Friend
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Please accept my wishes for a
peaceful and happy Thanksgiving.? At this time of year, it is
fulfilling to reflect on the founding of our Republic, based on the
principle of "doing good." (Cotton Mather) Since the death of FDR, our
nation has strayed from that path and is, under the current
administration, plunging the world into misery.? I know that the
American people are better than our foreign policy, and we must do all
we can to reflect and embody the intended goodness of our
nation.
For that reason, this Thanksgiving I
have decided to share the November 1, 1944 Thanksgiving Proclamation
of a great President from New York, President Franklin D. Roosevelt.?
It was clear, after the Normandy landing, that the war would soon come
to a victorious close, and our nation along with our allies in the
Soviet Union had collaborated to defeat Hitler, with great sacrifice
both here, and emphatically from our Soviet allies who lost 27 million
souls.??
By
the President of the United States of America
A
Proclamation
In this year of liberation, which has
seen so many millions freed from tyrannical rule, it is fitting that
we give thanks with special fervor to our Heavenly Father for the
mercies we have received individually and as a nation and for the
blessings He has restored, through the victories of our arms and those
of our allies, to His children in other lands.
For the preservation of our way of life
from the threat of destruction; for the unity of spirit which has kept
our Nation strong; for our abiding faith in freedom; and for the
promise of an enduring peace, we should lift up our hearts in
thanksgiving.
For the harvest that has sustained us
and, in its fullness, brought succor to other peoples; for the bounty
of our soil, which has produced the sinews of war for the protection
of our liberties; and for a multitude of private blessings, known only
in our hearts, we should give united thanks to God.
To the end that we may bear more earnest
witness to our gratitude to Almighty God, I suggest a nationwide
reading of the Holy Scriptures during the period from Thanksgiving Day
to Christmas. Let every man of every creed go to his own version of
the Scriptures for a renewed and strengthening contact with those
eternal truths and majestic principles which have inspired such
measure of true greatness as this nation has achieved.
Now, Therefore, I, Franklin D.
Roosevelt,?President of the United States of
America, in consonance with the joint resolution of the Congress
approved December 26, 1941, do hereby proclaim Thursday the
twenty-third day of November 1944 a day of national thanksgiving; and
I call upon the people of the United States to observe it by bending
every effort to hasten the day of final victory and by offering to God
our devout gratitude for His goodness to us and to our fellow men.
In Witness
Whereof,?I have hereunto set my hand and caused the
seal of the United States of America to be affixed.
DONE at the City of Washington this first
day of November in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and
forty-four and of the Independence of the United States of America the
one hundred and sixty-ninth.
FRANKLIN D.
ROOSEVELT
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--Diane
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