Thursday, November 25, 2010

My First Thankful Thanksgiving

Robin of Berkeley  "Of course, I was just one of the progressive pack, parroting the party line. Being a Leftist means honing in on every possible injustice. Never-ending gripes and grievances are the glue that keeps progressives cemented together.
"But then, three years ago, the bottom fell out of my life. Slowly but surely, it dawned on me that everything I had held as sacrosanct was a lie. I woke up -- and now I behold the world with fresh eyes. Consequently, I am celebrating my First Thankful Thanksgiving."

Giving Thanks: Celebrating Thanksgiving with a speaker, a governor, a TV-show host, and more.

NRO Symposium  "...We all must pause this Thanksgiving and thank our creator that we live in a free and prosperous America, one that in recession and political turmoil remains an oasis compared to these bleak alternatives abroad.
"On this holiday, we must reflect, and often so, how much our forefathers sacrificed for our present security, freedom, and prosperity — and how much responsibility rests on our shoulders to preserve and pass on something even better than the great good that we were bequeathed." Victor Davis Hanson

We have so much to be thankful for this year (Updated)

Phil Boehmke "In a year which saw the passage of ObamaCare, the Dodd-Frank Financial Reform Bill, the appointment of another unqualified hard-left advocate (Kagan) to our Supreme Court, a rising body count in Afghanistan, persistent high unemployment and other less well publicized assaults on our freedom and security it may seem as if there is very little to be thankful for. However this past year saw record numbers of our fellow Americans becoming engaged in the cause of Liberty and a number of significant victories which portent(sic) well for the year ahead."

A Lost Thanksgiving Lesson  "Long before the failure of modern socialism, the earliest European settlers gave us a dramatic demonstration of the fatal flaws of collectivism. Unfortunately, few Americans today know it.
"The Pilgrims at Plymouth Colony organized their farm economy along communal lines. The goal was to share the work and produce equally.
"That's why they nearly all starved."  John Stossel in RealClearPolitics

Giving Thanks for the Free Market  "When the first Pilgrims founded the Plymouth Colony, all property was taken away from families and transferred to a “comone wealth.” In other words, the Pilgrims tried to do away with private property. The results were disastrous. According to Bradford, the stronger and younger men resented working for other men’s wives and children “without any recompence.” And the women forced to cook and clean for other men saw their uncompensated service as “a kind of slavery.” The system as a whole bred “confusion and discontent” and “retarded much employment that would have been to [the Pilgrims’] benefit and comfort.” Unable to produce their own food, some settlers “became servants to the Indians,” cutting wood and fetching water in exchange for “a capful of corn.” Others tragically perished."

Strangers, Saints and Indians  "In the fall of 1621, the Pilgrims reaped a bountiful harvest. To thank God for their deliverance and the help they had received from the Indians, Bradford held a three-day Thanksgiving feast inviting the Indians to join them in their celebration.
"Squanto remained friendly with the Pilgrims until he succumbed to an unknown fever and died in 1622. Amazingly, he bequeathed his possessions to the Pilgrims, as Bradford would document, "as remembrances of his love." "