by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist
This is the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, a day when millions of Americans are either on the road or preparing to travel toward a family gathering. My oldest grandson is driving across the state to see me today, and for that I am thankful.
The first formal Thanksgiving gathering in America (or at least the first Thanksgiving meal involving native Americans and immigrants from England - that occurred in Massachusetts) took place three-hundred-and ninety-seven years ago, in the autumn, near Plymouth. It was a joint meal effort involving the passengers from the Mayflower who had survived their first year in the "new world," as well as some of the local natives. The year was 1621.
That meal was an expression of gratitude to God for the Pilgrims safe arrival in America and an acknowledgement of their endurance and perseverance. They, the survivors, had beaten the odds and the elements and had successfully completed one growing season. They had much for which to thank their God.
Today America is home to many new immigrants who have come here at great personal risk to escape persecution and to enjoy the freedoms which they have heard exist in abundance in this country. Sadly for these new immigrants, they have been greeted with a hostility that is much more savage than anything the original pilgrims from Europe had to endure. Today's immigrants are being marshaled into tent cities and sometimes even cages as they await processing and likely deportation by a slow and cumbersome bureaucracy. They are vilified by the press and harangued by third-rate politicians - and suffer all manner of indignities. Sometimes newly arrived families are even torn apart by a government that seems to take far more pleasure in pursuing vengeful acts toward the new arrivals than it does in offering sanctuary and promoting peace on earth and goodwill toward people of all creeds and faiths.
So two days from now families will gather at tables across the land and offer up thanks for the many blessings which they have experienced, and that same day others will hunker down in their tents and cages and wonder if they will ever have a reason to be truly thankful.
The United States was once a beacon for freedom around the world, but over the past few years our light of liberty has steadily dimmed. The hatred that we have mired ourselves in must stop - because if it does not, we will wind up wrecked on the rocky shoals of history with absolutely nothing to be thankful for.
Free the children from cages and foster care, reunite the immigrant families, and once again make the United States a place of welcome that is steeped in freedom and love. When that has been accomplished, we can be free to gather at tables across the land in the spirit of true Thanksgiving - and offer thanks for our restoration as a proud and worthwhile civilization.
Hate has no place at America's Thanksgiving table.
Citizen Journalist
This is the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, a day when millions of Americans are either on the road or preparing to travel toward a family gathering. My oldest grandson is driving across the state to see me today, and for that I am thankful.
The first formal Thanksgiving gathering in America (or at least the first Thanksgiving meal involving native Americans and immigrants from England - that occurred in Massachusetts) took place three-hundred-and ninety-seven years ago, in the autumn, near Plymouth. It was a joint meal effort involving the passengers from the Mayflower who had survived their first year in the "new world," as well as some of the local natives. The year was 1621.
That meal was an expression of gratitude to God for the Pilgrims safe arrival in America and an acknowledgement of their endurance and perseverance. They, the survivors, had beaten the odds and the elements and had successfully completed one growing season. They had much for which to thank their God.
Today America is home to many new immigrants who have come here at great personal risk to escape persecution and to enjoy the freedoms which they have heard exist in abundance in this country. Sadly for these new immigrants, they have been greeted with a hostility that is much more savage than anything the original pilgrims from Europe had to endure. Today's immigrants are being marshaled into tent cities and sometimes even cages as they await processing and likely deportation by a slow and cumbersome bureaucracy. They are vilified by the press and harangued by third-rate politicians - and suffer all manner of indignities. Sometimes newly arrived families are even torn apart by a government that seems to take far more pleasure in pursuing vengeful acts toward the new arrivals than it does in offering sanctuary and promoting peace on earth and goodwill toward people of all creeds and faiths.
So two days from now families will gather at tables across the land and offer up thanks for the many blessings which they have experienced, and that same day others will hunker down in their tents and cages and wonder if they will ever have a reason to be truly thankful.
The United States was once a beacon for freedom around the world, but over the past few years our light of liberty has steadily dimmed. The hatred that we have mired ourselves in must stop - because if it does not, we will wind up wrecked on the rocky shoals of history with absolutely nothing to be thankful for.
Free the children from cages and foster care, reunite the immigrant families, and once again make the United States a place of welcome that is steeped in freedom and love. When that has been accomplished, we can be free to gather at tables across the land in the spirit of true Thanksgiving - and offer thanks for our restoration as a proud and worthwhile civilization.
Hate has no place at America's Thanksgiving table.
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