In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln declared a Thanksgiving Day for the final Thursday of November. Each year since then we as a nation have celebrated this day of grace.
When Lincoln declared Thanksgiving, it was in the middle of our brutal civil war. It had been a momentous year. Lincoln had issued the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing slaves, on Jan. 1 of that year. In July, the Union had prevailed at Gettysburg. The casualties from that one battle were over 50,000.
Beginning in 1862, black troops were allowed to sign up for the Union Army and Navy. Altogether, they comprised 10 percent of the union’s forces. One-third of them gave their lives to liberate the nation from the evil of slavery. By the end of the war in 1865, more 600,000 soldiers had died, almost 2 percent of the U.S. population at that time.
It was in this time of violent and deadly civil strife that Lincoln declared that “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…. (i)n the midst of a civil war of unequalled magnitude and severity … Population has steadily increased, and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years, with large increase of freedom. …”
“I … invite my fellow citizens … to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father. … I recommend to them that … 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 heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it … to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility and Union.”
Tomorrow we continue this annual Thanksgiving celebration. We too are engaged in war, wars which have sacrificed thousands of our soldiers and sapped our economic strength, while returning soldiers, injured and in trauma, remain hidden with the folds of our consumer-oriented economy.
And that very economy continues to falter, with 1 out of 10 workers officially unemployed, 1 million citizens in our state without health coverage, small- and medium-sized banks going broke, and jobs that were once embedded in Washington being exported in the chase for cheap labor and lesser democracies.
We are disinvesting in public education. We are kicking people off of Basic Health coverage. We are cutting slots at our universities and colleges. We are disabling our own future.
So do we celebrate Thanksgiving? Or course. Compared to the vast majority of people, we are privileged beyond measure. Our pathway to the future may be a bit rocky and uncertain, but there is a pathway. We live in an incredibly wealthy, magnificent, bountiful and beautiful country.
We will celebrate this Thanksgiving with friends and family, as we should. We should also take a little time to reflect on our privilege and plenty, in the midst of the decline in our economy, the insecurity of many of our neighbors and fellow citizens, the wars with no endpoints, and the diminishment of hope and opportunity in the future.
We are not impotent in the face of these larger forces. We can do something. We can help others. We may not be able to shape our world as we would wish, thwarted by more powerful forces. But we can reach out a hand to our neighbors and friends.
So this Thanksgiving, think about those less fortunate, and help those less fortunate. Tally up what you pay for your turkey and other ingredients for the feast, and give 10 percent to a local food bank. Or help out at a soup kitchen. Or volunteer to read at a local library or tutor kids in your local school.
The idea is simple. Do something! We are not just shoppers, we are doers. Let’s do something for our community and ourselves this Thanksgiving.
John Burbank is executive director of the Economic Opportunity Institute in Seattle (www.eoionline.org). His e-mail address is john@eoionline.org.
For The Herald’s annual list of local charitable organizations, go to tiny.cc/WfyWi.
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