Growing up, Thanksgiving was always — by far — my favorite holiday on the American civic calendar. It still is today. And while I have fond memories of playing football on Thanksgiving Day with childhood friends and eating turkey legs smothered in gravy, it was obvious to me at a fairly young age that Thanksgiving is about far more than that. Thanksgiving is, as the name implies, about gratitude — a defining ideal of both the specific American tradition and the broader Judeo-Christian civilizational inheritance from which our nation cannot be separated. While the first modern Thanksgiving does indeed go back all the way to William Bradford and the other intrepid Pilgrims who landed in Plymouth Colony in 1620, Thanksgiving first officially entered the American canon on Oct. 3, 1789. It was on that day, barely five months after he commenced his tenure as the first president of the United States, that George Washington issued his famous Thanksgiving Proclamation: Whereas it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor, I do recommend and assign Thursday the 26th day of November next to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be — That we may then all unite in rendering unto him our sincere and humble thanks. Just as Bradford and the Pilgrims prostrated themselves before our Creator to express their gratitude upon successfully landing in Plymouth Colony, so too did Washington declare a solemn day of gratitude for all Americans of the then-nascent republic to thank our Creator “for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed, and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and in general for all the great and various favors which he hath been pleased to confer upon us.” America was founded as an ecumenical biblically-based country, and it stands to reason that a day rooted in gratitude is so core to our collective identity. The expression of thankfulness, after all, is a leitmotif throughout the Bible, and it is one of the very cornerstones of the Jewish and Christian faiths. As an observant Jew, I recite Psalm 100 — a “psalm of thanksgiving,” it begins — every morning during prayer. The ideal of gratitude is further baked into the Jewish liturgy with the “Modim” prayer, which is part of the central Amidah prayer that Jews recite thrice daily (four times on the Sabbath): modim anachnu lach, or “we gratefully thank You.” Gratitude is also the definitional ideal of Anglo-American conservatism as that tradition has existed for hundreds of years. When the paradigmatic 18th-century British conservative statesman Edmund Burke wrote his Reflections on the Revolution in France, in which he decried the unmoored radicalism he saw unfolding across the English Channel, he was really making an appeal to the imperative of gratitude. Beautiful customs, folkways, and norms are far more easily destroyed than they are built, and it is incumbent upon men everywhere to be grateful for their inherited familial, communitarian, national, and religious traditions. It was on this particular basis that Burke was able to launch his famous assault on the French revolutionaries. If there is one thing above all we know the Jacobins sorely lacked, it is a sense of gratitude. It is far too easy, in today’s frenetic, hyper-partisan, and politically charged environment, to lose sight of all that we have to be grateful for. Our 24/7 clickbait-driven media cycle tends to focus on what’s wrong in the world — what’s bad out there. As humans, we all have a natural tendency to dwell on others’ faults, not their positive traits. Too often, we complain about that which we do not have, rather than focusing on what we do have. Thanksgiving, and perhaps the holiday season more broadly, is a good time to change that focus for the better. It is a time to take stock of all that we have been blessed with. I hope you had some time on Thursday, in between watching football, eating turkey, and catching up with that distant relative you haven’t seen in a long time, to think about the importance of gratitude — to you, your family, your community, your nation, and your God. I wish you all a belated happy, blessed, and meaningful Thanksgiving. Truly, we all have so much to be grateful for. To find out more about Josh Hammer and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com. COPYRIGHT 2024 CREATORS.COM READ MORE from Josh Hammer: What Was the Matt Gaetz Attorney General Pick Really About? The Final Choice: Civilizational Arson Versus Civilizational Sanity Donald Trump, Class Traitor Par Excellence The post Gratitude Is Our Defining Ideal appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.

Paella is popular Spanish dish full of flavor. And while it's not too difficult to make, there are some mistakes you need to avoid for the perfect results.

by Sayer Ji, Green Med Info: Life expectancy with chemotherapy alone is eight months, while adding high-dose intravenous vitamin C resulted in 16 months of survival. Adding high-dose vitamin C to a cancer treatment regimen may double survival time, according to a clinical trial that tested this in pancreatic cancer patients. Typically diagnosed in its advanced stages, pancreatic cancer has a […]

from ZeroHedge: Another day, another record-setting Russian missile and drone attack on Ukraine at a moment the West is escalating its support to Kiev. President Vladimir Putin announced to security officials at the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) summit in Kazakhstan  that 100 drones and 90 missiles were launched at Ukraine over the last 48 hours “in […]

from Wall Street Silver: TRUTH LIVES on at https://sgtreport.tv/

When I first created this site, I wanted it to be one of the best places for everything that is Indie and Retro game related. There are other sites out there, all with their own different styles but not many that deal with both Indie and Retro gaming at the same time as well as every new release. However with my health not being so good it's really taking its toll to write day after day, hour

Today, Mega Cat Studios, the indie game studio known for its dedication to retro gaming, has announced the digital and physical release of “Excidium Event” for Super Nintendo! This new game is a re-imagining of the classic arcade title “Space Zap” and the Astrocade title “Space Fortress,” and I had the pleasure of getting to […]

No, it's not the microwave. READ MORE...