Giving Thanks that Thanksgiving Day is a National Holiday

Today I am giving thanks that Thanksgiving Day is a national holiday when Americans can join together in an outpouring of thanks for our national heritage and our personal blessings.

A trend of pessimism in the America of today

Poll questions, besides dealing with general questions about the events of the day, sometimes attempt to provide a measurement of trends by using "are you better or worse off" questions. One such polling firm, Rasmussen Reports, often polls with such "better or worse" questions.

As always, everyone is free to accept or reject both the importance and the validity of any polls, including those done by Rasmussen Reports, based on their own belief systems.

Some recent "better or worse" polling results by Rasmussen Reports:

• Just 18% of Americans now believe the country is better off today than it was five years ago.
  
• Only 17% of likely U.S. voters think the country is heading in the right direction.
  
• 37% Say America's Best Days Are in the Future
  
• 18% Say Today's Children Will Be Better Off Than Their Parents
  

These are very pessimistic numbers, reflective of the economic problems being faced by many Americans. It is hard for people who are economically challenged to be optimistic about the future.

A historical perspective

Historically, it should be remembered that our republic has been through tough times before.

As a senior citizen, I clearly remember many downturns in the economy of the nation. My family and the people in my community grappled with the lingering effects of the Great Depression as the country sought to right itself over the course of many years after the crash of 1929. I can look back on happenings after World War II, and recall how it was before, during and after the Vietnam and Korean Wars and also subsequent conflicts. Angry protests are nothing new, nor are all manners of civil unrest. Elections have always been hard fought. Corruption and greed have existed at every step of the way.

But throughout our history Americans have proven to be a resilient people who, like the iconic "Rosie the Riveter," have consistently demonstrated a "we can do it" spirit. I have found this saying to be a truism: "When the going gets tough, the tough get going."

Yes, there have been many tough times in the nation's history, but there have also been bright periods when thanks to the persistence of the citizenry wounds were healed, wrongs were righted, and the country overall regained the measure of prosperity that its citizens deserved. For that "we can do it" spirit of my fellow Americans, I am giving thanks.

I'm always an optimist - what positive measures America has achieved in the past, it can achieve again in the future.

On Thanksgiving Day, 2011

I'm very much looking forward to Thanksgiving Day. I like that it is a national holiday, and that the two words "Thanksgiving Day" are highlighted in ads, are on display on products, appear in titles of recipes, inspire poems and articles, and in general act as a reminder to people that all is not gloomy - there are always things for which we can and should give thanks even in the most dire of circumstances.

I'm giving thanks to our forebears who decided that Thanksgiving Day deserves its own place on the list of national holidays.

It was President Franklin D. Roosevelt who signed a bill into law in December, 1941 that makes Thanksgiving a national holiday on the fourth Thursday in November. It was also President Franklin D. Roosevelt who gave a memorable speech to the members of the 77^th Congress on January 6, 1941 in which he summarized four essential freedoms, freedoms which ring as true today as they did when FDR spoke eloquently of them seventy years ago.

Here is an excerpt from FDR's 1941 "four freedom speech" with links to Norman Rockwell's Saturday Evening Post covers depicting these freedoms:

"In the future days which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms.

"The first is freedom of speech and expression -- everywhere in the world.

"The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way -- everywhere in the world.

"The third is freedom from want, which, translated into world terms, means economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants -- everywhere in the world.

"The fourth is freedom from fear, which, translated into world terms, means a world-wide reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor -- anywhere in the world."

Man does not come by these four freedoms easily, and in America as is elsewhere in the world, what measure of freedom has been achieved is often under attack. That is why I am giving thanks for a national day of Thanksgiving. I firmly believe that we need a special day on which the citizens all across this broad nation are encouraged to pause and give thanks for what our nation embodies, for the precious freedoms that we share but often take for granted, for the sacrifices of so many that have collectively preserved our nation, and for whatever else we each deem to be most important and worthy in our own personal lives.

The essence of a national Thanksgiving Day doesn't require eating turkey, having fancy decorations, or spending even one extra penny. All that each of us needs to do on the fourth Thursday of every November is to pause, reflect, and be thankful. And of course it wouldn't hurt if this same spirit of thanksgiving would also be applied on the other 364 days of the year!

Sources: Personal opinion; http://www.rasmussenreports.com/; http://www.best-norman-rockwell-art.com/four-freedoms-speech-1941-01-16-franklin-roosevelt.html#ixzz1dEH9rGjq; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thanksgiving