Why We Give Thanks...
Today's comment is by Bob Bauman, Legal Counsel and Senior Writer for The Sovereign Society.
Dear A-Letter Reader,
"Thanksgiving" is defined as "the act of giving thanks, especially a grateful acknowledgment to God for benefits or favors bestowed."
Emma Lazarus was born in 1849 into a prominent Jewish family in New York City. It was she who wrote the memorable lines that appear on the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty in New York harbor.
Her poem, "The New Colossus," honors the Statue of Liberty and calls Lady Liberty "the mother of exiles." Emma described her as standing at the "golden door," the threshold of this new American land, crying out to the old, pompous lands across the seas:
Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me.
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!
There was no Statue of Liberty to greet the Pilgrims who landed at what was to become Provincetown, on Cape Cod, on November 21, 1620. But liberty was very much on their minds. Indeed, these brave individuals risked all for the liberty our Constitution now guarantees in words, if not in fact.
Escape from Tyranny
The Pilgrims were a dissenting, even radical religious group who felt that the only way freely to practice their religion was to separate themselves from the dominant Church of England.
First these "Separatists," moved to the English Midlands. Then they transferred to Amsterdam in 1607. And in 1609, they moved to the city of Leiden in the more religiously tolerant Netherlands. Finally, they began their difficult move to America in 1620.
The months they spent crossing the turbulent north Atlantic has been described as a "hell hole" of cramped suffering and horrible living conditions. They certainly would never have been given a visa to enter the U.S. under current laws (unless perhaps they picked up some Cuban refugees along the way).
A small party of men, led by Capt. Myles Standish, went ashore on Cape Cod. But the Pilgrims soon moved onto the famous Plymouth Rock and nearby established their colony.
Their ship, the now famous Mayflower, was a sizable cargo ship of 180 ton capacity, about 90 feet in length. With the crowding of 102 passengers plus crew, each family was allotted very little space for themselves or personal belongings.
At one point, the ship's main beam cracked and had to be repaired using a large iron screw. When the passengers sighted Cape Cod, they realized that they had failed to reach Virginia, where the King had given them permission to settle.
In spite of all their sufferings and the death of half of their company, in October 1621, the Pilgrims celebrated their first harvest. They celebrated with feasting and games, as was the custom in England, as well as prayers. The celebration boosted the morale of the 50 remaining colonists and also impressed their helpful allies among the Native Americans attending, including Massasoit and 90 Wampanoag men.
A Modern View
Looking back from our view in the modern world, it's difficult to appreciate what these brave "first Americans" had to endure to escape the government tyranny in England.
But I think today we are justified in questioning whether modern America is not already under an insidious new government tyranny. Only this time, our government is imposed under the disingenuous guise of preserving our hard won freedoms.
But putting politics aside, I think many of those who live in America, citizens as well as others, have much for which to be thankful. Admittedly, many may be excluded from the ranks of the thankful - those undeservedly impoverished, those persecuted by prejudiced or official stupidity, those caught up in the maw of the political anti-terrorism and Draconian drug wars.
Yet with all its evident faults and lack of good leadership, the United States of America, still stands as that "shining city on a hill." President Ronald Reagan spoke of these virtues in his farewell address to the nation on January 11, 1989, as follows:
"I've thought a bit of the "shining city upon a hill." The phrase comes from John Winthrop, who wrote it to describe the America he imagined. What he imagined was important because he was an early Pilgrim, an early freedom man. He journeyed here on what today we'd call a little wooden boat; and like the other Pilgrims, he was looking for a home that would be free.
I've spoken of the shining city all my political life, but I don't know if I ever quite communicated what I saw when I said it. But in my mind it was a tall proud city built on rocks stronger than oceans, wind-swept, God-blessed, and teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace, a city with free ports that hummed with commerce and creativity, and if there had to be city walls, the walls had doors and the doors were open to anyone with the will and the heart to get here. That's how I saw it and see it still."
Peace, Union & Harmony
Regrettably, the modern media and political tendency is to accentuate the negative.
Yet Thanksgiving should be, as Abraham Lincoln said in 1864 when he officially proclaimed a national holiday for the first time, "a day of thanksgiving and praise to Almighty God, the beneficent Creator and Ruler of the Universe.
And I do further recommend to my fellow citizens aforesaid, that on that occasion they do reverently humble themselves in the dust, and from thence offer up penitent and fervent prayers and supplications to the great Disposer of events for a return of the inestimable blessings of peace, union, and harmony throughout the land which it has pleased him to assign as a dwelling-place for ourselves and for our posterity throughout all generations."
Happy Thanksgiving from Everyone at The Sovereign Society...
BOB BAUMAN, Legal Counsel
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