Abraham Lincoln's Thanksgiving Day Proclamation

From the time the Indians cooked turkey for the Pilgrims until October 3 of 1863, America celebrated Thanksgiving Day. But not on the same day.

Then, in the midst of the Civil War, a well known magazine writer, Sarah Josepha Hale, sent a letter to President Lincoln in which she suggested that Lincoln have "the day of our annual Thanksgiving made a National and fixed Union Festival. You may have observed that, for some years past, there has been an increasing interest felt in our land to have the Thanksgiving held on the same day, in all the States; it now needs National recognition and authoritative fixation, only, to become permanently, an American custom and institution."

Mr. Lincoln apparently agreed with Ms. Hale and so the President issued one of his many Proclamations. Lincoln loved making Proclamations. Lincoln's Secretary of State, William H. Seward, penned the Proclamation, which Lincoln then signed, forever making the last Thursday of November a National Day of Thanksgiving and Praise.

Below is Abraham Lincoln's Thanksgiving Day Proclamation....

By the President of the United States of America.

A Proclamation.

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. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the City of Washington, this Third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the Unites States the Eighty-eighth.

By the President: Abraham Lincoln

William H. Seward, Secretary of State

The United Nations Picks Fort Worth As One Of The Top Five Most Positive Cities In The World

Well, just in time for Thanksgiving, this morning I learned I have yet one more thing to be thankful for.

And that would be the fact, apparently, that I am living in one of the Top Five Most Positive Cities in the World.

That's right, Fort Worth is one of the Top Five Most Positive Cities in the World.

If this is not some sort of Apocalyptic Warning that the World is in trouble, I don't know what is.

This accolade was not bestowed on Fort Worth by some bogus self-serving Washington, D.C. lobbying group, like when Fort Worth was picked as one of America's Most Livable Communities, setting off city-wide celebrations by those who did not know better.

No less an esteemed body than the United Nations has determined Fort Worth's positivity. Some agency of the UN called The United Nations NGO Voting Academy, made up of highly respected United Nations NGOs, like Sister Cities International, Rotary International and Pathways to Peace determine what towns are positive.

What is an NGO? I have no idea.

All the Large Community Finalists, in the Top 5, are American Cities, Atlanta, Fort Worth, Indianapolis, Kansas City and Phoenix.

Of the Small Community Finalists 3 out of 5 are American, Ashland Oregon, Coral Springs Florida, Darlington England, Macon Georgia and Trier Germany.

Phoenix is a Top Five positive town? Isn't that where they are demonizing Mexicans who have crossed the border to work?

Atlanta? Have the United Nations NGO's not watched The Real Housewives of Atlanta?

I can understand Ashland, Oregon being picked as positive. Ashland is a very tolerant town. You can wander around Ashland with no clothes on and no one gets all negative on you, for the most part.

Fort Worth is the Big Doozy on this list. Fort Worth is one of the world's most positive towns? Fort Worth has a corrupt mayor, on the take to the total tune of millions of dollars to the Barnett Shale gas drillers poking holes in his town. Fort Worth's mayor fired the city's ethics board when they finally had the backbone to stand up against the city's ethics problems.

Fort Worth positive? This is a town where the city allies with gas drillers against the people to conspire to try and put non-odorized natural gas pipelines under people's homes, using Fascist Gestapo-like raids to intimidate those who fight for their right to speak out against having a dangerous pipeline run under their home.

Fort Worth positive? This is a town that regularly uproots citizens from their property, using eminent domain in conspiracy with big business, like what was done to get Radio Shack its now defunct corporate headquarters. And is currently being done courtesy of Fort Worth's myopic Trinity River Vision Boondoggle.

Fort Worth positive? This is a town with America's 15th Most Dangerous Neighborhood.

Fort Worth positive? This is town that can't keep its libraries and swimming pools open.

Anyway, I'm sure there are other less than positive things about Fort Worth that are not quickly coming to mind, right now.

This really is the goofiest thing I've seen in awhile. You can read more about the Positive Communities on the CelebratePositive website.

71 Degrees This Morning In Balmy Texas While Washington Has Record Breaking Lows & Snow

The morning before Thanksgiving, November 24, outside, looking through my patio prison cells bars at my tropical Texas paradise, with the temperature a balmy 71, windows open all night.

Meanwhile up in my old location in the frigid north, the Seattle zone is shivering at 16 degrees, with it expected to get colder, as in record breaking cold. With more snow. The deep freeze and snow of the last couple days in the Pacific Northwest has overwhelmed crews trying to keep roads open.

Tropical Texas, well, my zone of Tropical Texas, is scheduled to get frozen on Thanksgiving, with a predicted low tomorrow of 27 with a high of 44, with precipitation. I assume not in the form of iced crystals.

So, I guess I need to go swimming this morning while the pool remains at a pleasant temperature.

After the swimming I need to do some cooking to get ready for tomorrow's Turkey Buffet.

Day 11 In A Row Of Not Getting In Shape Hiking The Tandy Hills

Winter is fast approaching, in a week it will be December. Yet, today on Day 11 in a row of hiking on the Tandy Hills I saw a newly bloomed wildflower.

The yellow flower you see in the picture, blooming solo, the only bloom to be seen in any direction from its location.

Eleven days in a row of hiking may be a record. I'm not sure. I have memory issues.

The excessive hiking had been part of my campaign to get in shape and rid myself of unsightly excess adipose tissue.

Last night, thanks to Don Young, I learned that all my swimming, hiking, biking and all the other various aerobic strains I put myself through are likely all totally futile, due to the fact that I am likely genetically doomed to be physiologically unable to get in shape.

Don Young sent me a link to a New York Times article titled "Phys-Ed: The Workout Enigma" which detailed the findings of Finnish research into the reasons why, no matter what people like me do, there is no way we can get can get to a shape level commonly known as buff. Or those 6 pack ab deals that are considered a mark of being in good shape.

The first two discouraging sentences of the article are...

Recently, researchers in Finland made the discovery that some people’s bodies do not respond as expected to weight training, others don’t respond to endurance exercise and, in some lamentable cases, some don’t respond to either. In other words, there are those who just do not become fitter or stronger, no matter what exercise they undertake.

Well, at least I now know why, after all these years of heavy duty exercise, eating healthy and taking my vitamins, I am still a high blood pressured mess with baby fat.

I guess I should thank Don Young for showing me the light. I won't let this new reality stop me from doing my hill hiking or swimming. I find both to be relaxing and fun, even if all that activity is doing nothing for me, getting in shape-wise.

November 23 Looking At A Warm Clear Blue Texas Morning While Washington Freezes At 19 Degrees

Looking out my window at the pool through the bars of my patio prison cell this morning, Tuesday, November 23, at a clear blue Texas sky, currently 3 degrees shy of 60.

Meanwhile up in my old home zone Washingtonians are in a deep freeze of 19 degrees, with roads iced over, schools closed, power out, more snow expected, with a very rare blizzard scheduled to slam Eastern Washington today.

It is a little unusual to get this type of heavy duty winter weather action in the lowlands of Washington before the arrival of winter. I do remember a heavy duty storm, back in the 1990s, known as the Thanksgiving Day Storm. If I remember right this was a Pineapple Express Storm, courtesy of El Nino, or was it El Nina, that dumped a lot of snow in the mountains and rain in the lowlands, and then rising temperatures melting snow in the Cascades, which caused epic flooding.

I recollect sandbagging way past midnight to save downtown Mount Vernon from getting flooded. And then when the Skagit River reached its crest point the next morning it suddenly dropped a couple feet. A dike had broken down river.

And then 2 weeks later it all happened again, another massive flood. I don't remember if it was the first flood or the second one that sank the I-90 Floating Bridge.

Anyway, weather drama is way different in Washington than Texas weather drama. Texas weather drama can be very sudden and very violent. Washington weather drama can play out over days, with a slow build ending in a big mess.

I suspect I will not be experiencing any weather drama in Texas today.

81 Degrees Monday Afternoon In Fort Worth While 28 In Tacoma

Seconds ago I checked in on Facebook and saw that former Fort Worth native, now in exile in Tacoma, Mary Bishop Kellogg, shared the chilly information that it was currently 28 degrees in Tacoma.

One of MBK's Facebook Friends, Evelyne Schwarz Neimand, then felt compelled to comment that it was currently 81 in Fort Worth. I felt compelled to make the same comment, even before I saw Evelyne Schwarz Neimand's 81 degree comment.

I do not know what dire events conspired to take MBK from the balmy paradise known as Fort Worth, and has her currently incarcerated in that chilly Northwest town known for churning out crazy, Tacoma.

I do know that MBK has totally adjusted to the Pacific Northwest lifestyle. Hopping ferries to go pick fruit. Canning and preserving the ample, readily available fruits and vegetables that grow all over the the Northwest.  Just reading what MBK is cooking, canning and baking makes me homesick, at times.

I hope the Arctic Blast currently chilling Tacoma, does not put a damper on MBK's constant food preservation endeavors.

Climbing To The Top Of The Fort Worth Space Needle On Top Of Mount Tandy

I was peacefully deep into a salubrious endorphin trance, on my 10th day in a row of hiking the Tandy Hills, in a desperate attempt to get myself in shape, when, as I was hiking across Lost Sunglasses Ridge, I heard a lot of shouting.

I looked in the direction of the shouting and saw what I thought might be human forms on the Fort Worth Space Needle that sits atop Mount Tandy.

I'd not parked at the top of Mount Tandy for this particular excursion, I was parked on View Street. I'd not intended to hike to the top of Mount Tandy.

But, seeing someone climbing the Fort Worth Space Needle motivated me to get closer.

As you can see in the picture, there are 3 guys on the tower. They seemed to be clipped on to the structure. I could not tell what they were doing. They did not move up or down while I was watching.

The top of the Fort Worth Space Needle does not have a revolving restaurant. You have to bring your own sack lunch to the top and do your own rotating.

A few days ago I ran into a raven-haired, red lip-sticked beauty, with a dog, on top of Mount Tandy, underneath the Fort Worth Space Needle. This was the first day I had seen all the cable on the ground, with it apparent the tower was being worked on.

The raven-haired beauty told me the support cables were being replaced. And that the day before she'd watched a guy, part way up the tower, go into panic mode when he ran into a hive of bees who were not happy to see him. She also told me she had a friend who worked for whoever maintains the tower and that he was barely on the job when he had to climb to the top of the Fort Worth Space Needle.

Which I believe is something like 1,000 feet tall. He told the raven-haired beauty that the tower swayed at the top, even when it was not windy. When her friend was back on the ground he vowed to never climb such a thing again.

It was quite windy on the Tandy Hills today, which makes it a bit surprising that ascending the Fort Worth Space Needle was being attempted.

I do not know how much money it would take to motivate me to climb to the top of the Fort Worth Space Needle. Maybe a million, half up front.

Today Is The 47th Anniversary of JFK's Assassination In Dallas

The happy scene above, in Dallas, was taking place a little less than 47 years and two hours ago. November 22, 2010 marks the 47th Anniversary of the Assassination of John F. Kennedy, the 2nd or 3rd of major jolts of the 1960s, a decade that was to provide America and the world with a lot of jolting experiences, some bad, like Wars, Assassinations and Riots. Some good like Space Missions, Color TV and Hippies.

I was at Dealey Plaza for the 40th Anniversary of the JFK Assassination, along with thousands of others. It was a poignant, eerie, macabre scene. Security was very tight, I think due to this taking place just 2 years after 9/11. Just at the moment marking the exact time of the assassination, a Dallas Police Swat Team showed up in full armor. That was the macabre part of the day.

A man from Longview, Texas, born less than a month after the assassination, had a good letter to the editor in this morning's Dallas Morning News, in which he paraphrased JFK's famous "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country," line from his Inauguration Speech on a snowy January day in 1961.

Below is the letter from Longview, and below that is the video I made of this day in 2003....

Today marks 47 years since the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on the streets of downtown Dallas. I was born just 22 days later, on Dec. 14, 1963. 

When he was killed, Kennedy was smiling and waving to thousands of spectators along that motorcade route. He was 46 years old. Now, I am 46 myself. A few days ago, I was traveling by car in Dealey Plaza. I glanced over at the old Texas Book Depository Building, and then I looked down at the roadway at the "x" that I have seen so many times. Many people are frozen in grief, wondering what might have been if Kennedy had not been shot. 

I share that grief. But I look at that spot with fresh eyes as a 46-year-old today: The dream did not die. The vision of a brighter future did not die. The man's legacy lives on.

To broadly paraphrase and adapt one of Kennedy's sayings: "Ask not what types of bereavement are associated with Dealey Plaza. Ask yourself how you can turn the page and make this country a better place for all mankind."

James A. Marples, Longview

Another Warm November Monday Morning In Texas

As you can see, looking out my computer room window, on Monday morning of November 22, it is not snowing.

Currently it is 69 degrees out there. Meanwhile, up in Seattle, right now, it is 30 degrees, with 1 to 3 inches of snow predicted, with the mass transit systems running in weather emergency mode this morning.

I do not know if clouds are predicted to be part of the weather mix on Thursday in my zone of Texas. But, I do know the predicted low is 30. So, if clouds are in the mix, I suppose there is a chance we might get to have a White Thanksgiving here.

Don Young sent me an email last night, subject line: what's up, message: with your website?

I did not know anything was up with my website. This morning when I checked there appeared to be no problem. But, my immediate reaction when seeing the what's up question was a feeling of panic and dread that this meant I'd been hacked again.

I have no major plans for today. I suspect there will be larger than the usual Monday crowds this morning at Dealey Plaza in Dallas, what with today being the 47th Anniversary of the Assassination of JFK. I won't be among them.

Sliding On The Mount Aggie Ski Resort In College Station Texas

You are looking at Mount Aggie. A destination ski resort on top of a mountain in Texas.

I did not know of the existence of Mount Aggie til this morning, when I was informed about this heretofore, unknown to me, Texas  mountain, informed by my #1 information source about the things I don't know about Texas, he being my fellow Washington transplant who goes by the name of Steve A.

Yesterday I blogged about the opening of the Mount Baker Ski Resort (in Washington) on Saturday.

I said, regarding Saturday's snowfall in Washington, "I do know the Mount Baker Ski Area opened yesterday. That is a sentence I could not type in Texas, as in the Mount Somewhere in Texas Ski Area opened yesterday."

To which Steve A corrected my erroneousness by telling me...

"Mount Aggie in College Station is open year round. Not a real challenging slope, however."

I have not been down to College Station, even though I would like to visit the George Bush Presidential Library. I certainly did not know of the existence of a mountain in College Station.

The Mount Aggie Ski Resort has a website. It was there I learned that "outdoor skiing is also available year-round to students at Texas A & M, who ski on a plastic slope known as Mount Aggie."

Mount Aggie is located on the southwest side of Read Arena at the end of Penberthy Road, east of the George Bush Library.

I watched a couple videos of Texans "skiing" on Mount Aggie. In one of the videos a guy is heard to yell that this was the most fun he has ever had sliding on wet carpet. In none of the videos did I make note of chair lifts or rope tows taking skiers to the top of Mount Aggie.

In the YouTube video below you will see some Texans having winter-like, snow-like fun, on Mount Aggie, in Texas...