Thankful for a Family Thanksgiving in America

By Lt. Governor Joe Maxwell 

	As a citizen of the United States of America, each of us have many
reasons we can be thankful in the upcoming season.  We have the privilege to
live in a nation with guaranteed freedoms, where changes of government are
made peacefully in ballot boxes and voting booths instead of turning our
country into a battlefield.  We can be thankful for our veterans, as it was
through their individual hard work and sacrifice that we have retained and
strengthened the freedoms that we love.  

	This was part of the hope and goal of President Lincoln in 1863 when he
inaugurated Thanksgiving as a national holiday. He proclaimed the holiday
because of his thankfulness for the Union's victory at Gettysburg and the
chance it gave for a restoration of the nation and peace. Each of us have
our own individual things for which we can be thankful for this
Thanksgiving, but we can all share in the celebration and be thankful as
Americans for our freedoms and nation. 

	Thanksgiving offers us the opportunity to consider what we are thankful for in our lives.  In addition to these rights and freedoms given to us as
Americans, I am personally thankful for my family and the joy it is to come
together during the holidays.  My family has come together every year since
I was born to celebrate our blessings during the holidays.  Each year on
Thanksgiving, Christmas, Mother's Day, and the Fourth of July we have
created the tradition of celebrating as a family.  This Thanksgiving 65
members of my extended family will be coming to dinner.  
	
	Not only am I thankful for having the opportunity to share the
holidays with so many members of my family, but I also appreciate the
connections that my two daughters are able to make with their relatives.
Coming together as a family helps them to get a greater understanding of
their roots by sharing time and experiences with those that have helped
shape their lives.  Our family has a strong connection to each other and our
family farm, as my father was a sharecropper and my grandfather moved into
Missouri from Arkansas during the Great Depression.  This experience has
taught us to value what is most important in life, the fellowship and love
that is found in family.
	
	This year our family is gathering together at my aunt's home for our
Thanksgiving dinner.  This is the other part of our Thanksgiving celebration
for which I am very thankful, the food.  Nothing makes getting together as a
family better than the wide spread and variety of food it takes to have a
meal for 65 people.  During this meal we are also able to enjoy the more
tasty benefits of our family farm operations, as part of our dinner will be
pork and other products from the farm.
	
	I encourage all Missourians to take time out and celebrate
Thanksgiving in your own unique ways. Traditions of thankfulness provide
joys that many of us might have forgotten during the year.  I hope that
everyone is able to enjoy Thanksgiving through their own distinct
traditions, as together we are preserving and passing on one of the major
traditions of our American life and culture.