Today, from Senator Claire McCaskill (D):

Claire McCaskill ‏@clairecmc

So thankful. For my family. And my country that encourages free speech and peaceful protest.And the ability to listen.Happy Thanksgiving! 10:20 AM – 27 Nov 2014

And some of the responses, oh my:

Troy Appel ‏@tdappel

@clairecmc Do you fear facing Officer Wilson in 2018? Sounds like a candidate the GOP might recruit. 10:22 AM – 27 Nov 2014

Johnny Evan Lane ‏@49erlane

@clairecmc you are worthless. Crawl back into the hole from witch you came. 10:22 AM – 27 Nov 2014

THUGLIFE ‏@_TAhmad

@clairecmc I’m afraid for my family because they’re black in Amerkkka. Senator, does #BlackLifeMatter ? 10:24 AM – 27 Nov 2014

j coop ‏@bambam6770

@clairecmc it is a right therefor should not need encouragement from anyone. To bad you don’t view the #2A with same admiration #teaparty 10:24 AM – 27 Nov 2014

Would that be a distant cousin?

Allan Brauer ‏@allanbrauer

.@clairecmc And the extrajudicial slaughter of black people by your white supremacist pals who traded Klan robes for badges. 10:24 AM – 27 Nov 2014

No one is happy. This is like Festivus.

Austin Allison ‏@azta110790

.@clairecmc Are you sure you’re from America? 10:27 AM – 27 Nov 2014

Peggy McLain ‏@PeggyKelly

@clairecmc You call that a peaceful protest. Please start telling the truth 10:30 AM – 27 Nov 2014

Adriane Farray ‏@AFarray

“@allanbrauer @clairecmc And the extrajudicial slaughter of black people by your white supremacist pals who traded Klan robes for badges” 10:31 AM – 27 Nov 2014

Sophia LaMar ‏@SophiaLamar1

@clairecmc @newscat44 Are you overseas? 10:33 AM – 27 Nov 2014

Dave Warren ‏@SjlWarren

@clairecmc Peaceful protest? Really? Shame on you. Can’t wait to vote for your opponent! 10:49 AM – 27 Nov 2014

Tom Who ‏@TommieWho

@clairecmc And what country is that? Canada? 10:59 AM – 27 Nov 2014

BWD ‏@theonlyadult

@clairecmc what a disgusting dishonest statement. A senator from a state where black lives are cheaper than your non existing moral. 11:13 AM – 27 Nov 2014

Kyle ‏@gaysquib

@clairecmc um? Police are abusing protestors and this is what you tweet? Stop with this bullshit senator and do something. 11:14 AM – 27 Nov 2014

Welcome to America in the 21st century.

At the White House petition site:

We petition the Obama Administration to:

Execute Caramel, the Thanksgiving turkey who was pardoned by President Barack H. Obama

We the undersigned hereby demand that President Barack H. Obama, hereafter “POTUS,” fulfill the implied will of the people with regards to the annual Thanksgiving Turkey Pardon. POTUS supervised a binding web vote between poultry-Americans “Popcorn” and “Caramel,” promising to spare the life of the winner. Popcorn won the vote, but then POTUS revealed that both turkeys would be allowed to live. Is this the democracy the pilgrims fought and ate dinner for? We think not. Therefore, we the people ask that POTUS summarily execute Caramel at a time and place of his choosing. Justice must be served. Preferably with a side of mashed potatoes and candied yams.

Created: Dec 02, 2013

Issues: Civil Rights and Liberties, Criminal Justice and Law Enforcement, Rural Policy

[….]

Signatures needed by January 01, 2014 to reach goal of 100,000 97,554

Total signatures on this petition 2,446

[emphasis added]

I understand the mashed potatoes.

I read Vicky Hartzler’s newsletter so you don’t have to.  

It is interesting to how she describes the first Thanksgiving.

Many of us learned, as children, that the first Thanksgiving was observed at Plymouth following the harvest of 1621. The Pilgrims had endured a perilous first year and were grateful for God’s provision and faithfulness.

No mention how the original inhabitants at Plymouth Plantation helped with provisioning those Pilgrims.  In fact, there were more original inhabitants at that first Thanksgiving than the recent arrived undocumented immigrants.

It certainly is interesting how Representative Hartzler reports that the Pilgrim’s were grateful for God’s provision and faithfulness.  

It is interesting to consider what that means.  

 

Hartzler’s God provided Squanto, who could speak English.  Knowing that His followers would need help, God had Squanto as a boy stolen by an English captain in 1605. He was a slave and he was able to get back to his home to discover that everyone in his village was dead from European diseases.

However, Squanto’s tragedy was another example of Hartzler’s God provisions.

(The following excerpts from a colonist’s journal comes from Loewen’s Lies My Teacher Told Me.)

On the second day of arrival in Massachusetts:

Having their guns and hearing nobody, they entered the houses and found the people were gone.  The soldiers took some things but didn’t dare stay.  . . .  We had meant to had left some beads and other things in the houses as a sign of peace to show we meant to trade with them.  But we didn’t do it because we left in such haste.  But as soon as we can meet with the Indians, we will pay them well for what we took.

And, it gets better for what Hartzler’s God provided.

We marched to the place we called Cornhill, where we had found the corn before.  At another place we had seen before, we dug and found some more corn, two or three baskets full, and a bag of beans. . . . In all we had about ten bushels, which will be enough for seed.  It was with God’s help that we found this corn, for how else could we have done it, without meeting some Indians who might trouble us

Only God’s help.  And, then consider this final provision from God.

The next morning, we found a place like a grave. We decided to dig it up.  We found first a mat, and under that a fine bow. . . . We also found bowls, trays, dishes, and things like that.  We took several of the prettiest things to carry away with us, and covered the body up again.

Like a grave? Is this one more example of God knowing how to help His followers?

Hartzler acknowledges that this is the 150th anniversary of Lincoln’s proclamation on Thanksgiving.  She writes:

We also learned that the first Thanksgiving recognized by the U.S. government came during the Civil War when President Lincoln issued a proclamation in October of 1863, reminding all of us that our nation’s many blessings “should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and voice by the whole American people.”

In 1863, the invocation of the “whole American people” is important during a civil war.  However, Hartzler doesn’t provide any sense of what our nation’s many blessings are.  Here is the passage before Hartzler’s excerpt.

The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom. No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People.

Is it really embarrassing to note that the Union was winning and the country was expanding despite the horrendous nature of the war?  

There is much to be thankful for, but we should not be thankful for a member of Congress who misrepresents history.

“…So next Thanksgiving, when you’re sitting at the, at the dinner table and some of your family’s not there because they’re at work this is why…”

Previously:

Black Friday labor demonstration in Roeland Park, Kansas (November 23, 2012)

For every season, spin, spin, spin… (November 24, 2012)

Does anyone think this will get anywhere?:

FIRST REGULAR SESSION

HOUSE BILL NO. 37

97TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

INTRODUCED BY REPRESENTATIVES ROORDA (Sponsor), AND COLONA (Co-sponsor).

0176L.02I                 D. ADAM CRUMBLISS, Chief Clerk

AN ACT

To amend chapter 407, RSMo, by adding thereto one new section relating to retailer hours on Thanksgiving Day.

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the state of Missouri, as follows:

           Section A. Chapter 407, RSMo, is amended by adding thereto one new section, to be known as section 407.1600, to read as follows:

           407.1600. This section shall be known and may be cited as the “Thanksgiving Family Protection Act”. Retailers in this state shall be closed during the hours of 12:00 a.m. to 11:59 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day. This section shall not apply to restaurants or retailers whose primary business is motor fuel sales or pharmaceutical sales.

Don’t hold your breath. Besides, you can always eat the leftovers for a few few days after.

“…So next Thanksgiving, when you’re sitting at the, at the dinner table and some of your family’s not there because they’re at work this is why…”

A Black Friday labor demonstration at the parking lot entrance of the Walmart store in Roeland Park, Kansas.

Starting at noon today approximately one hundred people, a mix of union members, young people, and older activists, demonstrated in front of the Walmart store in Roeland Park, Kansas, protesting the Thanksgiving evening opening and other worker issues. The union members, identifiable by the logos on their clothing, included Teamsters, Communications Workers of America, United Auto Workers, and Carpenters/Joiners.

Mike Frommer, one of the organizers, spoke with the media:

Mike Frommer: …Living wage, full time employment, uh, and most of all, protection from retaliation, to be able to say these things without somebody saying, hey, you know, you’re gonna lose your job if you’re talking like that.

[….]

Question: There was a group at Independence [Missouri], at the Walmart. Is there another group, or do you know?

Mike Frommer: Uh, this is, you know, this is a, uh, it’s an online thing.

Question: Okay.

Mike Frommer: Any individual group can go online, pick out a demonstration that they want to attend, and, and just kind of do their own thing.

Question: It’s not a real organized, just for like [crosstalk][inaudible] here, if you want to show up.

Mike Frommer: It’s, yeah, you can do, you can do it anywhere, you know, any group, we’ve had people that have gone out strike in, in places like Oklahoma City where the workers just walked out. They contacted no one. They just did it by using the web site.

Question: Have any Walmart workers walked out today [crosstalk] that are in this group?

Mike Frommer: At this store? Not at this store.

Question: Okay.

Mike Frommer: But we just chose this store, just for, for solidarity.

[….]

Question: And is it just about Walmart, or is it other retailers that?

Mike Frommer: Well, I, I think Walmart sets the standard. Walmart set the standard to open on Thanksgiving night. Sears, Kmart, everybody else followed suit. When Walmart does it everybody else does it. So next Thanksgiving, when you’re sitting at the, at the dinner table and some of your family’s not there because they’re at work this is why.

[….]

The demonstration press release:

For release Nov. 23, 2012        

Contacts: Judy Ancel, KC Jobs with Justice [….]

Mike Frommer, UFCW [….]

Santino Scalici, autoworker and UAW member [….]

Local Citizens Join Nationwide Black Friday Protest Against Walmart

A group of local citizens and working people will gather outside the Walmart Store at 5150 Roe Blvd, Roeland Park, KS at noon on Black Friday, Nov. 23rd. They come together to stand with retail and warehouse workers who will be striking and demanding respect and their rights from Walmart on this the busiest shopping day of the year.

Starting last summer, workers all along Walmart’s production chain began the first-ever strikes against the company. Many have joined OUR WALMART, a mutual aid organization of Walmart workers. A number as a result are now facing retaliation by Walmart.

Friday’s rally is organized by Kansas City area working people, including a number of union members, and Kansas City Jobs with Justice, who are concerned about the effects of Walmart’s low wages and poor treatment of its associates on all workers and our communities. They object to retaliation against workers who are protesting bad conditions and harassment on the job. They are dismayed by Walmart’s discrimination against women workers and people of color, wages that average $8.81 an hour, unaffordable benefits, and shifting of costs onto taxpayers. The Missouri Department of Social Services reported last year that 10,028 Walmart employees and their families enrolled in Missouri’s Medicaid program- MO HealthNet, and its well-known that many Walmart Associates qualify for food stamps.

Walmart’s leadership in driving down standards can be seen in the progressive erosion of their workers’ Thanksgiving holiday in the last few years, which has now spread to their competitors. Black Friday has become Black Thursday eliminating one of the few times all year when families have a common holiday and can get together.

Santino Scalici, an autoworker and one of the organizers of Friday’s rally said, “We want Walmart workers to know that when Walmart retaliates against workers who stand up for their rights and dignity, we will be there to support them.  It’s time we support Walmart workers in their legal right to a democratic voice in the decisions that affect their lives.”

For more information about Walmart worker organizing and the company, visit http://www.makingchangeatwalmart.org and http://www.forrespect.org.

—end—

[emphasis in original]

Pickets along Roe Boulevard in Roeland Park, Kansas.

Three Kansas City area television stations had crews covering the demonstration. There was at least one (apparent) print reporter interviewing people at the demonstration.

From what we heard in the crowd individuals entered a store in Independence, Missouri earlier in the day and passed out leaflets. They were told to leave.

From the White House:

President Barack Obama (D): On behalf of the Obama family, Michelle, Malia, Sasha, Bo, and me I want to wish everyone a very happy Thanksgiving.

For us, like so many of you, this is a day full of family and friends, food and football. It’s a day to fight the overwhelming urge to take a nap, at least until after dinner. But most of all, it’s a time to give thanks for each other, and for the incredible bounty we enjoy in this country.

That’s especially important this year. As a nation, we’ve just emerged from a campaign season that was passionate, noisy, and vital to our democracy. But it also required us to make choices, sometimes those choices led us to focus on what sets us apart instead of what ties us together, on what candidate we support instead of what country we all belong to. Thanksgiving is a chance to put it all in perspective, to remember that, despite our differences, we are, and always will be, Americans first and foremost. Today we give thanks for blessings that are all too rare in this world. The ability to spend time with the ones we love, to say what we want, to worship as we please, to know that there are brave men and women defending our freedom around the globe, and to look our children in the eye and tell them that, here in America, no dream is too big if they’re willing to work for it.

We’re also grateful that this country has always been home to Americans who see these blessings not simply as gifts to enjoy, but as opportunities to give back. Americans who believe we have a responsibility to look out for those who are less fortunate, to pull each other up and move forward together. Right now, as we prepare to gather around our dinner tables, there are families in the northeast who don’t have that luxury. Many of them have lost everything to Hurricane Sandy, homes, possessions, even loved ones. And it will be a long time before life gets back to normal for them. But in the midst of so much tragedy, there are also glimmers of hope. Over the last few weeks, we’ve seen FEMA personnel, National Guard and first responders working around the clock in hard hit communities. We’ve seen hospital workers using their lunch breaks to distribute supplies. Families offering up extra bedrooms. The fire department advertising free hot showers. Buses full of volunteers coming from hundreds of miles away. Neighbors sharing whatever they have, food, water, electricity, and saying again and again how lucky they are to have a roof over their heads. It would have been easy for these folks to do nothing, to worry about themselves and leave the rest to someone else. But that’s not who we are. That’s not what we do.

As Americans, we are a bold, generous, big hearted people. When our brothers and sisters are in need, we roll up our sleeves and get to work, not for the recognition or the reward, but because it’s the right thing to do. Because there but for the grace of God go I. And because here in America, we rise or fall together, as one nation and one people. That’s something to be grateful for, today and every day.

So to all the Americans doing your part to make our world a better place, it is my great privilege to serve as your President. To all our service members, it is my honor to be your Commander in Chief. And from our family to yours, happy Thanksgiving everybody.

Previously: High Broderism: the debt, the debt, it’s the debt…. (November 16, 2012)

On St. Louis Public Radio:

Missouri Ranks Among Worst States For Widening Income Inequality

Within approximately the last twenty years, Missouri ranks among the worst states in which the gap between rich and middle-income households has widened.  That’s according to a new report by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and the Economic Policy Institute.

As we approach the Thanksgiving holiday, we also take note of the report’s finding in which the gap between the very richest and the poor is even larger with the top 5 percent of Missouri households having an average income 11.7 times that of the bottom fifth….

Because the price of a can of creamed corn is so much cheaper than supporting and building an actual, you know, equitable and just society.

Seems Rep. Todd Akin returned to Washington today and, from the floor of the House, urged folks to give thanks. He needn’t worry. I gave thanks on election night and his lame-duck tour is a big part of what I’m thankful for.

How thankful am I? According to Akin, “the Pilgrims established the separation of church and state in this country, and created the concept of a God-given civil government.” Bend your head around that and legitimate rape almost makes sense. And then think: This moron represented Missourians in the U.S. Congress for over ten years.

The White House press release and transcript:

The White House

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release

November 25, 2010

Weekly Address: President Obama Delivers Thanksgiving Greeting

WASHINGTON – During this holiday season, President Obama used his weekly address to give thanks for the blessings of America, in particular that distinctly American impulse to give something of ourselves and do what is required to make tomorrow better than today.  With that sense of determination and sacrifice, America has built a powerful economy, stood against tyranny, fought for equality, and connected the globe with our own science and imagination.  And by working together as one people – as Americans — we can overcome the challenges currently facing our nation.

Today, like millions of other families across America, Michelle, Malia, Sasha and I will sit down to share a Thanksgiving filled with family and friends – and a few helpings of food and football, too.  And just as folks have done in every Thanksgiving since the first, we’ll spend some time taking stock of what we’re thankful for: the God-given bounty of America, and the blessings of one another.

This is also a holiday that captures that distinctly American impulse to give something of ourselves.  Even as we speak, there are countless Americans serving at soup kitchens and food pantries; contributing to their communities; and standing guard around the world.

And in a larger sense, that’s emblematic of what Americans have always done.  We come together and do what’s required to make tomorrow better than today.  That’s who we are.

Consider our journey since that first Thanksgiving.  We are among the world’s youngest of peoples, but time and again, we have boldly and resiliently led the way forward.  Against tough odds, we are a people who endure – who explored and settled a vast and untamed continent; who built a powerful economy and stood against tyranny in all its forms; who marched and fought for equality, and connected a globe with our own science and imagination.

None of that progress was predestined.  None of it came easily.  Instead, the blessings for which we give thanks today are the product of choices made by our parents, and grandparents, and generations before – whose determination and sacrifice ensured a better future for us.

This holiday season, we must resolve once more to do the same.

This is not the hardest Thanksgiving America has ever faced.  But as long as many members of our American family are hurting, we’ve got to look out for one another.  As long as many of our sons and daughters and husbands and wives are at war, we’ve got to support their mission and honor their service.  And as long as many of our friends and neighbors are looking for work, we’ve got to do everything we can to accelerate this recovery and keep our economy moving forward.

And we will.  But we won’t do it as any one political party.  We’ve got to do it as one people.  And in the coming weeks and months, I hope that we can work together, Democrats and Republicans and Independents alike, to make progress on these and other issues.

That’s why, next week, I’ve invited the leadership of both parties to the White House for a real and honest discussion – because I believe that if we stop talking at one another, and start talking with one another, we can get a lot done.

For what we are called to do again today isn’t about Democrats or Republicans.  It’s not about left or right.  It’s about us.  It’s about what we know this country is capable of.  It’s about what we want America to be in this new century.

A vibrant nation that makes sure its children are the best-educated in the world.  A healthy, growing economy that runs on clean energy and creates the jobs of tomorrow.  A responsible government that reduces its deficits.  An America where every citizen is able to go as far as he or she desires.

We can do all this, because we’ve done it before.  We’re made of the same sturdy stuff as the travelers who sat down to the first Thanksgiving, and all who came after – who worked, and sacrificed, and invested, because they believed that their efforts would make the difference for us.

That’s who we are.  We shape our own destiny with conviction, compassion, and clear and common purpose.  We honor our past and press forward with the knowledge that tomorrow will be better than today.  We are Americans.  That’s the vision we won’t lose sight of.  That’s the legacy that falls to our generation.  That’s the challenge that together, we are going to meet.

To every American, I am thankful for the privilege of being your President.  To all our service members stationed around the world, I am honored to be your Commander-in-Chief.  And from the Obama family to yours, have a very Happy Thanksgiving.

Thank you.