Today is Thanksgiving, a day when families and friends gather together to give thanks for the good things in life, for the things that didn’t turn out as bad as they might have and of course for each other.

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday.

It is also a day when I remember and give thanks for the people and actions that have shaped our nation.

Today I want to give thanks for those intrepid individuals who began settling what would become this nation in the early 17th century. These were the English who founded Virginia in 1607, the English Pilgrims who settled the Plymouth Colony in 1620, the Dutch who founded New Amsterdam in 1625, English Puritans who founded the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1628, the followers of William Penn who founded Pennsylvania in 1681 and the Swedes who settled along the Delaware River in present day Delaware, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. And there were others such as the German Palatines who settled in the upper Hudson Valley, the Mohawk Valley and the Schoharie Valley of upstate New York and the Scots-Irish who settled the frontiers of the southern colonies.

I also want to give thanks on this day for those men, representing 13 British colonies in North America who assembled in Philadelphia as the Second Continental Congress in 1775. Following the Battles of Lexington and Concord in April of that year it was their task to manage the war and more importantly to decide the colonies’ future course of action. In the beginning, many considered reconciliation with Great Britain the safest and most reasonable path, but after months of discussions, confronted with a hardline approach by the British Government and growing support for independence among the general population, it voted to sever all ties with Great Britain. The results of course were the Declaration of Independence and the United States of America.

I am thankful for the role played by George Washington in our history. During the Revolutionary War, Washington grew to become an extremely effective military commander and showed himself, perhaps more importantly, to be a man of honor. Later when our nation replaced the ineffective Articles of Confederation with the Constitution, Washington was elected our first President and set an example in carrying out the office that future presidents have followed. In some sense he represents for me all those men and women who played a role in shaping our young republic.

I am also thankful that the framers of our Constitution saw the need to append a Bill of Rights to that document ensuring that our rights as citizens would always be secure.

I am thankful that at a critical national crossroads precipitated by a civil war, two men emerged who successfully navigated the nation to victory allowing an end to the sin of slavery. The first was President Abraham Lincoln who at first glance seemed a homespun politician from Illinois but who was blessed with a prodigious intellect and a mighty will. Called unpresidential and unfit for office by critics, he emerged as a great war leader and a President who stands with Washington as our two greatest Presidents.

Sadly, Lincoln was killed by an assassin before he was able to carry out his vision of Reconstruction which might have eliminated the racial issues that came to a head in the mid 20th century.

The other figure to emerge was Gen. Ulysses S. Grant who, like Lincoln, came from the Midwest. Having left the Army in the years after the Mexican War, he failed at most everything he tried. However, he emerged during the war as a leader also possessed of a great will who pursued the enemy relentlessly and saw no alternative to unconditional surrender. However, he was also a man who, following the Surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia, allowed Confederate soldiers to return home with their horses to assist in planting crops. Together he and Lincoln brought the war to a successful conclusion.

I am thankful that when the civil rights of black Americans became an issue in the 1950s, a man emerged to lead that movement. The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was like great leaders in our history possessed of great courage and a resolute will. He set out to lead a movement to right the wrongs that had been done to black Americans since colonial times and he never resorted to violence even when it was aimed personally at him or the movement. His aim was to ensure that black Americans were truly included under the umbrella described by the words of the Declaration of Independence “… that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights …”

Like Lincoln, he died by the hand of an assassin. Had both lived to complete their work our world would surely be a better place.

Finally, on this Thanksgiving Day I give thanks that I am a citizen of the greatest, more powerful and yet most caring nation in the history of the world. We have had our shortcomings and failings as individuals and a nation but in the end, we have overcome them to do what is right.

Have a great Thanksgiving.

Thomas Kirkpatrick Sr. is a Silver Creek resident. Send comments to editorial@observertoday.com