, which meant they arrived in December, without frozen food, Wal-Mart tents, replacement batteries for their laptops or ice cream.

The winter of 1620 to 1621 was unforgiving and half of the original boat-people died.

Although the local native Wampanoag Indians immediately passed a resolution that the illegal immigrants needed to learn the Wampanoag language; other more broad-minded Native-Americans kept the rest of them from perishing.

The pilgrims thanked the Native Americans by giving them smallpox and alcohol.

Later, as the New England colonists continued to annex Wampanoag land and build housing developments, the King Philip's War erupted, 1675Ð76, and the colonists exterminated the Native Americans and seized the rest of their lands.

Today, the tradition of King Philip's War is re-enacted in the form of public hearings in which the personal character and integrity of public officials is exterminated and all rules of civility seized.

Another American tradition began in 1621, when the New England pilgrims celebrated a feast of thanksgiving by giving thanks to God after a successful harvest.

Today, the Lord's Prayer has been replaced in school and public meetings by a moment of silent bewilderment, and any celebration of God has been systematically removed from public discourse and replaced by a greater conversation as to why our great country has lost its moral bearings.

Hopefully, this Thursday, you will spend the day with loved-ones and family.

Let us reach out to the xenophobic and to those in need of food, shelter, common sense and words of hope.

May we also remember our men and women in uniform in harm's way.

And may we ask that we be given patience, understanding, resolve, and wisdom in all that lies ahead for our great nation.

Kevin Dayhoff writes from Westminster. E-mail him at: kdayhoff@carr.org.

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