Thanksgiving...

America's Thanksgiving Day has a long history, back to the earliest days of this country. While many Presidents (including George Washington) promoted and endorsed the holiday with proclamations, it was President Abraham Lincoln who started the current unbroken string of proclamations by every President who succeeded him. His proclamation was made on October 3, 1863:

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.

Debbie and I have much to be thankful for this year.

First and foremost on our minds is the fact that we and our home survived the horrible fires of three weeks ago, completely unharmed.

Our beloved animals – eight cats and three dogs – are all healthy and happy.

Our health is excellent, aside from the unavoidable side effects of our advancing age.

I make a good living in a job that I greatly enjoy. We've never known hunger, poverty, or lacked for anything truly important.

We live in the greatest country on earth – despite it's abundant flaws, there's nowhere I'd rather live. Not one of the hundred or so countries I've visited has ever even tempted me.

And we are very thankful on this day for the soldiers and sailors who are in harm's way on this day of thanksgiving, voluntarily engaging this country's enemies in mortal combat. Those fine, brave men and women seem to percieve the existential threat posed to our country by Islamic fundamentalists with far greater clarity than many Americans who are safe and snug in their homes today. Every time I meet one of these soldiers or sailors who have served in Iraq or Afghanistan (and that happens fairly often here in San Diego, as we have many military bases here), I try hard to find the time to get to know them a bit. Most of all, I make a it a point to thank them for their service. They stand between my loved ones and Al Queda (and its ilk), and for that they have my eternal gratitude…and they should know it. I hope you'll do the same…