Day: November 22, 2012

Give Thanks For It All

I am hoping that many people today can just stop, and take the time to practice Thanksgiving Day not only as a time to feast, but as a time to be thankful.  Not only thankful for the things that make them comfortable.  It is good to be thankful for those things: a nice home; friends; family; and a good community, but it is difficult to be grateful for the things that challenge us and force us to grow.  

There is a lot going on in the world now.  People are struggling to either find the truth, or to shut down all opposing voices and hold onto their own truths.  Both of these paths lead to stagnation.  “When someone things they have found The Truth,” as Sifu Steve Hutchinson, the founder of Dragon Kenpo says, “They build a wall around themselves and their truth and the fight to keep it safe from new thoughts and ideas.” 
This stops them from growing and from being better people.  It stops them from understanding the world and seeing it in different ways.  Lastly, it stops us from changing the behaviors that worked well long ago, but that don’t work now because of the growth of technology and knowledge in the world.  
I think we should be thankful, therefor, for the things that challenge us as well as the rest.  We should learn to embrace those things and trust that at least taking a look at, and understanding a different point of view, and the people who have that point of view, so that we can grow and become better people.  We should be thankful, therefor, for everything that makes us grow, and that can be anything, depending on how we look at it.  What better time to begin such appreciation than on Thanksgiving Day.

Give Thanks Today

The First National Proclamation of Thanksgiving was given by the Continental Congress in 1777 in the temporary capital of York, Pennsylvania. Samuel Adams created the first draft. 
In 1789, George Washington  created the first Thanksgiving Day designated by the national government of the United States of America saying:
Whereas it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor, and whereas both Houses of Congress have by their joint Committee requested me “to recommend to the People of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness.” Now therefore I do recommend and assign Thursday the 26th day of November next to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be.

In 1863 with the Civil War raging, President Abraham Lincoln, prompted by a series of editorials written by Sarah Josepha Hale, proclaimed a national Thanksgiving Day, to be celebrated on the final Thursday in November 1863. The proclamation, written by Secretary of State William Seward, reads:
The year that is drawing towards 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 cannot 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 unequalled 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 theatre of military conflict; while that theatre 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 defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle, or the ship; the axe had enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the 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 battle-field; 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 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 at sea and those who are sojourning 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 interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes 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. Done at the city of Washington, this third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the independence of the United States the eighty-eighth.” Proclamation of President Abraham Lincoln, October 3, 1863
We have been doing it since.
Happy Thanksgiving.

Cryptowit

By William W. Lawrence Sr

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Answer to yesterday’s puzzle: Life is a long lesson in humility. — James M. Barrie

Give Thanks For Stupidity Of Others As It Makes For Great Conservation

By Chris Freind

Thanksgiving. That hallowed holiday where we gather to give thanks for health and happiness.

Which lasts for five minutes.  Because let’s be real.  After that, we gossip, complain and marvel at the extraordinary stupidity all around us. 

Here are just a few examples in the “What are they thinking?” category? 

General Petraeus’  debacle:  The now-former CIA Director had been engaged in covert activities with his biographer, Paula Broadwell, a West Point grad. Likewise, four-star General John Allen, commander in Afghanistan, had a very cozy relationship with wannbe-socialite Jill Kelley, exchanging 30,000 emails with her. Whether they stuffed the turkey together remains to be seen.

Did it dawn on either that since a major part of their jobs was intercepting emails, phone conversations and records, that maybe they should have covered their tracks a bit better?   Talk about not using your head. Or, more accurately, using the wrong one. Military intelligence: truly an oxymoron. 

But the biggest travesty is that Kelley’s resemblance to Kim Kardashian will undoubtedly result in Hollywood’s most talentless diva getting her part for the movie. Enough to make you vomit Thanksgiving dinner.

Hostess Union Workers Striking: Let’s see. Your company is in bankruptcy again. Management asks your union to make concessions in order to keep the ovens cooking. They tell you that without concessions, the company will be immediately liquidated, and you will have NO job. Since bankruptcy requires all financial cards be on the table, this was a statement of fact, not a negotiating bluff.  

Does the union do the right thing for their families by taking the offer and trying to rebuild the company? No. They go hard-line and strike, using unadulterated greed as their guiding principle.

Well, congratulations to the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers Union. You held the line.  More than 18,000 people will become unemployed (including 13,000 not in your union), but you held the line. That victory, and two dollars, will buy you a cup of coffee and some Twinkies.

Actually, just a cup of coffee.

All stores opening on Thanksgiving: Capitalism is by far the best economic system on Earth, but it only works when common sense is used. Opening retail stores on Thanksgiving Day not only lacks common sense (and common decency), but it’s an idiotic business move. 

Denying workers the enjoyment of being with their families crosses the line, leading millions to ask “is nothing sacred?” While the sales will entice some, the negative publicity these stores are receiving does more harm than good.  In fact, Wal-Mart employees are looking to strike in protest. Some things truly are more important than a few extra hours of profits.

Here’s the irony. Instead of disrupting Thanksgiving and getting hammered for it, they would reap substantially more by spending millions in a public relations effort shaming their competition, informing consumers that their Black Friday sales would be extended to preserve the sanctity of Thanksgiving. 

But as Voltaire said, “Common sense is not so common.”

Camping Out For A Week At Best Buy: There’s no excuse for opening on Thanksgiving. But that decision is only fed by the absolute morons who no longer stand in line for hours before the doors open, but now camp out for days in front of stores. 

Here’s a newsflash for these folks: A. if you’re camping out during the workweek, then you are not, by definition, working.  B. Maybe if you were working, you wouldn’t be so desperate to save a few bucks on another TV.  C. If you don’t have a job, you have no business buying anything except the essentials, which, I believe, Best Buy doesn’t offer.  D. Since you are acting like a bum by eating, sleeping and going to the bathroom in a sidewalk tent city, do yourself a favor and buy The Big Lebowski. Fast forward to the classic exchange between both Lebowskis and you might learn something:


The Big Lebowski: Are you employed?

The Dude: Employed?

The Big Lebowski: You don’t go out looking for a job dressed like that? On a weekday? 

The Dude: Is this a… what day is this? 

The Big Lebowski: Your revolution is over, Mr. Lebowski. Condolences. The bums lost. My advice is to do what your parents did. Get a job, sir! The bums will always lose. Do you hear me… the bums will always lose!

If you are camping out in front of a store for a week before Thanksgiving, you’re already lost. But take solace in the fact that the rest of us will be talking about you while we enjoy third helpings of turkey in our toasty warm homes.  And we thank you for giving us so much material.  Happy Thanksgiving!

Visit Chris Freind’s website FreindlyFireZone.Com