Giving more than thanks.

• Author: Angones, Francisco R.
• Position: Florida - President's page

Thanksgiving is the time we set aside to consider our blessings as a nation and as individuals, to count the blessings within our communities, our families and ourselves. It has become a favorite holiday in the United States because of its emphasis on gratitude and on sharing, and because it's not as affected by the consumerism that marks most of our other celebrations.

For me, personally, Thanksgiving means giving thanks for the freedom and opportunities that this country has afforded my family and me. It is an occasion to tell God how grateful I am for all these personal blessings and for the blessings bestowed on our country and on our profession.

There have been thanksgivings since the beginnings of history as humans gave thanks to their gods for the harvests of the land. Native Americans held these celebrations hundreds of years before they were giving participants in what we call the "first" Thanksgiving in 1621; the survival skills they taught the Pilgrims were what enabled the Plymouth community to endure and prosper.

St. Augustine, Florida, has the honor of having celebrated the first European-style thanksgiving feast in 1565, the same year it was founded by the Spaniard Pedro Martinez de Aviles. Martinez de Aviles held a thanksgiving ceremony in this, the first permanent European settlement in the United States, and both Native Americans and the Spanish were present.

In 1777, the Continental Congress issued the first official Thanksgiving proclamation, and after the founding of the United States, various presidents issued similar public statements. It was President Lincoln who finally declared Thanksgiving a national holiday at a time when the country was immersed in the Civil War.

In the Thanksgiving proclamation, President Lincoln enumerated the many blessings bestowed on the United States and in particular referred to the observance of law and order: "In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity ... order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict...."

That President Lincoln declared this respect for the law as a particular blessing speaks to us as lawyers committed to uphold this law. And if we look back to earlier Thanksgivings, we see that all of them...