The 2016 presidential campaign was not an event that many of us, to borrow a phrase from a famous British lady, will look back upon with undiluted pleasure. Tomorrow, many families will sit down to dinner and wonder where civility has gone. Some may engage in or witness dinner debates, to describe them kindly . What a shame, especially for the people who prepare those dinners and offer the hospitality of their homes

 I've been thinking about another president, the one who guided our nation through the tragedy that was the Civil War. Brother fought against brother in that conflict. Yet, in 1964, Abraham Lincoln responded to the pleas of editor Sarah Josepha Hale and declared the last Thursday in November to be annual day of Thanksgiving. The words of Lincoln are a reminder to us all of in the midst of unrest and upheaval, we still have so much for which to be grateful in this extraordinary country

Here is the Thanksgiving Proclamation, courtesy of the American Presidency Project at the University of California, Santa Barbara. You might want to pass some copies around tomorrow
Happy Thanksgiving