THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
(Hanoi, Vietnam)
_________________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release November 18, 2000
THANKSGIVING DAY, 2000
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BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
A PROCLAMATION
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
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