"You say grace before meals. All right. But I say grace before the concert and the opera, and grace before the play and pantomime, and grace before I open a book, and grace before sketching, painting, swimming, fencing, boxing, walking, playing, dancing and grace before I dip my pen in the ink."
--G. K. Chesterton
The year was 1863. For the man sitting in the White House it
was a turbulent time. On January 1 of that year he had issued the Emancipation
Proclamation: “All persons held as slaves…shall be then , thenceforward, and
forever free.” The country pulled at him from all sides. The Abolitionists
said the Proclamation did not go far enough. Many wondered how this action
would affect the morale of the troops. Senators, like the newspapers, put their
ears to the ground and barked out varied opinions. That year they began to talk
about Mr. Lincoln’s War. The year before he had lost little Willie, his eleven
year old son, and his wife would never fully recover. Many of his generals had
let him down and then July 1-3 of that year Gettysburg came. It was the bloodiest
battle in America history. When the fighting stopped on the third day 51,000
casualties from both sides were reported dead. One book about Gettysburg called
that battle, A Vast Sea of Misery. By September of that hard year half
the Northern public was against this war.
That same year there was a little known poet and editor
named Sarah J. Hale. She had been lobbying for some time to make Thanksgiving a
national holiday. Many states observed this special day that went all the way
back to President George Washington. But Sarah Hale felt strongly that the
nation needed a national day of Thanksgiving when the whole country would pause
and remember.
Mrs. Hale came to see the President about her concern. If
the country had a national day when all would pause and give thanks it might
just do something for all the people. Lincoln listened and began to wonder if
perhaps such a day might just help unite his divided nation. And so on the
third day of October in 1863 Lincoln signed the national Thanksgiving Proclamation
to be held on the fourth Thursday in November.
It would be two more years before the war would end on April
9, 1865. Did that Thanksgiving Proclamation stop the war? No. Did the
declaration change anything? Who knows? We do know that the President continued
to courageously lead the nation in the hardest of days. We do know that on
November 19, one week before that first national Thanksgiving that Lincoln
stood at Gettysburg and looked out on a torn battlefield and gave his finest
address.
147 years later on this Thursday we pause for another
Thanksgiving Day. It would be great if the old dream of a united people stirred
once again. Our nation has many difficulties. Some say our President has as
much on his plate as did Abraham Lincoln. We do know the mood of the land has
turned sour. We have come through yet another contentious election. The battle
lines are being drawn while foreclosures continue, people are desperate for
jobs and the economy is in disarray Anxiety settles down on us like a fog. Some
even say America’s best days are over.
Our mood reminds me of the little boy that brought home from
school the familiar picture of the three Patriots that marched down the road.
One played the fife, another beat a drum and a third carried a flag. The little
boy showed the picture to his father and said, “Daddy, the man carrying the
flag looks like he has a terrible headache.” Most of us understand that
picture.
Yet Thanksgiving gives us another opportunity to transcend
our headaches. It could be a moment when we might just renew our faith in the
old vision of the Pilgrims and George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. It might
be a time to put away our weapons and labels and reaffirm our faith in this
good land. We have been blessed beyond measure. We have survived so much in our
history. It is high time to pause and give thanks and recommit ourselves to
making this word united a reality for America once more.
--roger lovette/ rogerlovette.blogspot.com
No comments:
Post a Comment