Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. The entire family celebrates being together, while forgetting mundane issues such as eating healthily. This year I researched Thanksgiving a bit and was surprised by what I learned.
My biggest surprise was that Thanksgiving was not celebrated nationally until 1863. I always assumed that it began earlier, as it is commonly linked to the coming together following a successful harvest year of a group of recent immigrants – often referred to as the Pilgrams – and people from the Wampanoag tribe. It turns out that Thanksgiving was mainly a northeast U.S. celebration for many years, and it gradually expanded across the country. President Lincoln issued a proclamation in 1863, during the Civil War, calling for the observation of the last day of November as a day of thanks. His proclamation called for “a return of the inestimable blessings of peace, union, and harmony throughout the land.” Those words remain important today.
Not so clear to me was when Thanksgiving became about football and turkey (certainly good things, too!). I was a bit taken aback when shopping for our family feast this year, how expensive things have become. The prices make me feel very lucky that I could merely sigh and still buy things – I suspect that many in my community could not. It is a tough time for many people – with food banks growing increasingly important as SNAP benefits become uncertain. Skyrocketing health care costs also are coming very soon, so having enough money left for food will become more of a problem in our community. It just doesn’t seem right to me that in our wonderful country some people will go hungry or not have the ability to see a doctor. Our country produces about 4000 calories a day for its people, while we need only about 2000. Why are people going hungry?
A related question is why are some people so poor in such a rich country? Looking online for data, I found that the poor are getting poorer. In 1989, the poorest 50% of the U.S. population had only about 3.5% of the total nation’s wealth. That number is terrible – but it has been dropping! Today, the poorest half (about 170 million people) have only about 2.8% of the nation’s wealth. So where has that wealth gone? Since 1989 the amount of wealth held by the richest 1% of the population has grown from about 23% to 31%. The top 1% of the population (about 3.4 million people) has almost a third of the total wealth of the United States! And the handful of superrich (about three million people) have about 14% of the nation’s wealth! We have become a nation of most people having very little, with a handful of people having extreme wealth. And this trend has been growing.
During this holiday season, I am very thankful that I’m still able to celebrate with festive holiday meals and buy gifts (more carefully chosen as prices seem to have soared here too) for the children. I do wonder though how those that are less fortunate will be able to celebrate or at least stay fed and healthy this season. It’s something to think about, and how to do better this coming year.
