Regardless of how long you’ve been subscribed to Contra, I just wanted to give thanks to everyone who reads me. I quite literally could not do this without you.
I don’t want to keep you too long because I’m sure most people have stuff to do today, so I will just leave you with a brief note about our first president.
On November 26, 1789, George Washington awoke and prepared to celebrate his first Thanksgiving as president. He was an early riser, often beating the dawn. Breakfast usually consisted of cornmeal cakes slathered in honey and butter. Three cups of tea. No cream.
Washington attended services at St. Paul’s Chapel and bought beer and food for prisoners in the New York City jail. The weather was pretty awful, so not many people ventured out to catch a glimpse of the man who would be like Cincinnatus. That didn’t matter. There was a job to do. Namely, holding together a nascent republic. Indeed, just a few years later, in 1794, the Whiskey Rebellion would erupt in the Monongahela Valley of western Pennsylvania, testing the legitimacy of the new federal government. Washington regretfully raised a force to end the armed insurrection, which thankfully collapsed without much of a fight.
Back to Thanksgiving.
With so much at stake, Washington beseeched “the great Lord and Ruler of Nations” to “pardon our national and other transgressions,” and “to render our national government a blessing to all the people, by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed.”
We’re a long way from “wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed.” If there’s cause for cautious optimism, it’s not due to any politician or government but the fact that Americans are good people.
Happy Thanksgiving.
No, Thank you Pedro
Happy thanksgiving 🦃
Hear, hear! Thank you Pedro for all of your thoughtful columns. Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family.