As regular readers of this space know, each Memorial Day and Independence Day I pen a special holiday message. And I've done so periodically on Thanksgiving too. So, here’s hoping you find this one thought-provoking.
To me, Independence Day, Memorial Day, and Thanksgiving are uniquely American holidays, bound together in uniquely American ways. By this I don't mean to say that other nations don't celebrate holidays that perhaps have the same names. And I don't mean to say that those nation's holidays don't commemorate aspects of their own histories and traditions that, in some respects, may be like our own.
What I do mean to say is that we celebrate Independence Day, Memorial Day, and Thanksgiving – and understand, or should understand, what they signify as national holidays – in our uniquely American context.
It is not necessary to accept, literally, the grade-school version of the first Thanksgiving in 1621 – which took place within a year of the Mayflower's landing at Plymouth Rock – to draw inspiration from the story of the Pilgrims' pause to give thanks. Regardless of the exact circumstances – and it now appears that the term "Thanksgiving" was not used at that meal – their prospects in their new American home remained highly uncertain.
Last year I wrote about the 400th anniversary of the Mayflower Compact, and I won't repeat all of that here. The key point is that the Compact, a declaration of self-government entered into by mutual consent, is an often-overlooked foundational American document. Those Pilgrims signing agreed to join together to form a "civil body politic" subject to "just and equal" laws. Not merely any laws.
In much the same way you don't have to accept, literally, the grade-school origin story of Thanksgiving to draw inspiration from the holiday today, you don't need to ignore the ugly history of slavery and Jim Crow in America to draw inspiration from the true meaning of the words of the Declaration of Independence. The Declaration's proclamation that "all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness," might not mean as much absent the Mayflower Compact's covenant, a century and half earlier, to establish a civil society subject to "just and equal laws." In other words, a line can be drawn from a proper understanding of the Mayflower Compact to a proper understanding of the Declaration of Independence, a thread in the establishment of the rule of law in America that ought to bind us together.
In the same way that the men who drafted the Mayflower Compact and the Declaration of Independence were not without their flaws, our leaders who have sent men and women to fight America's wars are not without theirs. Thus, some of America's wars may be viewed as more justified, or just, than others. But we celebrate Memorial Day not to honor our wars but to honor Americans who paid the ultimate price in answering their country's call.
Here then is the sense that I consider Thanksgiving, Independence Day, and Memorial Day together. The Founders possessed sufficient wisdom to bequeath a Constitution that framed a government that enables us to engage in the continuing project of forming "a more perfect Union.” Without the sacrifices of those we honor on Memorial Day, or the wisdom of those who drafted the Declaration in 1776 or the Mayflower Compact in 1620, the American experiment in self-government, under the rule of law, would not exist as we know it.
To my mind, it doesn't bode well for our country's future when so many today relish invoking the stains in our history as a reason to ignore, or even obliterate, all the good from which we can and should rightly draw inspiration. It bodes ill when so many relish silencing – "cancelling" in today's lingo – fellow Americans for uttering thoughts which with they disagree or consider out of fashion. This is not principally a matter of whether the First Amendment protects the right of individuals or private entities to engage in such silencing – it mostly does – but rather a matter of whether doing so comports with the constitutional culture that the free speech clause of the First Amendment is intended to nurture.
On this Thanksgiving, aside from enjoying a traditional Thanksgiving dinner with all the fixings, I'm going to draw inspiration from what I consider to be the uniquely American links between Thanksgiving, Independence Day, and Memorial Day. I remain unabashed in my belief that America is a unique nation, blessed with a unique form of government, one preserved by those who have paid the ultimate sacrifice in blood in defending our freedoms.
Any inspiration that may be drawn from these three uniquely American national holidays ought to be in the service of a renewed commitment to engage, as informed citizens, in the preservation of the rule of law.
With that in mind, as always, I wish you a Happy Thanksgiving, and one that is inspiring too!
With best wishes,
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