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We are thankful for our families, our homes, our Liberty, our Freedom and our prosperity

Thanksgiving 2010



The Massachusetts Bay Colony of Pilgrims, had arrived at Plymouth Bay late in 1620. Winter was setting in quickly. Aboard the Mayflower, they had signed the Mayflower Compact...a utopian document which committed each adult to share equally in everything they produced. Of 104 adults, 51 died of starvation and disease over the first brutal winter. Why? Because sharing in everything equally, whether one worked hard or not, was no better than the life of serfdom they had risked all to get away from. There was no incentive to produce an excess because it was taxed away. Those few who survived until Spring got together with Gov. Bradford and said something had to change. It did.

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Each person thereafter was permitted to keep and to sell the fruits of his own labors...whether crops or furniture, blacksmithing products or implements. Moreover, each was allowed to settle and to own their own land! This was the FIRST time in European history that people actually owned private property, as all lands in a country that belonged to the King. This new-found freedom for individuals to own their own property caused the colony to flourish and prosper beyond imagination. One Native American, a Penobscot Indian, befriended the colonists and taught them to plant crops they had never heard of before...corn, squash and potatoes, all of which were unknown in Europe. From the edge of extinction to prosperity in less than a year, the colonists had a harvest feast...a Thanksgiving to God for His miraculous intervention on their behalf. Fast forward to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia just after the Revolution. The delegates were hopelessly deadlocked and could not reach agreement on anything. Finally one morning, a then quite old man named Benjamin Franklin stood up, and leaning upon his cane, addressed the delegates. Here is what he said, "Gentlemen, during the late conflict with England we often called upon Divine Providence to deliver us from certain defeat. Our prayers were heard. Is it not just possible, that this same Divine Providence, who knows the numbers of hairs on our heads, and when a sparrow falls, would bless this endeavor if we asked Him?" The delegates were stunned, and hurried as one man to a church just down the road to pray for guidance. They also appointed chaplains to minister to the delegates. The Constitution was finished in a week. Soon thereafter the first 10 Amendments were ratified. These enumerated those unalienable rights that came from God, not from government. On this Thanksgiving 2010, we are thankful for our families, our homes, our Liberty, our Freedom and our prosperity. Without a free United States of America, there would be no freedom in the world. Most of us have stood out there on the edge of the Abyss, defending that very freedom and prosperity for which we are so thankful tomorrow...not just Americans but our Commonwealth Brothers and Sisters and other allies too.. We are here in Afghanistan living in a Theo-despotism that absolutely abhors and crushes individual freedom and liberty. Be thankful that you understand the difference and are free to make choices in your lives. Billions on this planet cannot. Thank you all for what you are doing and may you have a Blessed Thanksgiving. Paul G. Davenport, COL USMC (Ret)


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Guest Column Paul G. Davenport -- Bio and Archives

Items of notes and interest from the web.


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