THE WHITE HOUSE -
Office of the Press Secretary -
For Immediate Release - November 1982
THANKSGIVING
DAY, 1982 BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
A PROCLAMATION
Two hundred years ago, the Congress
of the United States issued a Thanksgiving Proclamation stating that
it was "the indispensable duty of all nations" to offer both praise and supplication
to God. Above all other nations of the world, America has been especially
blessed and should give special thanks. We have bountiful harvests,
abundant freedoms, and a strong, compassionate people.
I have always believed that this
anointed land was set apart in an uncommon way, that a divine plan
placed this great continent here between the oceans to be found by
a people from every corner of the Earth who had a special love of faith
and freedom. Our
pioneers asked that He would work His will in our daily lives so
America would be a land of morality, fairness and freedom.
Today we have more to be thankful
for than our pilgrim mothers and fathers who huddled on the edge
of the New World that first Thanksgiving Day could ever dream of. We
should be grateful not only for our blessings, but for the courage and
strength of our ancestors which enable us to enjoy the lives we do today.
Let us affirm through prayers and
actions our thankfulness for America's bounty and heritage.
NOW, THEREFORE, I RONALD REAGAN,
President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim Thursday,
November 25, 1982, as a National Day of Thanksgiving and I call upon
all of our citizens to set side that day for appropriate expressions of
thanksgiving.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto
set my hand this twenty-seventh day of September, in the year of our Lord
nineteen hundred and eighty-two, and of the Independence of the United
States of American the two hundred and seventh.