This is a special week in America. It is a time to pause and do something we never do frequently enough, which is to say thank you. Thank you for our blessings. Thank you to our families for their love. Thank you to our friends for their support. And thank you to the community that has stepped forward to offer their help to those who are unemployed during our most difficult economy since the Great Depression.
Last week, our nation celebrated Veterans Day to commemorate a group of citizens who have protected us day and night, even though we seldom think about them unless we are in a time of war. Now is one of those times, and we join together in saying thank you to our men and women in uniform, both past and present.
At the Plymouth Colony in 1621, the Pilgrims thanked God for the fruits of their first harvest in the new world. They also thanked their new friends, Native Americans from the Wampanoag tribe for enabling them to survive the bitter winter of 1620-21. The Native American community that surrounded the Pilgrims literally saved their lives.
Every Angeleno has their own story about people who have helped them survive or thrive in the City of Angels. Some of these stories are about family and friends. But often they are about people who entered their lives unexpectedly and lent a helping hand or some guiding advice when they didn’t need to.
As we celebrate Thanksgiving this week, add to your thanks and prayers the Angelenos who have helped you to thrive or survive in the City of Angels. And offer special thanks for those who give unselfishly of their time and resources to help the thousands of Angelenos who, like the Pilgrims, would not make it through the winter on their own.
I encourage each of us to make a special commitment this Thanksgiving and Holiday Season to create a Los Angeles that nurtures all of our pilgrims so that as a community we can join Ralph Waldo Emerson in this famous Thanksgiving prayer in which he thanks God:
For each new morning with its light,
For rest and shelter of the night,
For health and food,
For love and friends,
For everything Thy goodness sends.