[Dean's World] Andrew Cory: Thanksgiving is a good excuse for America Bashing

[notify at powerblogs.com]

Posted by Andrew Cory:
Thanksgiving is a good excuse for America Bashing
http://www.deanesmay.com/posts/1164561605.shtml


   After all: [1]Lincoln himself engaged in it when he created the
   holiday back in 1863:

     Proclamation Establishing Thanksgiving Day

     October 3, 1863

     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, tranquillity 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.

     A. Lincoln

   Try to imagine President Bush (Or Clinton, or anyone in the last 50
   years) calling on Americans to make "humble penitence for our national
   perverseness and disobedience". And just so we're clear: Lincoln is
   talking about slavery. Because he was against it...

References

   1. http://www.classicallibrary.org/lincoln/thanksgiving.htm