Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours!

Thanksgiving Dinner

Happy Thanksgiving from all of us at Outside The Beltway!

May your day be filled with family, friends, food, football, and only as much politics as you can handle. More importantly, may it be filled with the things that make you most thankful, and remind us all to appreciate them while they are still around even if they are that crazy uncle. Also, I think I can speak for everyone here at OTB when I say that we are as always grateful for those of you who continue to visit this little corner of the Interwebs to read our political meanderings, and hope that you’ll continue to do so for some time to come. Even when they become contentious, the comment threads are always entertaining, sometimes infuriating, but usually enlightening, and that’s something to be thankful for. In the meantime, may today be a day spent in the company of family, friends, and loved ones, and may your preferred sporting team sport harder than the competing sporting team in whatever sports you end up watching today.

It was 151 years ago that President Abraham Lincoln set the precedent that led to the fourth Thursday in November being declared a National Day of Thanksgiving withthis Proclamation:

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 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 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 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 3d day of October, A. D. 1863, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty-eighth.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

And here’s President Obama’s 2014 Proclamation:

Thanksgiving Day invites us to reflect on the blessings we enjoy and the freedoms we cherish.  As we gather with family and friends to take part in this uniquely American celebration, we give thanks for the extraordinary opportunities we have in a Nation of limitless possibilities, and we pay tribute to all those who defend our Union as members of our Armed Forces.  This holiday reminds us to show compassion and concern for people we have never met and deep gratitude toward those who have sacrificed to help build the most prosperous Nation on earth.  These traditions honor the rich history of our country and hold us together as one American family, no matter who we are or where we come from.

Nearly 400 years ago, a group of Pilgrims left their homeland and sailed across an ocean in pursuit of liberty and prosperity.  With the friendship and kindness of the Wampanoag people, they learned to harvest the rich bounty of a new world.

Together, they shared a successful crop, celebrating bonds of community during a time of great hardship.  Through times of war and of peace, the example of a Native tribe who extended a hand to a new people has endured.  During the American Revolution and the Civil War, days of thanksgiving drew Americans together in prayer and in the spirit that guides us to better days, and in each year since, our Nation has paused to show our gratitude for our families, communities, and country.

With God’s grace, this holiday season we carry forward the legacy of our forebears.  In the company of our loved ones, we give thanks for the people we care about and the joy we share, and we remember those who are less fortunate.  At shelters and soup kitchens, Americans give meaning to the simple truth that binds us together:  we are our brother’s and our sister’s keepers.  We remember how a determined people set out for a better world — how through faith and the charity of others, they forged a new life built on freedom and opportunity.

The spirit of Thanksgiving is universal.  It is found in small moments between strangers, reunions shared with friends and loved ones, and in quiet prayers for others.  Within the heart of America’s promise burns the inextinguishable belief that together we can advance our common prosperity — that we can build a more hopeful, more just, and more unified Nation.  This Thanksgiving, let us recall the values that unite our diverse country, and let us resolve to strengthen these lasting ties.

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 27, 2014, as a National Day of Thanksgiving.  I encourage the people of the United States to join together — whether in our homes, places of worship, community centers, or any place of fellowship for friends and neighbors — and give thanks for all we have received in the past year, express appreciation to those whose lives enrich our own, and share our bounty with others.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-sixth day of November, in the year of our Lord two thousand fourteen, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-ninth.

BARACK OBAMA

As has become something of a tradition here at OTB, we’ve got a couple holiday appropriate YouTube clips, including this one from a classic Cheers episode that I don’t think I’ve actually seen in quite some time:

Let that one be a lesson to those of you who would ignore my advice to avoid political arguments at the Thanksgiving table.

Second, William Shatner learns how not to fry a turkey:

Finally, the great Joe Bethersonton calls the Butterball Hotline:

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Doug Mataconis
About Doug Mataconis
Doug Mataconis held a B.A. in Political Science from Rutgers University and J.D. from George Mason University School of Law. He joined the staff of OTB in May 2010 and contributed a staggering 16,483 posts before his retirement in January 2020. He passed far too young in July 2021.

Comments

  1. michael reynolds says:

    If Shatner did not already exist we’d have to invent him.

  2. C. Clavin says:

    Happy thanksgiving

  3. ernieyeball says:

    Happy Thanksgiving from all of us at Outside The Beltway!

    Back at ya’ !

  4. rodney dill says:

    Happy Thanksgiving!

  5. al-Ameda says:

    Stay warm, and resist those 3rd and 4th helpings Doug.

    Peace and good health to you and your family.

  6. Stonetools says:

    Happy thanksgiving everyone

  7. LaMont says:

    Happy Thanksgiving my OTB friends. Yes, even you jkb, florack, sd, jack, will, and jenos…

  8. Merry Thanksgiving and a Happy Serotonin Coma to all!

  9. Rick Almeida says:

    Happy Thanksgiving, all!

  10. bill says:

    U2,and to all y’all !

  11. rodney dill says:

    Keep Calm, and Shop On