Wild turkeys at the Eufaula National Wildlife Refuge in Alabama. Image credit: US Department of the Interior
In observance of the Thanksgiving holiday, Just Security will be on an abbreviated schedule for Thursday and Friday of this week. If any major, time-sensitive developments occur, we will aim to address those issues. The Daily News Roundup will resume on Monday (you can sign up here to receive it in your inbox each morning). In the meantime, you can follow us on Twitter (@just_security) and Facebook for the latest.
Just over half a century ago, President John F. Kennedy issued Proclamation 3560 just a few days before his assassination. His words announced the celebration of Thanksgiving 1963 and reminded Americans of some of the many things we, as a country, have to be thankful for.
So as Just Security’s editors and staff take a few days to celebrate with family and friends, we leave you with the tail end of President Kennedy’s proclamation and our sincere wishes for a happy Thanksgiving for all our readers, here and abroad.
Much time has passed since the first colonists came to rocky shores and dark forests of an unknown continent, much time since President Washington led a young people into the experience of nationhood, much time since President Lincoln saw the American nation through the ordeal of fraternal war—and in these years our population, our plenty and our power have all grown apace. Today we are a nation of nearly two hundred million souls, stretching from coast to coast, on into the Pacific and north toward the Arctic, a nation enjoying the fruits of an ever-expanding agriculture and industry and achieving standards of living unknown in previous history. We give our humble thanks for this.
Yet, as our power has grown, so has our peril. Today we give our thanks, most of all, for the ideals of honor and faith we inherit from our forefathers—for the decency of purpose, steadfastness of resolve and strength of will, for the courage and the humility, which they possessed and which we must seek every day to emulate. As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words but to live by them.
Let us therefore proclaim our gratitude to Providence for manifold blessings—let us be humbly thankful for inherited ideals—and let us resolve to share those blessings and those ideals with our fellow human beings throughout the world.