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The Very First Thanksgiving Proclamation
by Marcia Segelstein

The very first Thanksgiving proclamation was issued by the Continental Congress on November 1, 1777. It was a time of upheaval unimaginable to most of us. Only the year before, the signers of the Declaration of Independence had set in motion events which would change the course of history. At the time the proclamation was issued, the outcome of those events was yet to be determined, and a bitter war waged on with young men giving their lives for the cause of freedom. Uncertainly loomed, but faith suffused with gratitude prevailed, as is clear from the words of this remarkable document.

Here are portions of this first proclamation, which called for December 18th to be set apart…

“That at one Time and with one Voice, the good People may express the grateful Feelings of their Hearts, and consecrate themselves to the Service of their Divine Benefactor…That it may please him graciously to afford his Blessing on the Governments of these States respectively, and prosper the public Council of the whole; To inspire our Commanders, both by Land and Sea, and all under them, with that Wisdom and Fortitude which may render them fit Instruments, under the Providence of Almighty God, to secure for these United States, the greatest of all human Blessings, INDEPENDENCE and PEACE.”

Innocent Victims of an Obama Presidency
by Marcia Segelstein

The good news out of Election 2008 is that all the predictions that racism would ultimately prevent Barack Obama being elected did not come true.

There is, however, a tragic irony that may well also occur as a result of this election. James Kushiner, publisher of Touchstone: A Journal of Mere Christianity, writes about it on the magazine’s website:

“[W]hile blacks have risen from the indignities and injustice of slavery in which their bodies were sold and consumed as property, and have endured segregation and second-class citizen status and racial discrimination, and have now one of their own elected to the highest office in the land, this very president-elect, Barack Obama, will increase the death toll among black human beings if he fulfills his promise to enact a Freedom of Choice Act, which will serve as a firewall around Roe v. Wade, the Dred Scott decision of our times…Discrimination based on the color of one’s skin is not now the burning issue of our time…It’s that we’ve forgotten the value of human skin in the first place.”