PGHIMC - Pittsburgh Independent Media Center

Histroy of Thanksgiving
by Wasim Sajedul Huq Thursday, Nov. 23, 2006 at 3:07 PM

Thanksgiving Day is much more than turkey, trimmings, and football.

Thanksgiving Day is an annual day of thanks for the blessings of the past year, observed on the fourth Thursday in November in each of the states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico.

It is a day in the United States, commemorating the harvest of the Plymouth Colony in 1621. After the survival of their colony through the bitter winter, and the gathering of the harvest, Governor William Bradford of Plymouth Colony issued a thanksgiving proclamation in the autumn of 1621.

The first Thanksgiving lasted three days, during which the Pilgrims feasted on wild turkey and venison with their Native American guests.

Days of thanksgiving were celebrated sporadically until, on November 26, 1789, President Washington issued a Thanksgiving Proclamation. See link:
http://adelaide.indymedia.org/newswire/display/57441/index.php
http://scotland.indymedia.org/newswire/display/3432/index.php

He made it clear that the day should be one of prayer and giving thanks to the Almighty.

It was to be celebrated by all religious denominations, a circumstance that helped to promote a spirit of common heritage.

However, when Thanksgiving Day was first inaugurated, only a few eastern states participated.

That was changed through the tireless efforts of one, Sarah J. Hale, editor and founder of the Ladies Magazine (from 1828) in Boston. She was fired with the determination of having the whole nation join together in setting apart a national day of giving thanks unto Almighty from whom all blessings flow.

To this end, she resolutely engaged the press with an endless flow of letters and articles to various newspapers and journals of her time. In addition she pleaded long and earnestly with three Presidents: Fillmore, Pierce and Buchanan, during the period of 1846 through 1856.

A small measure of triumph was granted in the year 1852, when her campaign succeeded in uniting 29 states in marking the last Thursday of November as the Thanksgiving day.

Then came the dark days of the Civil War. Who would listen to a lone woman with her persistent plea for just one day of peace amidst the blood and the strife.

One man did. Her entreaty won the ear of the Chief of State, and in 1863, the nations President, Abraham Lincoln, officially proclaimed the last Thursday of November as a day set apart for the national giving of thanks unto Almighty God. Sadly, Lincoln lived to experience only two such occasions, but Sarah Hale lived well into her late 90’s content that her long-cherished hope had at last become a reality.

Succeeding presidents annually followed President Lincoln example.

In 1939, President Franklin D. Roosevelt proclaimed Thanksgiving Day a week earlier, on the fourth but not the last Thursday, to encourage holiday shopping.

In 1941, Congress adopted a joint resolution setting the date on the fourth Thursday.

An ancient harvest symbol, the cornucopia, or Horn of Plenty, has been associated with Thanksgiving.

In Canada a legal Thanksgiving Day is also observed, usually on the second Monday in October.

THINGS TO CONSIDER

We were made with two hands.

One with which to receive and one with which to give.

We are not a cisterns made for hoarding.

We are channels made for sharing.

Shalom.

LINKS:

HELPING THE INNER CITY
http://www.yesmagazine.com/article.asp?ID=576
http://indymedia.org.nz/newswire/display/40959/index.php
http://pr.indymedia.org/news/2006/08/17530.php

HELPING FOOD BANKS
http://bristol.indymedia.org/newswire.php?story_id=25541
http://maineindymedia.org/newswire/display/4466/index.php

Contact Your LOCAL Food Banks
http://www.secondharvest.org/zip_code.jsp
http://omni.cc.purdue.edu/~hobaugh/safefood/links.html#foodbank

The GLEANERS COALITION
Please set up a Gleaners Group in your Community.
http://www.gleanerscoalition.org

GRUB
You can duplicate their methods in your Neighborhood.
http://www.goodgrub.org/youth/main.html

FOUR SEASON HARVEST
book: Four Season Harvest; author: Eliot Coleman
http://www.fourseasonfarm.com
http://bristol.indymedia.org/newswire.php?story_id=25381

SEATTLE P-PATCH PROGRAM for helping Food Banks and the poor
You can copy the Seattle Method, and use it in your LOCAL Neighborhood.
http://www.seattle.gov/neighborhoods/ppatch
http://www.seattletilth.org

COMMUNITY GARDENS for helping Food Banks and the poor
Please set up a community garden in your area using organic gardening methods.
You can set up a community garden at a school or a church, and use it to train children in organic gardening.
http://www.communitygarden.org.au/about/benefits.html
books: http://www.communitygarden.org/publications.php
Links: http://www.communitygarden.org/links.php#Gardens

HELPING THE DISABLED
http://www.leftfootorganics.org
http://www.kinghorngardens.com/healing.htm
http://www.socialworktoday.com/archive/swt_0905p19.htm
http://www.plants-for-people.org/eng

FOOD SECURITY links
http://www.foodsecurity.org/links.html

ERADICATING HUNGER
http://www.carbon.org http://www.trees.co.za http://www.gardenorganic.org.uk http://www.moringatrees.org http://www.permacultureinternational.org http://echonet.org/core.htm http://www.seedinternational.com.au http://www.permaculture.org.uk http://www.csa-india.org http://neemfoundation.org http://www.neemresource.com http://www.treesforlife.org http://www.growbiointensive.org http://www.vermico.com/compost_tea_brewers.htm http://www.emtechnologynetwork.org
http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2006/01/102980.php

Miracle of Tithing
http://southafrica.indymedia.org/news/2006/10/11385.php

Please email this web page to friend. Thank you.

www.yesmagazine.com/article.asp?ID=576

yawn
by yawn Wednesday, Dec. 06, 2006 at 5:16 PM

"he even has his own web site"

Nothing new to that either. It's been spammed verbatim for years across the global collective.

gaggingly megalomaniacal
by there they go again Wednesday, Dec. 06, 2006 at 5:28 PM

You must post your molded xeroxed idiocy again. You must feed the trolls. You cannot help yourself. You must look like a complete fool to the rest of the world who doesn't give a damn who you are.

You *will* post again!

"xeroxed"
by logical fallacy Wednesday, Dec. 06, 2006 at 7:35 PM

See:

http://pittsburgh.indymedia.org/news/2006/12/25408_comment.php#25466

keep at it, fool
by keep coming back Wednesday, Dec. 06, 2006 at 8:52 PM

There is no "fallacy" about the "Nessie is gaggingly self-righteous" spam which you have posted verbatim for *years* .

You cannot help yourself. Post again, fool.

tWorld's richest 1% own 40% of all wealth, UN report discovers
by thanks for this!?! Wednesday, Dec. 06, 2006 at 10:57 PM

The richest 1% of adults in the world own 40% of the planet's wealth, according to the largest study yet of wealth distribution. The report also finds that those in financial services and the internet sectors predominate among the super rich.

Europe, the US and some Asia Pacific nations account for most of the extremely wealthy. More than a third live in the US. Japan accounts for 27% of the total, the UK for 6% and France for 5%.

The UK is also third in terms of per capita wealth. UK residents are found to have on average $127,000 (£64,000) each in assets, with Japanese and American citizens having, respectively, $181,000 and $144,000. All data relate to the year 2000.

The global study - from the World Institute for Development Economics Research of the United Nations - is the first to chart wealth distribution in every country as opposed to just income, for which more comprehensive date is available. It included all the most significant components of household wealth, including financial assets and debts, land, buildings and other tangible property. Together these total $125 trillion globally.

Anthony Shorrocks, director of the research institute at the United Nations University, in New York, led the study. He affirmed that the existence of a nest egg provided an insurance policy that helped people cope with unforeseen events such as ill health or a lost job. Capital allowed people to drag themselves out of poverty, he added. "In some ways, wealth is more important to people in poorer countries than in richer countries." It was more difficult in developing countries to set up a business because it was harder to borrow start-up funds, he said.

His team used detailed data from 38 countries, but had to rely on incomplete information from the rest.

The report found the richest 10% of adults accounted for 85% of the world total of global assets. Half the world's adult population, however, owned barely 1% of global wealth. Near the bottom of the list were India, with per capita wealth of $1,100, and Indonesia with assets per head of $1,400.

Many African nations as well as North Korea and the poorer Asia Pacific nations were places where the worst off lived.

"These levels of inequality are grotesque," said Duncan Green, head of research at Oxfam. "It is impossible to justify such vast wealth when 800 million people go to bed hungry every night. The good news is that redistribution would only have to be relatively small. Such are the vast assets of the rich that giving up a small part of their wealth could transform the lives of millions."

Madsen Pirie, director of the Adam Smith Institute, a free-market thinktank, disagreed that distribution of global wealth was unfair. He said: "The implicit assumption behind this is that there is a supply of wealth in the world and some people have too much of that supply. In fact wealth is a dynamic, it is constantly created. We should not be asking who in the past has created wealth and how can we get it off them." He said that instead the question should be how more and more people could create wealth.

Ruth Lea, director of the Centre for Policy Studies, a thinkthank set up by Margaret Thatcher, said that although she supported the goal of making poverty history she did not think increasing aid to poorer countries was the answer. "It's no use throwing lots of aid at countries that are basically dysfunctional," she said.

The UN report was issued as the Swiss magazine Bilan released a list of the richest Swiss residents. Ingvar Kamprad, the founder of Ikea, topped the list with an estimated fortune of $21bn.

www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0%2C%2C1964813%2C00.html?gusrc=rss&fee...

well, how about that!
by there they go again Thursday, Dec. 07, 2006 at 2:34 AM

Wow, a study from the United Nations? That group of terrorist and socialist thugs?

No Food for Oil!

"by there they go again Thursday, Dec. 07, 2006 at 2:34 AM"
by so predictable Thursday, Dec. 07, 2006 at 3:53 AM

There they go again, demonstrating once more what fundamentally dishonest people they are.