Posted on 11/17/2007 7:22:01 PM PST by BGHater
President Bush will speak next week about Thanksgiving during a visit to a historic Thanksgiving site — in Virginia, not Massachusetts.
On Monday, the president will head to Berkeley Plantation, where English settlers held a Thanksgiving service almost two years before the Pilgrims' feast in Massachusetts that came to be considered the first Thanksgiving.
"The president will talk about what we as a nation can be thankful for during the holiday season," White House spokesman Blair Jones said.
Berkeley Plantation is on the banks of the James River, between Williamsburg, Virginia's Colonial capital, and Richmond, the state's capital today.
When Capt. John Woodlief and his crew of 37 men came upon the site on Dec. 4, 1619, they fell to their knees and read a proclamation stating that the day of their ship's arrival should be "yearly and perpetually kept holy as a day of thanksgiving to Almighty God."
During the Civil War, President Lincoln declared the fourth Thursday in November a national holiday.
With the South losing the war, the New England Thanksgiving tradition prevailed, although President Kennedy did acknowledge Virginia in his 1963 Thanksgiving Day Proclamation that began: "Over three centuries ago, our forefathers in Virginia and in Massachusetts, far from home in a lonely wilderness, set aside a time of thanksgiving."
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
GWB is sparing the MA tax payer the cost of treating the massive wave of brain anyorisms that would hit if he went to MA.....
Yes, the medical costs of said visit might tank the newly inaugarated health insurance plan that just went into effect—the one Gov. Mitt Romney got approved.
Tank mitt’s plan? I’m thinking it would sink like the Soviet Sub in Hunt for Red October....
The clean up of the spatter of multiple explosions at the Cambridge faculty lounge would run into the 100,000 of thousands..
Sort of like prefrontal lobe dementia?
It merely has taken 7 years to manifest the symptoms.
I love this state.
I thought the first Thanksgiving feast in America was held in what is now El Paso, Texas, in 1598, when a group of Spanish explorers led by Don Juan de Oñate feasted on game birds and fish from the Rio Grande to celebrate their successful crossing of the Chihuahua desert.
Great idea. It certainly makes more sense than celebrating with Ted Kennedy.
OK, given this is Jamestown’s 400th, many of the Mayflower folk are being quite understanding. However, next year, things should return to normal. Then depending on what happens in November, any giving of thanks might have to go on hold for four years.
A rare Thanksgiving site?
One on public ground that still gives thanks to God for His mercy and gifts?
This better be a smokescreen; he should be on a plane for Iraq/then Afghanistan to visit our heros.
Is Thanksgiving still legal in Massachusetts?
I would think he would go to Iraq. I think that is always a better choice than some obscure place in Virginia.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.