Um, Come Again?
On Monday, President Obama issued his first Presidential Thanksgiving Day Proclamation. He quoted Washington’s call to give thanks “by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God” and gave reference to Lincoln’s establishment of an annual Thanksgiving Day.
But it’s what Obama said in the latter portion of the proclamation that really makes one go, “Hmm.”
NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim Thursday, November 26, 2009, as a National Day of Thanksgiving. I encourage all the people of the United States to come together, whether in our homes, places of worship, community centers, or any place where family, friends and neighbors may gather, with gratitude for all we have received in the past year; to express appreciation to those whose lives enrich our own; and to share our bounty with others.
Did you catch that?
If you’re asking, “What?” go back and read it again.
Yes, right there: “I encourage all the people of the United States to come together … with gratitude for all we have received … to express appreciation to those whose lives enrich our own….”
Um, last time I (or anyone throughout history, for that matter) checked, Thanksgiving is not a time to express appreciation to others but a time to give thanks to God.
Big difference, Mr. President. And if I may be so blunt, you missed it.
uhhh…you’re an idiot.
“Thanksgiving Day is a harvest festival celebrated primarily in Canada and the United States. Traditionally, it is a time to give thanks for the harvest and express gratitude in general. While perhaps religious in origin, Thanksgiving is now primarily identified as a secular holiday.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thanksgiving
November 25th, 2009 at 9:20 pmI guess you’re not really “thankful” for your family then…nor are you thankful that they may enrich your life. What a pathetic little creature you are.
November 25th, 2009 at 10:06 pmHey Junior Jerk and Uhhhhh I am such a Moron:
Gina is so right and you two idiots are as always, wrong. Here is George Washington original proclamation:
http://www.earlyamerica.com/earlyamerica/firsts/thanksgiving/original.html
You liberal idiots are entitled to your own, stupid opinions, but you are not entitled to your own facts!
Just a little quiz, where was the first official Thanksgiving held? It was in Virginia, at the Berkeley Plantation, a few miles from Jamestown. This Thanksgiving was in 1619, two years before the one held by the Plymouth colonists.
http://www.history.com/content/thanksgiving/the-first-thanksgiving
“Let us raise a standard to which the wise and honest can repair; the rest is in the hands of God.” George Washington
November 25th, 2009 at 10:51 pmWhat an utterly foolish post this is. You don’t have to be thankful to a god to be thankful for the things you have and the people in your life.
If Thanksgiving for you means worshipping your god, fine, that’s your right and you’re free to do so. Don’t dictate to others that that’s what it has to mean to everybody else.
November 25th, 2009 at 11:26 pmHey Dino:
I am thankful for something; I am thankful that most of the population of this country are not as moronic as you are, you little Prius driving, boa wearing jerk!
“What’s on your mind, if you will allow the overstatement?” Fred Allen
November 25th, 2009 at 11:49 pmI’m thankful I’m not a dirty old pervert who stores pictures of men half his age on his computer and has the IQ and grammar skills of a seven year old.
November 26th, 2009 at 12:30 amRichard and Gina:
Thanksgiving is a time when I stop and appreciate the wonderful people in my life and the things I have accomplished during the year. Getting to know the two of you (as well as many others in the CWA family) this year has greatly enriched my life, and for that I am very thankful.
I don’t believe in God, but if He does exist, I cannot imagine that He would be jealous of me for acknowledging that your virtues are a value to me personally - nor do I think He would be jealous of you guys taking any credit for the good choices you have made with your lives that make you virtuous.
Thank you to you both, and thank you to all of the dedicated Conservatives in the CWA family who are working to build a better world. Happy Thanksgiving to you all.
November 26th, 2009 at 6:58 amED- Thanks for your post - Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours as well!
November 26th, 2009 at 7:05 amUHHH-You really are an idiot! Yes, Thanksgiving is a time to be thankful, no doubt! But thankful to whom. That is the whole point which you missed. Remember, despite what B-HO says, we really are a Christian Nation, founded on Christian principals and freedoms which allows its inhabitants to choose the god of their choice or to chose no god at all. But remember, choices have consequences, in this case eternal consequences, so I would advise one to choose carefully.
November 26th, 2009 at 7:54 am“I guess you’re not really “thankful” for your family then…nor are you thankful that they may enrich your life. What a pathetic little creature you are.”
Nasty, nasty, Mr. Ambrosia, as usual you are being illogical. Nowhere did Gina say she wasn’t thankful for those things. She merely pointed out, rightfully, what the real meaning of the day is.
“What an utterly foolish post this is. You don’t have to be thankful to a god to be thankful for the things you have and the people in your life.
If Thanksgiving for you means worshipping your god, fine, that’s your right and you’re free to do so. Don’t dictate to others that that’s what it has to mean to everybody else.”
Talk about a foolish post! Since when is it foolish to point out the facts, Dino? Gina’s post is dead on right.
In fact, your effort to re-define the meaning of the day is quite liberal-esque.
November 26th, 2009 at 11:37 am“Thanksgiving is not a time to express appreciation to others but a time to give thanks to God.”
Oh yes, Mike…I surely missed that…I think saying that this is not a time to express appreciation to others is not so ambiguous…but nice try on the spin.
And please, President Obama can’t even express his thoughts on Thanksgiving without some truly snarky comments from good ‘ol Gina. Lets talk nasty, nasty, shall we?
November 26th, 2009 at 12:07 pmMike:
I think the meaning of Thanksgiving is somewhat more ambiguous than you suggest.
While it is undeniable that there has always been a religious component to the holiday, I think the fundamental component is the celebration of productivity and hard work. Yes, people have always given thanks to their God for the fact that they enjoyed rewards from their hard work - but I do not think the Pilgrims or anyone else since them has believed that the harvest at the core of the holiday “just happened” without regard to anyone actually working for it and being responsible for it.
Well…except for the modern leftists, who deny any relationship between hard work and success. For them, the harvest “just happened,” and the only thing for man to do is figure out how ti (re) distribute it.
November 26th, 2009 at 12:25 pmAmbro -
You claimed she wasn’t thankful for those things. Again, quote:
“I guess you’re not really “thankful” for your family then…nor are you thankful that they may enrich your life.”
Gina never said any such thing. You took ‘not a time’ to mean ‘not at all’ and therein lies your flawed logic.
Ed:
“I think the fundamental component is the celebration of productivity and hard work.”
On what do you base this?
By the way, my understanding is when Obama went to pardon the turkey the turkey tried to return the favor. Alas, he failed and we are stuck with the turkey in the White House for 3 more long years.
November 26th, 2009 at 1:13 pmWhile I’m at it, here is Lincoln’s proclomation from 1863.
“The year that is drawing toward its close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added which are of so extraordinary a nature that they can not fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever-watchful providence of Almighty God.
In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign states to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere, except in the theater of military conflict, while that theater has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union.
Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defense have not arrested the plow, the shuttle, or the ship; the ax has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well as the iron and coal as of our precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege, and the battlefield, and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom.
No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.
It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and one voice, by the whole American people. I do therefore invite my fellow-citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners, or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the imposition of the Almighty hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it, as soon as may be consistent with the divine purpose, to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility, and union.
In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.”
Enjoy the day! Time to eat…and thank God!
November 26th, 2009 at 1:24 pmMike:
Re: your question in #13:
Your post here
http://www.gopusanj.com/wordpress/?p=9914
provides some of the evidence. Like I said, there has always been a religious component to the holiday - but the story of Bradford and the Puritans that you cite tells the story of a people that paid thanks to their God for being able to enjoy the fruits and successes of their own hard work. Their own hard and inudstriousness is much more fundamental to the story than the tribute paid to their God at the end. Noboday says that the bountiful harvest came about because God decreed it - otherwise the thanks would be for manna from the sky. Instead, the thanks was for the results of the Pilgrims’ hard work and individual initiative - as your post describes well.
November 26th, 2009 at 1:46 pmJudging from the posts and comments it seems even on a holiday like Thanksgiving the rightwing whackjobs who call themselves “conservatives” can’t resist the temptation to politicize the most trivial of issues.
I suppose next there will be those who question whether Obama has the constitutional authority to declare Thanksgiving a holiday since he can’t produce a birth certificate.
November 26th, 2009 at 2:24 pm[...] are lost in an increasingly secularized liberal society. As my co-blogger, Gina Diorio, points out here, even our President doesn’t really “get” what Thanksgiving is about.As a reminder, perhaps we [...]
November 26th, 2009 at 6:12 pm