2000 Thanksgiving Proclamation is the first
Thanksgiving proclamation in 21st century by Bill Clinton or William
J Clinton.
2000 Thanksgiving Proclamation
A PROCLAMATION by the President of the United States of America:
November 17, 2000
We have much to be grateful for this Thanksgiving Day. Our Nation is
free, prosperous, and at peace. The remarkable growth in human knowledge
and technological innovation offers real hope for defeating the age-old
enemies of humanity: poverty, famine, and disease. Our dynamic economy
continues to generate millions of new jobs, and, as wages rise and
unemployment falls to its lowest level in more than a generation,
millions of American families are sharing in the bounty of this great
land for the first time.
Sharing in God's blessings is at the heart of Thanksgiving and at the
core of the American spirit. At Plymouth in 1621, the Pilgrims
celebrated their first harvest in the New World thanks to the generosity
of their Native American neighbors. In return, the Pilgrims invited
these tribal members to share in their harvest festival. At Thanksgiving
this year and every year, in worship services and family celebrations
across our country, Americans carry on that tradition of giving, sharing
not only with family and friends, but also with those in need throughout
their communities.
Every generation of Americans has benefited from the generosity,
talents, efforts, and contributions of their fellow citizens. All of us
have been enriched by the diverse cultures, traditions, and beliefs of
the millions of people who, by birth or choice, have come to call
America their home. All of us are beneficiaries of our founders' wisdom
and of the service and sacrifice of our men and women in uniform. While
Americans are an independent people, we are interdependent as well, and
our greatest achievements are those we have accomplished together.
As we celebrate Thanksgiving, let us remember with gratitude that
despite our differences in background, age, politics, or race, each of
us is a member of our larger American family and that, working together,
there is nothing we cannot accomplish in this promising new century.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, WILLIAM J. CLINTON, President of the United States
of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution
and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim Thursday, November 23,
2000, as a National Day of Thanksgiving. I encourage all the people of
the United States to assemble in their homes, places of worship, and
community centers to share the spirit of fellowship and prayer and to
reinforce the ties of family and community; to express heartfelt thanks
to God for our many blessings; and to reach out in gratitude and
friendship to our brothers and sisters across this land who, together,
comprise our great American family.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this seventeenth day of
November, in the year of our Lord two thousand, and of the Independence
of the United States of America the two hundred and twenty-fifth.
WILLIAM J. CLINTON
