The "On Giving Thanks" Story

Editorial page from November 24, 1965.
Click on image to enlarge.

It was an ordinary day.  Looking through the archives of our local newspaper to see how people in the past celebrated Thanksgiving Day in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.  I found most every year featured stories about the Thanksgiving Day turkey as well as recipes to make just about anything imaginable associated with the turkey holiday.  One story that caught my eye was an editorial from the Lancaster New Era on November 24, 1965 which happened to be the Wednesday before Thanksgiving.  The story was part of the column that had a headline of...OUR IDEAS.  At the time there were two newspapers that were printed daily in Lancaster; the New Era in the evening and the Intelligencer Journal in the morning.  The editorial was so well-written that I have decided to use it as my story today, since it could have been written for today's newspaper; except for a few minor changes.  It's message describes today's culture and history, just as it did 54 years ago.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy. PS - for those who live in the United States and celebrate Thanksgiving,  A Happy Thanksgiving from our house to yours.

On Giving Thanks

     Observance of Thanksgiving this year should  bring to every American a mixture of both joyous and solemn thoughts.  
     This is a day of creature comfort, for we are in a period of prosperity.  
     But it is also a day of armed conflict, when our men overseas are dying in freedom's cause.   
     We have come a long way from the day of the Pilgrims, but we are linked to them far more closely than we realize.
     The Pilgrims struggled to eke a meager harvest from the soil.  They fought harsh weather and disease.  They were poorly equipped to make a success of a settlement in the new land —but they did it and they reverently gave thanks for Divine aid.
     In contrast, we have bountiful crops—an overabundance of food.  We have learned to minimize the effects of weather on our activities.  Amazing new means have been evolved for the control and cure of disease.  Technologically, we're tops.
     But let us remember the frailty of man, and the imperfect quality of his institutions.  Let us not get the idea that we have reached a peak from which we cannot topple, and that we have nothing in common with the Pilgrims, whose life was so primitive in comparison to ours.
     We can be thankful for every smidgen of good fortune that is ours.  We can rejoice in plentitude.                 
      But, unless we share with our fellow man, our expression of thanks is hollow. The day in given its truest meaning by those who have shown concern for the plight of others, and have done something about it.
     And as we celebrate around our festive tables on Thursday, let us give thought to those who would be our companions if they were not in Viet Nam, faced with daily hazard to life as they fight to make men free.
     The Pilgrims had their problems; we have ours—some the same, some new.
     Let us give thanks, and let us resolve to do our part to build a world where Thanksgiving is a universal holiday, observed by all men for all time.