This year we are truly thankful for our incredible staff who have worked diligently to serve our clients’ needs in this extraordinarily difficult year. We are also grateful for the vaccines that are saving lives throughout the world and for the fact that many of the communities in Oregon and California that experienced loss of life and destruction of property due to wildfires are beginning to recover.
The celebration of Thanksgiving by this nation is deeply rooted in our history. President George Washington proclaimed the first national Thanksgiving Day on October 3, 1789, though the original Thanksgiving celebration actually lasted for three days.
President Thomas Jefferson chose not to declare the holiday during his term because he believed it ran afoul of the Constitutionally required separation of church and state.
Thanksgiving’s celebration was intermittent until October 3, 1863, when President Abraham Lincoln formalized Thanksgiving by declaring that it be celebrated on the final Thursday of each November.
President John F. Kennedy was the first president known to have spared a Thanksgiving turkey. While others followed suit, it was not until 1987 that a president (Ronald Reagan) used the word “pardon” in connection with a Thanksgiving turkey. His successor, George H.W. Bush, instituted the pardon as a permanent annual tradition.
In his proclamation of Thanksgiving, Lincoln bemoaned the fact that the nation was then engaged in the most divisive war in this country’s history, the Civil War. Yet, he felt that time should be set aside for the purpose of giving thanks for all the good things enjoyed by Americans.
This year, we should take the opportunity to give thanks for all the good we enjoy even during this pandemic and for the fellowship of those around us, as well as to wish for the safety of everyone who is currently exposed to danger throughout the world.
We also wish to give our thanks to those who fought for our freedom throughout history – freedom is not free. In particular, we would like to thank the men and women who, from 1941 to 1945, made the world a safer place to live.
This firm has helped to recognize their contribution through its representation of the Oregon WWII Memorial Foundation. The Oregon WWII Memorial in Salem, Oregon, was dedicated on June 6, 2014, which was the 70th anniversary of D-Day.
We are also proud of our role in representing the Oregon Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington Park.
This year is the 103rd anniversary of the end of World War I, and we appreciate the sacrifices of those who served our nation in that war as well.
We at The DuBoff Law Group wish you the best of the holiday season.
