Happy Thanksgiving from America's oldest continuously settled chartered settlement St. Clement's Manor

Today is Thanksgiving, a national holiday, yet many people have no idea of the history of the holiday. Those of you living around Coltons Point should know this history as it began around the colonial days.  Coltons Point is the oldest continuously lived in town in the American colonies and was the third landing point for pilgrims from Europe, arriving here in 1634.  Exactly 155 years after the colonists landed here, the Thanksgiving tradition began.

Originally called St. Clement's Island Manor, after the island just offshore where the pilgrims landed, it was home to two wives of President George Washington's great, great grandfather.  One of the Gerard daughters, whose father was most responsible for the settlement, married Washington's great, great grandfather who lived across the Potomac River within eyesight of Coltons Point.  When she died early into the marriage, her younger single sister took her place under the tradition of British Colonial law.



Now not to overlook the Spaniards, they did hold some form of Thanksgiving celebrations in Saint Augustine in 1565, then San Elceario (near today's El Paso) but neither was part of the original thirteen colonies. In 1619 Virginia colonists held such a feast and in 1621 the Plymouth, Massachusetts colonists held such a feast but this was before the founding of the nation and they were not annual traditions.



After the founding of the United States the first holiday was declared by President George Washington, a religious feast to thank the "providence of Almighty God" for his help. Still, it was not designated a national holiday but states were encouraged to participate.



Of course George was born directly across the river from Coltons Point and when younger he walked this area as a surveyor.



George Washington

As President, on October 3, 1789, George Washington made the following proclamation and created the first Thanksgiving Day designated by the national government of the United States of America:

Whereas it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor, and whereas both Houses of Congress have by their joint Committee requested me "to recommend to the People of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness.

Now therefore I do recommend and assign Thursday the 26th day of November next to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be. That we may then all unite in rendering unto him our sincere and humble thanks, for his kind care and protection of the People of this Country previous to their becoming a Nation, for the signal and manifold mercies, and the favorable interpositions of his providence, which we experienced in the course and conclusion of the late war, for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty, which we have since enjoyed, for the peaceable and rational manner, in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national One now lately instituted, for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed; and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and in general for all the great and various favors which he hath been pleased to confer upon us.

And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech him to pardon our national and other transgressions, to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually, to render our national government a blessing to all the people, by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed, to protect and guide all Sovereigns and Nations (especially such as have shown kindness unto us) and to bless them with good government, peace, and concord. To promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the encrease of science among them and Us, and generally to grant unto all Mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as he alone knows to be best.

Given under my hand at the City of New York the third day of October in the year of our Lord 1789.



The national holiday came during the darkest hours of the Civil War when Lincoln was president. The year was 1863, and it was the bloodiest days of the Civil War. It followed the battles of Vicksburg and Gettysburg and Lincoln's trip to Gettysburg to honor the most soldiers killed in one battle in our history, Lincoln, heartbroken by what he had seen at Gettysburg, may have used Thanksgiving as a time to give the people to reflect and hope. He was not a publicly religious man, but he used his Thanksgiving proclamation to find humility and gratitude, and to remember how richly blessed we as a nation really were despite everything. His proclamation was one of the first times he used strong religious overtones in his public speech.



Abraham Lincoln

In the middle of the American Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln, prompted by a series of editorials written by Sarah Josepha Hale, proclaimed a national Thanksgiving Day, to be celebrated on the final Thursday in November 1863:

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 unequalled 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 had 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 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, tranquility 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 United States the eighty-eighth."

Proclamation of President Abraham Lincoln, October 3, 1863.

Since 1863, Thanksgiving has been observed annually in the United States.



I hope you all join me in Thanksgiving, honoring the Almighty God as Washington and Lincoln told us, and honoring our sons and daughters around the world defending our right to be free.

Now, for your delight, here are all the presidents since Roosevelt with their Thanksgiving turkey.

FDR

 

Truman

Ike

JFK

Johnson

Nixon

Ford

Rosalynn filled in for Jimmy

He was busy hunting turkeys

Is he the turkey?

Reagan first to officially pardon turkey

Bush Sr

Clinton

Bush Jr

Obama

Trump

 .

Where do I find the Truth?

Fact check

The Fact checkers

To find the

Truth!!!

American Pride – It’s Alright, to be White, and to Fight for what's Right! – Politically Correct or Not – the Truth will Prevail once more!

American Pride

It’s Alright

to be White

and to Fight

for what's Right!

Especially when the fighting is for you...

What a couple of decades we have survived.  In fact, turn the clock back to 1960 and next election year, 2020, it will have been 60 years since 1960.  Seems like there is some metaphysical karma about the way the numbers fall.

Some drug induced tormented source decided back then to blame White people for all the ills of modern society.  It seems things were not moving fast enough for the rebellious anarchists pushing change as their agenda.  Then they got violent and change fell by the wayside, until the cataclysmic event when Trump got elected.

After the tumultuous Sixties we thought we had seen it all but did we underestimate the power of destiny?  If the 1960’s were the black hole for causes and social radicalism, it was just a harbinger of what was to come.

By the end of the second decade of the 21st Millennium, today, a whole new vitriolic, vociferous, vicious and violent social radicalism has taken over the agenda of well-meaning reformists.  At the forefront of the movement is the same old tired catch phrase for blame, blame it on the White Supremist.

In fact, the keepers of political correctness, are the same advocates of left-wing hypothesis, Hell bent on driving America off the cliff.  Armed with the knowledge that whatever they propose is bound to be well beyond the capacity of any human being with a brain to embrace, they have nothing to lose.

Disenfranchised Media and the lunatic fringe in control of the Democratic Party are not the defenders of America but the destroyers of American faith, patriotism, freedom and principles.

  

Thus, we find them today in a frothy frenzy of fatalism with quicksand as their foundation.  Impeachment, shredding the Constitution, tarring and feathering President Trump – oops, how dare me make such a biased and politically incorrect statement as “tarring and feathering” with the horrible images of bias and terror it projects.

Are you nuts?  For the record, as if that means anything to the media or left bank, I am only referring to a rather hilarious and classic scene regarding the fate of Brer Rabbit in the beloved Disney classic movie Song of the South.       

Thanks to the Politically Correct movers and shakers the 1946 Disney film cannot be shown on TV, in the movies, or sold on DVD because it was labelled racist for how it depicted African Americans.

The setting for the film was a post-Civil War plantation in the South and the live action combined with animation was pioneering film work.  This film classic won an Oscar for Best Music Original Song, “Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah, “ was nominated for Best Music Scoring of a Musical, and received the extraordinary distinction of being granted the Honorary Oscar award to James Baskett, a Black actor, “for his heart-warming characterization of Uncle Remus, friend and storyteller to the children of the world, in Walt Disney’s Song of the South.”

Song of the South - Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah - James Baskett

The Academy Award for the Song and the Honorary award for his performance were the first time a Black actor had been so honored in those categories.  Yet this enduring film cannot be seen because of racist depiction, stereotyping, or implied racism.  Just what exactly do you think might be the truth about life at the end of a bitter and bloody Civil War that took place over 150 years ago?  The film is a victim of overzealous censorship for the stupidest of reasons.  Oh yes, it was a White President, Abraham Lincoln, who during the same time period, gave his life for freeing the slaves.

Political Correctness is riddled with collateral damage including denying God, rejecting Constitutional protections, stimulating polarization, and embracing the dark forces of the universe.  Advocates of PC are terrified at the thought of competition, winners and losers, exceptionalism, initiative, pride and self-esteem.

To them Trump is the enemy, the public his defenders, and they must be stopped at all costs.  Much of the News Media feeds the whacky, psychologically disturbed, and runaway minds of the PC movement, since the Media share the goal of ending the Trump presidency and restoring the old political establishment, the so-called Swamp.

The goal of the lefties in the Media and Politics is simple, use their offices and resources to control the minds of the people.  Take away their rights and individual freedom, break their spirit and initiative, and convince them the left agenda is the will of the people.

PC fanatics claim White people are extremists, nationalists, bigots, biased and dumb.  White Supremacy motivates Whites, to be Whiter, I guess.  But the last time I checked White people are not the monolithic bunch of machine-made, pattern-stamped, assembly-line minds often depicted by a lame media.

Whites are the Middle-Class foundation of the nation.  Some are rich, others poor, and most caught somewhere in between.  Most of their families were outcasts from other nations fleeing discrimination against religion, unfair taxation, and all other aspects of life.\

So, for those of you waging war against all those White Supremacy flag wavers, here is a dreadful bit of truth for you to swallow.  They are the same people who gave everyone in America equality and freedom, fairness and individual liberty.

They passed a Constitution binding us to equality forever and forcing us to address the principal forms of slavery and discrimination of the day, including women's rights and equality and equal justice and opportunity for all.

Not only did they pass laws that would reach across generations and millennia but they fought and died for the successful implementation and enforcement of those laws.  The actions and foresight of the Whites preserved a nation for the equality and protection of all.              

According to the latest US Census news, the following is the breakdown of Americans by race as reported by Americans.

White only                             60.4% of the population

Black and African only          13.4%

Hispanic and Latino only      18.3%

Asian only                               5.9%

Native and others only            2.0%

There is one huge catch.  Those that report mixed races always report White as their primary race and that means 16.1% of the total population is shifted from other races to White, thus indicating White and mixed White represent 76.5% of the total population.  In other words, three-fourths of the population is White or White mixed, and just 23.5% is all other races.

If that is not enough to shake your faith in the destruction of American patriotism and the fallacy of political correctness, consider the following.  One of the premier issues of the far left is gun control, or gun confiscation to be honest.

Absorb the following regarding gun ownership in America.

The American Military – Two guns for every soldier

2,225,404 members of military own 4,400,000 military weapons

The American Civilian Militia – Seven Guns for every civilian

54,863,700 civilian households in US own 393,000,000 weapons

In other words, there are 24 times as many civilians with guns as soldiers, and civilians have 89 times as many weapons.

No wonder our Founding Fathers adopted the Second Amendment of the United States Constitution which reads: "A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."

Veterans Day - Honoring those who honor the Vets - Jon Bon Jovi son of Marine parents

D.C. veterans say so long to homelessness, with a little help from a rock star

Clifton Braxton, rock star Jon Bon Jovi and Latisha Austin pose at a complex that will soon house formerly homeless veterans.

MARVIN JOSEPH/AP

By TARA BAHRAMPOUR | The Washington Post | Published: November 11, 2019

WASHINGTON — Clifton Braxton sat in his Buick Encore in the parking lot of VA Medical Center last week and showed how he could transform the vehicle into a bedroom. An Air Force veteran who served during the Vietnam War, he struggled with substance abuse for many years and has been homeless off and on for a quarter-century. Each night he parks in a different lot in the District of Columbia or Maryland.

He eased the driver's seat into its most extended position. "I go right down here and drop it back," he said, stretching his nearly 5-foot-9 frame semi-horizontally. But Braxton, 72, had to admit that the two blankets in the back seat would be thin comfort against the coming winter. "It's gone get colder," he said with a knowing smile.

Across the Anacostia River, Latisha Austin, 29, pulled a blanket taut across her single bed at the U.S. Veterans Initiative in Washington, a temporary housing facility where she has lived for nearly a year.

The Army National Guard veteran and aspiring singer-songwriter became homeless in 2017 after her roommates and boyfriend stopped paying rent on their shared space. She couch-surfed and stayed in abandoned houses before moving into the veterans facility, where residents live in shared suites, must present for a nightly roll call, and are not allowed to bring food or drinks into their rooms.

Austin said she longed to "go back to being a grown adult again," adding: "I really like to bake."

Austin and Braxton have been approved to move into a new permanent housing complex for homeless veterans in an updated building on the former Walter Reed hospital campus in Washington. Soon, the certificate of occupancy for the facility will be issued and they will be free to move in.

Known as the Walter Reed Veteran Apartments, the complex will house 77 single people in efficiency units and provide services for vocational training, job placement, substance abuse, psychiatric issues, physical health, family relationships and legal concerns. The vets range in age from their 20s to their 70s, and many have served in conflicts from Vietnam to Afghanistan.

The $13 million facility, paid for by public and private funding, is operated by HELP USA, which runs permanent supportive housing programs across the country. This is its first project in the Washington area; it also operates 75 units of homeless veteran housing on the Perry Point VA Campus in Cecil County, Maryland. That campus opened last year.

The Walter Reed facility includes common areas such as a lounge with a fireplace, to help foster a sense of community among residents.

"You tend to find social isolation in veterans coming off the streets," said David Cleghorn, HELP USA's chief housing officer, adding that after getting into permanent housing, formerly homeless veterans will often "close the door, lock it, and never come back out again, because there's a survival mode they get into. . . . We try to develop spaces in the building that will encourage veterans to spend time together."

The Department of Housing and Urban Development's most recently released report on the number of homeless veterans found just over 37,800 in January 2018, down nearly 50 percent since 2010.

Rents in the Washington area have made it harder for lower-income people, including veterans, to find housing. Montgomery County, Maryland, and the commonwealth of Virginia both announced in 2015 that they had eliminated homelessness among veterans. A little over 300 homeless veterans are estimated to live in D.C., and so far about 30 have been approved to move into the new facility.

To qualify, they must make 50 percent or less of the area median income. They will pay 30 percent of their income in rent, whether that comes from Social Security, disability, pensions or wages from a job.

A few weeks ago, Braxton and Austin visited the facility and met rocker Jon Bon Jovi, whose Jon Bon Jovi Soul Foundation, the project's lead private funder, provided a $525,000 grant. Bon Jovi has not served in the military, but his parents were Marines.

"Service was always a part of who I was," he said in an interview with The Washington Post. At 21, he said, he was focused on making it in the music industry, but as he got older, he began to think more about the broader world. He recalled seeing a homeless man sleeping on a grate outside Philadelphia's City Hall. "I thought, 'This wasn't what our forefathers were thinking,' " said Bon Jovi, now 57.

His 13-year-old foundation has helped fund more than 700 units of housing in 11 states, along with two restaurants where payment is made by donation. Bon Jovi recently wrote a song from the perspective of a veteran struggling with postwar trauma; it is featured in a documentary that premiered this month about veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder and their service dogs.

Braxton, Austin and Bon Jovi toured the site, which includes a small gym, a courtyard and a computer room. Inside one of the apartments, they marveled at the pristine kitchen utensils, appliances and furniture.

"Those are brand new beds; those are not used beds," Braxton said. "If I do my part, I can't be told: 'You've got to leave.' They're not going to tear this place down. You're going to have electricity, you're going to have water, you're going to have a protected environment. I can close my door — boom — that's going to be my place."

Austin used her phone to take selfies with Bon Jovi, then turned on the video to capture footage of the room. "It just feels so clean," she said. "I won't have to worry about a roof over my head; I can focus on music. . . . I have so much to write about; I can write so many hit songs."

Eyes shining, she hurried down the second-floor hall. "This is my first time being on the floor that I'm actually going to be on," she said. "Ooh! Getting closer! I'm about to be there!" She stopped in front of a locked door. "This is my room." She hugged the door.

Austin is ready for the call telling her it is time to move in. Her suitcase is waiting in the middle of her current room. "I'll be able to pack everything — I can pack really fast," she said.

For now, she has the images on her phone. "I always go back to that video whenever I'm feeling impatient," she said.