As we gather with those closest to us on Thursday to celebrate Thanksgiving, we take a moment to pause and remember all that we’re grateful for. 

We’re thankful for our families, our friends and our health. We’re thankful that we live in a community where people are ready and willing to step up and lend each other a helping hand (see pages 8A-10A). We’re thankful to you, dear reader, for continuing to support your local community newspaper. 

There’s a long history of Thanksgiving proclamations in the United States. On Thursday, November 26, 1789, President George Washington issued a proclamation for “a day of public thanksgiving and prayer.”

On October 3, 1863, just a few months after the Battle of Gettysburg, President Abraham Lincoln issued a proclamation encouraging Americans to recognize the last Thursday of November as “a day of Thanksgiving.” 

“I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, …to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving... And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him …, 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 Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility and Union.”

As we gather around the table this year we’re cognizant of the deep divisions in our country so often portrayed in the media and in our political discourse. It seems we’re too often focused on what pulls people apart that we forget what brings us together. We’re thankful that we can once again be together to break bread and share stories. Our modern day Thanksgiving is a time to remind us that, despite challenges we may face, we’ve still got it pretty good. 

From all of us here at the Sullivan County Democrat, we wish you and your family a happy and safe Thanksgiving!