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I’m not sure what your face or my face would look like if we lost multiple family members in a single night, but I’m going to guess we’d have a similar expression. If you are reading this, most likely you are living in the best of times where we have access to food, air, water, shelter, security, and your family. We are living in the best of times because most of us (including yours truly) have never lacked any of these basic needs. These same basic needs have become luxuries for those living in the worst of times.
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,” is the opening line from one of the most famous 19th-century literary authors. The story takes place in two big cities (Paris and London) and the story is set against the backdrop of events that led up to the French Revolution and the Reign of Terror. Many lives were lost in the French Civil War that occurred in the 18th century. Seems like we now have our own “Tale of Two Cities” going on right now.
I can’t help but wonder if we Americans are somehow fueling a new “Reign of Terror” three centuries later. One thing you should remember is that it’s only the victims that feel terrorized. The people doing the terrorizing don’t think they are causing the “Reign of Terror”, but just think they are pursuing a noble cause.
America has moved two cities closer to these terrified women and child. One city is called the USS Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group. The second city is called the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group. A total of 14 surface vessels and an unknown number of submarines have been sent near the area filled with destruction, misery, and grief.
Is it to provide innocent people caught up in a Reign of Terror shelter, food, water, and medical attention? We Americans are generous and compassionate people, right? But I noticed, of all the vessels we sent, not one was a hospital ship. I also happen to notice that all the vessels are filled with people trained in the art of war.
"As laid out by the Secretary of Defense, their guidance is make sure that there's no escalation around Israel," says Peter Daly, retired U.S. Navy vice admiral and CEO of the U.S. Naval Institute.
Nobody in the picture above is going to understand an answer like that. A simpler answer that this girl might understand might go like this:
“Yes, we understand that you have lost your younger brother, two older sisters, your father, many cousins, your home, and that Dora the Explorer lunch box that you once took to school that no longer exists. We also understand that you now struggle to find food, water, a place to sleep, and even a place to go to the bathroom. We do feel bad for you. But in the hour of your greatest need, we have moved two big American cities closer to help…… our friends ……and not you.”
Are we Americans contributing to the Reign of Terror currently going on now? Wars require financing. Wars require copious amounts of weapons. Who has the ability to deliver a one-two punch like this? 6,000 bombs hit Gaza in the first week*
The missiles that destroyed these women’s homes and family members were Air-to-Ground Missiles (AGM). These laser-guided bombs have cool names like AGM-12 Bullpup; AGM-62 Walleye, AGM-65 Maverick. AM-45 Shrike, AGM-88 HARM, and AGM-114 Hellfire*. Some of the companies involved in the manufacturing of AGMs have names like Texas Instruments, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon Missiles & Defense, and Lockheed Martin.
The AGMs don’t magically appear in Gaza or Syria by themselves; they require transportation. These AGMs (aka bombs) were delivered by aircraft that have equally cool names like the F-15 Eagle, F-16 Fighting Falcon, and F-35 Lightning. Some companies involved in the manufacturing of these aircraft have names like McDonnell Douglas, Boeing, and Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, BAE System, and Pratt & Whitney. The great majority of the ordinance and aircraft that delivered them were proudly “Made in USA”. Speaking of the US, let’s switch gears and turn our thoughts towards happier thoughts back here in our country.
Soon, most of us will gather with family and friends to celebrate Thanksgiving. We seem to have many things we can be extra thankful for: food, water, shelter, family, and Hulu is now bundled with the Disney Channel. The writer’s strike is finally over, and hopefully I can get back to my Netflix and Amazon binge watching.
We certainly can be grateful that we’re not living in Gaza, Syria or Ukraine. Charles Dicken’s “Tale of Two Cities” story took place during the 18th century French Civil War. Did you know our first official Thanksgiving holiday was during the 19th century American Civil War? Honest Abe decreed it and Congress affirmed it.
But just as most Americans can no longer identify the author or writer who started his book “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times”, I think many Americans can no longer identify the author or title of a book that starts with, “In the beginning God…”
I get it. I’m not surprised. We live in a secular society. And in secular societies, there is a tendency to removal of God from our activities like school, work, sports, and even our three religious holidays: Christmas, Easter, and Thanksgiving.
Christmas’ focus seems to be on a tree, presents, family gatherings, eating, and shopping. Easter’s focus seems to be on baskets, bunnies, family gatherings, eating, and shopping; after all, who of us has the skill and dexterity to make a chocolate egg or bunny? Thanksgiving has the same recurring theme where we you introduce a different set of objects and of course keep the traditions of family gatherings, eating, and shopping (one day removed).
I get it. I’m not surprised. If you remove God from your life, you are going to be fill it with something (“Nature abhors a vacuum”). Likewise, when you remove God from our three religious holidays, you need to fill it with something else. I think many of us have filled this vacuum by entertainment, filling our stomachs, and buying more stuff. I also think of the three religious holidays that we celebrate (i.e. Christmas, Easter, and Thanksgiving), our society has so far done the best in removing God from Thanksgiving.
Thanksgiving a religious holiday? Yes, President Abraham Lincoln officially started Thanksgiving for us Americans. We now get the day off. Abe stated that it was to be, “a Day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens.” Really? That’s the purpose of the holiday? I thought Thanksgiving was for parades, watching football, and a mass exodus of turkeys into our tummies. Ask the next person you meet, “What is Thanksgiving all about?” Most people’s answer will have the word “family” in there somewhere, but usually I’ll be super surprised if someone tells you that it’s a Day of Thanksgiving and Praise to God.”
Before you read President Abraham Lincoln’s Thanksgiving Proclamation, it would be helpful to understand the setting in which caused Lincoln to make the Proclamation. You see, we had our own Reign of Terror going on in this country called the American Civil War.
I think it’s kind of weird that we use the word “Civil” in “Civil War” to describe a particular type of war. Because one of the definitions of Civil is “courteous and polite”. At least to me, it seems killing your own people is not a courteous or a polite thing to do.
Anyway, just 3 months prior to the Thanksgiving Proclamation, Americans fought its bloodiest battle called the Battle of Gettysburg; This is where an estimated 50,000 Americans died in that battle in Pennsylvania. Incidentally, this Reign of Terror continues to hold the record for the greatest number of American casualties where over 520,000 men, women, and children died in this “courteous and polite” war. So now you have the background setting. Lincoln delivers the proclamation in Washington DC. Here it is what he said.
Transcript for President Abraham Lincoln’s Thanksgiving Proclamation from October 3, 1863
By the President of the United States
A Proclamation
The year that is drawing toward its close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature that they cannot fail to penetrate and even soften the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever-watchful providence of Almighty God.
In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign states to invite and provoke their aggressions, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere, except in the theater of military conflict; while that theater has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union.
Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defense have not arrested the plow, the shuttle, or the ship; the ax has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege, and the battlefield, and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom.
No human counsel hath devised, nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.
It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American people. 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, tranquility, and union.
In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United Stated States to be affixed
.
Done at the city of Washington, this third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty-eighth.
Abraham Lincoln
By the President: William H. Seward. Secretary of State.
I find it interesting that many of us can be thankful, but not feel the need to direct that thankfulness towards anyone. Lincoln gave us a day off with the specific purpose of praising our heavenly Father. And that our praise and prayer (Abe calls it ascriptions) to God was to be done with “humble penitence”. Gosh, most Americans don’t do penances anymore; except maybe for a handful of older Roman Catholics and some Episcopalians, who my friend calls Jr. Varsity Catholics.
In the 21st century, I think we American have become such a proud and entitled people. We have pretty much expunged that word from our language and I think very few Americans even know what “humble penitence” means. “Penitence” means the action of feeling or showing sorrow and regret for having done wrong. Have a broken relationship in your life? Want that relationship restored? Abe gave us the how-to guide.
So I understand it’s pretty easy for people to be thankful and not have that thanks directed towards anyone. It’s more difficult to do Praise without directing that praise toward someone. So we have renamed the “Day of Thanksgiving and Praise” to just “Thanksgiving”. It’s also kind of impossible to express “humble penitence” without directing it toward someone. Certainly, the less humble we are the less we feel the need to praise or to be sorry for something we did wrong. One of our former great leaders thought the day was about thanksgiving, praise, and humble penitence “to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens”. So I want to wish you and your family a Happy Thanksgiving and Praise!
* ”Israel says it dropped 6,000 bombs on Gaza in one week. That's almost as many as what the US dropped in Afghanistan in one year.”, Kwan Wei Kevin Tan, Nov. 6, 2023, https://www.businessinsider.com/israel-dropped-as-many-bombs-in-gaza-us-afghanistan-2019-2023-11
*”Air-to-surface missiles of the United States”, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Air-to-surface_missiles_of_the_United_States
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