November 22, 2017
Page 13
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O PINION
Thanksgiving and Forging Unity in Divisive Times
Praying for a
nation’s healing
M arC h. M orial
“This history of
Thanksgiving teach-
es us that the Ameri-
can instinct has never
been to seek isolation
in opposite corners; it
is to find strength in
our common creed and
forge unity from our great diver-
sity. On that very first thanksgiv-
ing celebration, these same ideals
brought together people of differ-
ent backgrounds and beliefs, and
every year since, with enduring
confidence in the power of faith,
love, gratitude, and optimism,
this force of unity has sustained
us as a people. It has guided us
through times of great challenge
and change and allowed us to
see ourselves in those who come
to our shores in search of a safer,
better future for themselves and
their families,” – President Barack
by
Obama 2016.
While Thanksgiving is clearly a
celebration of gratitude for a boun-
tiful harvest, its origin and history
in the United States tell an
unexpected tale of unity that
is particularly relevant in
these divisive times.
While the early history of
the United States is rife with
atrocities committed against
Native Americans, the “first
Thanksgiving” – a three-day
feast in 1621 – was a peaceful mo-
ment of fellowship between the
English settlers and the Wampa-
noag among whom they lived.
In one of two existing accounts
of that feast, Edward Winslow
wrote of the “many of the Indians
coming amongst us, and amongst
the rest their greatest king Mas-
sasoit, with some 90 men, whom
for three days we entertained and
feasted.” Another English set-
tler who arrived shortly after that
first feast, William Hilton, wrote
in a letter to his cousin described
“the Indians round about us” as
“peaceable and friendly.”
Over the next century and a
half, Thanksgiving was celebrat-
ed at different times by the sep-
arate colonies. The Continental
Congress issued the first National
Proclamation of Thanksgiving in
1777: “It is therefore recommend-
ed to the legislative or executive
Powers of these United States to
set apart Thursday, the 18th Day
of December next, for Solemn
Thanksgiving and Praise…” Over
the year, various days of Thanks-
giving would be proclaimed by
Congress and Presidents, as well
as governors, but an annual, recur-
ring, nationwide holiday would
not be proclaimed until 1863, in
the middle of the Civil War.
He was prompted by the writ-
ings of magazine editor Sarah Jo-
sepha Hale, who wrote to him on
Sept. 28, 1863: “You may have
observed that, for some years past,
there has been an increasing in-
terest felt in our land to have the
Thanksgiving held on the same
day, in all the States; it now needs
National recognition and authori-
tive fixation, only, to become per-
manently, an American custom
and institution.”
Lincoln’s proclamation was
more than a declaration of a hol-
iday, but a heartfelt plea for the
end of the war and a reunification
of the nation. He invited his fel-
low citizens not only to set apart
the last Tuesday of November “as
a day of Thanksgiving and Praise
to our beneficent Father who
dwelleth in the Heavens,” but
also to “fervently implore the in-
terposition of the Almighty Hand
to heal the wounds of the nation
and to restore it as soon as may
be consistent with the Divine
purposes to the full enjoyment of
peace, harmony, tranquility and
Union.”
In an effort to lengthen the
Christmas shopping season and
stimulate the economy in the
midst of the Depression, Presi-
dent Franklin D. Roosevelt briefly
changed the date of the holiday to
the next-to-last Thursday, but the
move was considered an affront
to Lincoln’s memory and trig-
gered partisan outrage. Nov. 30,
1939, was considered “Republi-
can Thanksgiving” and Nov. 23
as “Democratic Thanksgiving” or
“Franksgiving”. The experiment
appeared to fail, with no measur-
able boost to the 1939 and 1940
Christmas shopping seasons. On
Dec. 26, 1941, Congress passed
a law making Thanksgiving the
fourth Thursday of November,
where it has remained – a biparti-
san celebration – ever since.
It’s instructive that we find the
pivotal moments in the develop-
ment of modern Thanksgiving in
the United States at the time of
the Civil War and the Great De-
pression. We are once again fac-
ing a crisis of division. As we give
thanks for the blessings that have
been visited upon us, let us also
remember to pray for healing and
a reunification of our nation.
Marc H. Morial is president
and chief executive officer of the
National Urban League.
Fragments of Shame, Contrition and Desperate Denial
Trapped in ‘a
man’s world’
r obert C. k oehler
The “man’s world”
I grew up is shattering
into fragments of shame,
contrition and desperate
denial. Allegations of
sexual harassment and
abuse are catching up
with powerful perps, sometimes
decades after the fact. On Capitol
Hill, we now know about a “creep
list.” Women shouldn’t ride alone
in an elevator with these guys.
This is our democracy.
The only real surprise in all
this is that suddenly it matters . .
. that women — as well as young
males, children of both genders —
were harassed, humiliated, raped
by powerful male adults: that “me
too” resonates in the news. At one
time, outright denial of a sexu-
al abuse allegation wasn’t even
necessary because, even if it were
true, so what? That was then. The
idea of “a man’s world” was solid
and, well, boys will be boys.
“When Nelson got in Moore’s
car” — this is Beverly Young
Nelson, describing an attempted
rape by Alabama Senate candidate
Roy Moore in 1975 — “she said
he drove behind the restaurant
and parked near a dumpster in-
stead of taking her home. Nelson
said Moore groped her and tried
by
to force her head onto his crotch.
Nelson says she yelled and tried
to leave the car, but Moore locked
the door.
“‘I was not going to
allow him to force me to
have sex with him,’ Nel-
son said. ‘I was terrified.
I thought he was going to
rape me. At some point, he
gave up.’
“Nelson said before
Moore opened the door — at
which point she either fell out
or he pushed her out — he told
her: ‘You’re just a child and I am
the District Attorney of Etowah
County, and if you tell anyone
about this, no one will ever be-
lieve you.’”
She was then 16 years old.
Tempting as it is to revel tri-
umphantly in moral judgment of
Moore, the homophobe and evan-
gelical hypocrite, I can’t avoid
putting his suddenly newsworthy
behavior into a larger social con-
text, not to let him off the hook
but to figure out how real change
can occur. Moore and all the other
celebs and bigshots caught in the
current avalanche of sex-abuse al-
legations have at least one thing in
common. They grew up in a world
where sex was a dirty secret and
discussion of it was taboo, except
adolescent-to-adolescent:
“Did
you get any last night?”
Men who attain power in such
a world do so, often enough, un-
encumbered by maturity, which
requires respect for the feelings of
others. All they have is power and,
creepily, a sense of permission.
And thus I quote President
Trump: “And when you’re a star,
they let you do it. You can do any-
thing. Grab them by the pussy.
You can do anything.”
A man’s world is a world that
values domination. It values win-
ning. At the same time, it devalues
“female” qualities: nurturing, em-
months ago, a staggering 6,172
cases of sexual assault were re-
ported across the military in 2016,
out of nearly 15,000 that actually
occurred, according to the results
of an anonymous survey. Eeri-
ly, the good news here is that the
number of reported cases has
nearly doubled from four years
ago, when 3,604 cases were re-
ported, out of an estimated 26,000
incidents that occurred.
However: “Fifty-eight percent
The truth is that the scourge
of sexual assault in the military
remains status quo.
— Senator Kirsten Gillibrand
pathy, love. These are for sissies.
And the House of Represen-
tatives has just approved the Na-
tional Defense Authorization Act
of 2018, with a military budget of
nearly $700 billion to continue our
wars around the planet. This is an
increase of nearly $80 billion in
military spending over 2017 —
at a time when virtually all other
spending is slashed to the bone.
There’s a desperation here the size
of an empire.
I mention this in the context of
domination culture, with the U.S.
military leading the way. Accord-
ing to a Reuters story from six
of victims experienced reprisals
or retaliation for reporting sexual
assault,” Reuters reported.
And: “The truth is that the
scourge of sexual assault in the
military remains status quo,” Sen.
Kirsten Gillibrand said.
I hope the “me too” movement
doesn’t let up, and that its power
and impact begin to penetrate U.S.
military culture. I also hope the
concept “it’s a man’s world” starts
coming undone at the structural
level and we start rebuilding our
world around deeper values than
winning and domination.
In that spirit, I also throw
some compassion into the mix
for the sexual harassers suddenly
at the center of unwanted public
attention. I know the world in
which they grew up; I grew up
in it too. This is a world in which
young people “come of age” —
come into their sexuality — in
utter isolation. While violence
is lovingly spread across the en-
tertainment and news media, sex
remains sealed in cringing aver-
sion.
Remember Jocelyn Elders?
She was the former U.S. surgeon
general who, at a United Nations
conference on AIDS in 1994, had
the courage to respond candidly
to a question about masturbation.
Might teaching children about
masturbation reduce unsafe sex?
“I think that is something that is
a part of human sexuality,” she
said, “and it’s a part of something
that perhaps should be taught. But
we’ve not even taught our chil-
dren the very basics.”
Oh, the horror! Bill Clinton, re-
sponding to the shock and uproar
these words provoked, immedi-
ately fired her.
And thus we live in a world in
which powerful men are trapped
in their own adolescence. Let’s
break the glass ceiling and free
everyone.
Robert Koehler, syndicat-
ed by PeaceVoice, is a Chicago
award-winning journalist and ed-
itor.