Playing the entire song on the radio was a Thanksgiving tradition. Some of them were commercial stations-- almost nineteen minutes of no commercials. And some of them played it twice, at noon and 3 PM. WBCN did that, back in the day. But they changed formats (and call sign), so I don't know what they do, now.
It was basically true, at least the first part. The judge in the tale was really blind, he had a Seeing-Eye dog. He played himself in the movie (as did Officer Obie).
I hope that if you're in America, you and yours have a good Thanksgiving. Try not to punch out your TOFF-fellating uncle or your commie nephew.
And please, enjoy the day without resorting to rampant consumerism.
Or burning down your hostess's house.
So celebrate the day when people, who were being oppressed for their religion, landed on a new land where their descendants could do unto others as was done unto them. Which is the Christian way.
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Interesting post by on Lincoln and Thanksgiving, back in its beginning...of finding, somehow, some grace in the midst of the Civil War
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/november-23-2022-wednesday
The early years of the war did not go well for the U.S. By the end of 1862, the armies still held, but people on the home front were losing faith. Leaders recognized the need both to acknowledge the suffering and to keep Americans loyal to the cause. In November and December, seventeen state governors declared state thanksgiving holidays.
....
The next year Lincoln got ahead of the state proclamations. On July 15 he declared a national day of Thanksgiving, and the relief in his proclamation was almost palpable. After two years of disasters, the Union army was finally winning. Bloody, yes; battered, yes; but winning. At Gettysburg in early July, Union troops had sent Confederates reeling back southward. Then, on July 4, Vicksburg had finally fallen to U. S. Grant’s army. The military tide was turning.
President Lincoln set Thursday, August 6, 1863, for the national day of Thanksgiving. On that day, ministers across the country listed the signal victories of the U.S. Army and Navy in the past year and reassured their congregations that it was only a matter of time until the United States government put down the southern rebellion. Their predictions acknowledged the dead and reinforced the idea that their sacrifice had not been in vain.
In October 1863, President Lincoln declared a second national day of Thanksgiving. In the past year, he declared, the nation had been blessed.
...and, of course, then as now, but some 8 score years ago:
our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.
I argued much the same thing yesterday, in my own obtuse way, Best Trick the Devil Ever Pulled, how slavery is the blood that binds the mortar in the foundations of the country. The nutballs are right, we're not a democracy, we weren't founded as a democracy; we're a republic, founded thus on the premise that a few were more equal than the many. We’ve been kissing the south’s ass over their peculiar institution from the very start and pretty much everything else since, including “Thanksgiving,” is a big distraction. …
This is quite vicious
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npFvApubTII
Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours!
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