On June 20, 1676, the governing council of Charlestown, Massachusetts, held a meeting to determine how best to express thanks for the good fortune that had seen their community securely established. By unamimous vote they instructed Edward Rawson, the clerk, to proclaim June 29 as a day of thanksgiving. That proclamation is reproduced here in the same language and spelling as the original.
"The Holy God having by a long and Continual Series of his Afflictive dispensations in and by the present Warr with the Heathen Natives of this land, written and brought to pass bitter things against his own Covenant people in this wilderness, yet so that we evidently discern that in the midst of his judgements he hath remembered mercy, having remembered his Footstool in the day of his sore displeasure against us for our sins, with many singular Intimations of his Fatherly Compassion, and regard; reserving many of our Towns from Desolation Threatened, and attempted by the Enemy, and giving us especially of late with many of our Confederates many signal Advantages against them, without such Disadvantage to ourselves as formerly we have been sensible of, if it be the Lord's mercy that we are not consumed, It certainly bespeaks our positive Thankfulness, when our Enemies are in any measure disappointed or destroyed; and fearing the Lord should take notice under so many Intimations of his returning mercy, we should be found an Insensible people, as not standing before Him with Thanksgiving, as well as lading him with our Complaints in the time of pressing Afflictions:
The Council has thought meet to appoint and set apart the 29th day of this instant June, as a day of Solemn Thanksgiving and praise to God for such his Goodness and Favour, many Particulars of which mercy might be Instanced, but we doubt not those who are sensible of God's Afflictions, have been as diligent to espy him returning to us; and that the Lord may behold us as a People offering Praise and thereby glorifying Him; the Council doth commend it to the Respective Ministers, Elders and people of this Jurisdiction; Solemnly and seriously to keep the same Beseeching that being perswaded by the mercies of God we may all, even this whole people offer up our bodies and soulds as a living and acceptable Service unto God by Jesus Christ."
The text of this proclamation prepared by Gerald Murphy (The Cleveland Free-Net - aa300). Distributed by the Cybercasting Services Division of the National Public Telecomputing Network (NPTN). Permission is hereby granted to download, reprint, and/or otherwise redistribute the text of the proclamation, provided appropriate point of origin credit is given to Gerald Murphy and the National Public Telecomputing Network.
10 comments:
Enjoy your republican America while you can, it won't be long before the younger generation comes turning out to the voters polls, and in case you didn't notice, we aren't at all impressed with your monopilization of Christianity. I don't think Jesus would have been so damning on his subjects nor as hypocritical. We are already speaking out to the youth in this country and letting them know why our schools are going to crap because you Christain wannabe's are hoarding all the money with your so called religious war. I can only hope that you mongered all the money to the people that are supposed to take care of you when you get older, cause thanks to your tyrant president social security is also in the crapper. Oh and by the way, THE RIGHT DOES NOT HOLD THE MONOPOLY ON MORALLITY IN AMERICA!!!
Dear Anonymous;
Thank you for your comments.
I am sorry you feel so bitter and angry. I know how hard it is to loose an election when you've spent your time, energy, heart and money on it. That happened to me in 1964 and again several times since. Lashing out in anger, however, doesn't do anyone any good at all.
I'm afraid you're wrong about the young people. We had a HUGE turn out of first time voters in our precinct and it turned out that most of them voted for President Bush. Youngsters, it seems, can see through the hype and insincerity and vitriol quite clearly. (We probably have Madison Avenue to thank for that since their advertising teaches children early to be suspicious of hype.)
You will also see, when you're older, what a help it will be to have a secure social security system in place that is free from Congress's pilfering, as it has done the past decades.
I do hope you're right about conservatives not holding a monopoly on morality (that's spelled on one l, by the way) in America. It's hard to agree with you on that point, however, when I'm derided as stupid and uneducated, intentionally run off the road by a car with a Kerry sticker (mine had a Bush/Cheney sign), and my campaign signs are burned in my yard.
Perhaps you'll be able to prove to me that you are more ethical and moral than I.
You hit the nail right on the head! I don't care about politics or any religious movement for that matter. What I do care about is having my family members removed from this war that makes no sense to me. I have read their letters and all they say is, "God I wish I could come home, I don't understand why we are here and not on the march to find Bin Laden..." If you are so up to do on politics can you tell me why we went to war with Iraq in 1991. Kuwait or something, who knows. What keeps us there imposing our 'democracy' on them. If freeing them from a slaughterous leader (Saddam) is our mission, are we next going to the Sudan??? Look at the great price we are imposing if you don't beleive me... You are indeed correct, I don't know how to verbalize my hatred, except this; I would rather have anyone in office other than Bush! Listen to this man verbalize his views:
"Rarely is the question asked: Is our children learning?"
"What I am against is quotas. I am against hard quotas, quotas they basically delineate based upon whatever. However they delineate, quotas, I think, vulcanize society. So I don't know how that fits into what everybody else is saying, their relative positions, but that's my position."
"It's clearly a budget. It's got a lot of numbers in it."
"One word sums up probably the responsibility of any Governor, and that one word is 'to be prepared'."
"If you're sick and tired of the politics of cynicism and polls and principles, come and join this campaign."
"We must all hear the universal call to like your neighbor like you like to be liked yourself."
(people that live in glass houses shouldn't throw rocks Mr. President)
"The most important job is not to be Governor, or First Lady in my case."
"If people can judge me on the company I keep, they would judge me with keeping really good company with Laura."
"A low voter turnout is an indication of fewer people going to the polls."
"I was raised in the West. The west of Texas. It's pretty close to California. In more ways than Washington, D.C., is close to California."
"It is clear our nation is reliant upon big foreign oil. More and more of our imports come from overseas."
"One of the great things about books is sometimes there are some fantastic pictures."
"You teach a child to read, and he or her will be able to pass a literacy test.''
WAY TO VERBALIZE MR. PRESIDENT!!!
Dear Anonymous;
First, politics isn't a religion. Are you confusing the word with "protestant?"
If I understand you correctly, you don't understand why we went to war in Iraq in 1991 and are under the mistaken impression that we have been fighting there ever since.
We invaded Iraq in 1991 under the auspices of the United Nations because Iran had invaded Kuwait. It was our stated mission to force Hussein out of Kuwait; we did that and came home.
For the next 10 years we worked through the UN to feed the Iraqi people and to try to get Hussein to get rid of chemical weapons he had used on his people. While all that was going on, we knew he was murdering his citizens for various reasons but we kept working through the UN (and sending money which we have recently learned went to Hussein instead of to his people). We threatened to take him out if he didn't get rid of the weapons and he kept defying the UN inspectors -- kicking them out, refusing to let the see certain sites, etc. During that time we learned he was financially supporting Arafat and the Palestinian Hammas.
Then came the attacks on our World Trade Center by Bin Laden and the Taliban. Did you know we lost 1 million jobs in this country as a direct result of those attacks. It was a major hit against a nation that had started going into a recession just before the 2000 election. And the world (not just the USA) lost almost 3,000 people in that attack.
Meanwhile Hussein kept defying the UN and intelligence sources ALL OVER THE WORLD kept reporting that Hussein not only had chemical weapons but was developing them and may also be developing nuclear weapons.
We invaded Afghanistan and took out the Taliban. They recently held their first elections, by the way. Then we turned our attention to Hussein, who was defying the UN and ignoring the warnings from us and the rest of the world. He was also murdering hundreds of thousands of his own citizens, who lived in terror. (Our troops found mass graves...too horrible for words.) So we sent in our troops and the troops of 30 other UN countries including Italy, Spain and Australia, to take Hussein out. That turned out to be fairly easy and the plan for a free Iraq looked good.
Then the terrorists began to infiltrate Iraq and fight back. Some were Baathists (Iraqis who supported Hussein) but most are from Syria, Egypt, Jordan, Iran, and other countries. They are not armies supported by countries but terrorists who hate us because we're free.
It's been hard, but President Bush always said it would be. War always is. When he promised to bring the invaders who destroyed the Towers to justice, he told us we were beginning a war that would last a long time. We began it because we were attacked on our home ground -- terrorists had attacked us before but never to that extent. It was time to put a stop to it.
That's the history in a nutshell, Anonymous. There's a LOT more to it and you'll be much better able to vote responsibly if you'll take the time to find out about it.
As for the quotes, I suppose you speak perfect English when you're talking to hundreds of people and your mind is going faster than your tongue. That happens often with intelligent people. We usually smile and ignore misstatements and poor grammar -- unless there's prejudice and hatred in our hearts.
I have family in Iraq, too. And a son-in-law who is an Army Colonel who has been involved with the training of Iraqi troops and police. He is so proud of what is being accomplished over there and so frustrated with the American media who don't report the real facts.
Of course our guys are homesick. It's harder on the reserves and their families, I think, because they aren't the Patriots our real troops are. I will pray for your son and hope he'll be home soon, safe and sound.
But what we are doing in Iraq is for us first and for them second. And we are doing a great job -- one to be proud of.
Dear Gaye;
Thanks so much for your support!
I really don't understand the anger and hatred we're confronting. I am beginning, however, to think that it really has nothing to do with the election. I think our society is changing into a more selfish and hateful one.
When I was a child, we were taught something called "manners." We would never call anyone stupid (after all, how would we know) because it was rude to do so and people who knew how to behave properly simply didn't act like that.
In the 1960s, about the time certain soldiers and some citizens began to think they knew more about what was going on in the world than leaders who knew top secret stuff, those same arrogant people decided manners didn't matter. They could say and do what they wanted, whether they knew what they were doing or not. If it felt good, it was all right.
That sort of thinking has been going on for decades now. Mix it with a me-first society and you find people really being nasty to each other.
I think that's what is going on now.
They're not really angry at the President, or about the issues, or about anything other than they're tired of being treated like trash and they're lashing out.
How's that for a new "take" on the situation?
I said religion was politics? Hmm. As Bush said, "that sounds like one of them there distortions..." Anyway, I said I would leave your blog alone but, I just couldn't help but laugh at the replies. Thank you all for your responses, I would like to say that I learned alot from this blog. Oh, by the way I urge you all to go out and buy Fahrenheit 9/11, even if you just view it as a fictional piece. Alot of people won't see it because they have already decided it is a load of crap. I know you will have lots to say after viewing it... I will check back often to see what turns the wheels. Farewell, see you in 2008!
P.S. Sunnye, you are the definition of a cool debate, and I mean that in a good way...
Dear Anonymous;
I may have misunderstood your comment when you wrote, "I don't care about politics or any religious movement for that matter." I thought you meant politics was a religious movement and if I misunderstood, I do apologize. The only p- that I could think of (besides "Presbyterian" and that seemed too restricted) to match "politics" so I decided you probably meant "protestant." If I misunderstood the statement, I really am sorry.
I'm really glad you didn't give up on my blog and I thank you for the compliment. I'm beginning to feel like you're a friend! We may not agree, but we can discuss issues and learn from each other.
I can't find that quote of the President's but I'll keep looking. He uses Western vernacular often but it's really unusual for him to stoop to that kind of rhetoric -- I mean like using "them there". I've never heard that in the South or the West, except for in Hollywood movies.
Anyway, I'll "do you a deal" as my West Point cadet grandson and I often say when we want something! I'll watch Fahrenheit 9/11 if you'll watch FahrenHYPE 9/11. It's only fair that we watch both, don't you think?
Then, using google as a search engine, we can look for original sources on each point to find out who's telling the truth. If there's one thing that doesn't worry me, it's the truth.
Is it a deal?
Celsius 41 11 is another good DVD to watch along with Fahrenheit 9/11.
It's a little hard to find. The media hasn't been as willing to publicize both sides of this issue.
The quote might not have been accurate, but I was referring to the election debates when Kerry made reference to the fact that Bush said something to the effect of, "I am not worried about him, he's really no concern of mine (talking about bin Laden)," in a previous news conference. Bush's hasty response was, "that must be one of them distortions..."
Also, to the other anonymous, I haven't seen that movie on the shelf, but I always have an interest in what the other side is saying. I did catch a little bit of Fahrenhype 911, which was a sad response as far as content in reference to the things they were and weren't willing to address. I was hoping that there was a good explanation to the things they were saying at some of those big business conventions, where it was apparent to me that this liberation had nothing to do with freeing Iraq, but rather finding a new source of cheap oil. I think that film, for me anyway, was the straw that broke the camel's back, when I decided that anybody that was so lax about the destruction of innocent lives had to be stopped. I know that Kerry didn't have an exit plan either, but his wife's fortune in something other than oil assured me that they had nothing to gain from this war other than interests that were more suited for America and the world. For that matter, Kerry was leaning towards a tax plan that would cost his wife and her company lots of money. But, for her, I'm sure that was just a drop in the bucket.
Hi again, anonymous -- I apologize for being so slow to respond. I've been down with a massive case of coughing and larygitis, which just sounds bad -- and the cough medication, which knocks me out! I'm really dragging.
Up until my husband took retirement and we moved to an air force base to help look after our grandchildren (whose father is in the AF and whose mother deserted them), I worked in the legal department of the third largest oil company in the USA. From that experience, I think I can assure you that we did not go to war in Iraq for oil. Although Iraq is an oil-rich country and we are heavily dependent on oil products and by-products not only for fuel but for medicines and a huge variety of necessities and mere conveniences, we have access to plenty of oil-rich resources other than Iraq.
The motivation for going into Iraq was, purely and simply, to get rid of Hussein's weapons and to get him out of power. As it turned out (and as you know, I'm sure) the intelligence was wrong on the weapons and although he had produced them -- and used them -- in the past, he does seem to have stopped making them. The President didn't lie to us about that, by the way. He told us what the international intelligence told him and the other national leaders.
I don't believe anyone who has a social conscience could object to the results of us invading Iraq. The mass graves of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis murdered by Hussein, the hundreds of millions of dollars of UN money misdirected into Hussein's and his sons' personal funds, the schools and hospitals our troops have built and staffed, the infrastucture they work on by day while they fight by night (my son-in-law is with the Army and has directed some of the training over there -- you should hear his tales of what is really happening), and so much more.
The profits from Iraq's oil industry are going right back into their economy. There's a lot of sabotage going on but so far we're able to keep up with repairs and if we can keep the UN from going in there and syphoning off the profits, Iraq will keep getting better.
Both the Bush family and the Kerrys are financial beneficiaries of generations of money-making ancestors. The Heinz money, for example, stayed pretty intact for three generations before it got to Theresa.
The Bush fortunes came mostly from steel and defense contracts -- George W's oil company was short-lived. Kerry's family had a little money (enough to send him to Yale, at least) but most of his money came from marrying well.
The only ties I can find of oil money to the Bushes came from start up money for George W's oil company back in 1979. That was from a Houston businessman who had a connection with the Saudis but that was during the Cold War when the world was worried about a nuclear threat from Russia and no one had ever heard of bin Laden. It was also a business investment, not campaign or personal funding. That was 10 years before the Berlin Wall came down and before we began to experience terrorism.
Anonymous, I really do plan to watch Moore's film as well as the other two but Fahrenheit 9/11 has been discredited by so many people! I'm so much more interested in taking on important issues one at a time and researching them until I find credible, original sources. But if you're interested --- I'll do it. I've put it on reserve at the library. Will tell you when I get it!
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