Hunger in America
Stephen Lendman
Activist Post.com
Friday, November 29, 2013
It’s hard giving thanks when you’re hungry. It’s harder living in the world’s richest country. It’s harder still knowing government officials don’t care. It’s hardest of all wondering how you’ll get by.
More below on growing hunger and deprivation. It’s increasing in America at a time trillions of dollars go for warmaking, corporate handouts, and other benefits for rich elites.
Giving thanks predated the republic. In 1621, Plymouth Pilgrims did so. They had nothing to do with originating the idea.
Native Americans did. They gave thanks for annual fall harvests. They did it centuries before settlers arrived.
On November 26, 1789, George Washington proclaimed the first national thanksgiving day.
He called it “a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favours of Almighty God.”
In 1863, Lincoln used the occasion to boost Union Army morale and patriotic fervor.
He “invite(d) (his) fellow citizens 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.”
He “fervently implore(d) the interposition of the Almighty hand to heal the wounds of he nation and to restore it to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity, and union.”
The Rest…HERE
