One Out of Many
Musings By Our Illustrious Steve Sayer:
When one thinks of a penny, not many exciting or exhilarating images come to mind; spare change, jiggling piggy banks, maybe even pocket lint. How about the American adaptation of a Thanksgiving Day?
What relationship does a copper penny, that bears the image of our 16th President, have to do with Pilgrims, a wind driven clipper ship named the Mayflower, wars and peace, freedom and democracy, even turkeys and all of the other delectable condiments associated with Thanksgiving Day? Let’s step back in time seven score and five years and touch upon some olden but golden times.
While in the midst of the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln not only declared into law the Emancipation Proclamation, but also a Proclamation for a Thanksgiving Day. Both events occurred in 1863. Ever since Lincoln’s presidency, every President has issued a Thanksgiving Day Proclamation. No President has forgotten this declaration of “giving-thanks” which has resulted with a seamless lineage of post-bellum American Presidents honoring this consecrated holiday.
The genesis of Thanksgiving Day, as an American National Holiday, began by the Emancipator’s vision that Americans should enjoy and celebrate “every last Thursday of November.” History books unveil to us that the original intent of such a national holiday was to simply offer thanks to Almighty God and the liberty and freedom that all Americans continue to enjoy.
The actual words that were spoken in 1863 by the ax wielding, rail-splitting, log cabin builder while announcing the Proclamation of Thanksgiving are everlasting and ring true today as they did when Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer were still being penned in their early infancy;
“The year 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 the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God.”
“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 with 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 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.”
Today Americans are blessed with “fruitful fields and healthful skies.” No nation on earth produces as much of a bounty of food for all nations of the world as America does. “We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven. We have been preserved, these many years, in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power, as no other nation has ever grown.”
As the months of 2008 have been laid to the wayside and the calendar approaches Thanksgiving Day, we should ask ourselves the reasons why we set aside a day to be thankful, while concurrently reflecting of the many things we have to be thankful for.
Today, some take for granted the abundance that the early colonists could never have imagined. We have the freedom that our forefathers came to the New World seeking, although this is sometimes taken for granted as well. “Freedom is not the right to do what we want, but what we ought. Let us have faith that right makes might, and in faith, let us, to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it.”
We pledge allegiance to our nation that provides “liberty and justice for all.” Our thanks should envelop more than just freedom, food and ephemeral material goods. It’s a time to mind to the homeless, the sick and lonely, and to those that may need just a simple talcum word of touch, hope and encouragement. “It is difficult to make a man miserable while he feels he is worthy of himself and claims kindred to the great God who made him.”
“With malice towards none, and charity to all,” this self-educated man known for reading Hamlet by candlelight as a boy and wearing a beaver skin stove top hat as a Commander-In-Chief, is renowned as the President who collectively issued more pardons than his 15 predecessors combined, had acknowledged time and again the “gracious gifts of the highest God.” We would be most ungrateful on this Thanksgiving Day if we forget to acknowledge what a blessed people we are and thank God for all of our collective blessings. We should thank him for America, on which he “… shed his grace on thee.”
In 1909, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Honest Abe’s birthday, the Lincoln penny made its opening debut in America’s collective hands, pockets and coin jars. The newly minted coin was especially popular in black quarters, as it was called, “Emancipation Money,” in honor of the Emancipation Proclamation.
This splendid likeness of our 16th President on the penny’s obverse has the words, LIBERTY positioned to his right. Arched like a rainbow over Lincoln’s head reads; IN GOD WE TRUST, which appeared for the first time on a coin of this denomination.
On this Thanksgiving 2008 we find our country still at war. Let’s never take for granted the women and men presently in uniform, who, like the soldiers before them in preceding wars, are defending our collective way of life. And let’s never overlook our next-door neighbors, whose love ones are currently in harms way or who have paid the ultimate Section 60 Arlington National Cemetery sacrifice for you and our loved ones. “… My fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign land…”
What a priceless and esteemed value our country’s lowest currency denomination holds from within. The next time you see a discarded penny outside a 7-Eleven store or just a sun-baked sidewalk, street, or avenue take a second from your busy day and pick it up. Offer a silent prayer of thanks as you read into; In God We Trust and Liberty.
Steve Sayer
The flip side of the penny has United States of America curving around the upper border with the imposing marbled Lincoln Memorial etched in the middle. Engraved between the two are the words E PLURIBUS UNUM which is our national motto which means; “One out of Many.”
It’s with a sense of indescribable relief that is neatly tied with miles of yellow ribbons furrowed with thankfulness that my brother’s youngest son has safely returned home and is out of harms way just prior to this Thanksgiving Day. While away, his wife Nicole Sayer and their two mini-jets, Brett and Tyler Sayer, loaned their husband and daddy for our country these last 9 months that seemed and felt more like 900 score, 39 years, 11 months and 30 days.
It’ll be worth noting on this last Thursday of November, at least for my collective family and close friends, that Navy Lt. Nathan Phillip Sayer, a local San Clemente High School Graduate and a direct descendent of Army Major Daniel Sayer (1838-1924) of the Union Army, and grandson of WW II Navy Veteran, Albert Daniel Sayer (1926 – ), had been taking off and landing while we were all experiencing the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies.
That is, from somewhere in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, in his Navy Jet; from the salt-crested, sun-baked blacktop of the free sailing aircraft carrier aptly christened; the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln.
