George Washington’s 1789 Thanksgiving Proclamation was the first presidential declaration of a National Day of Thanksgiving, issued to unify the young United States and acknowledge divine providence. It came just months after the Constitution was ratified and the Bill of Rights proposed. Both houses of Congress asked Washington to recommend a day of gratitude, reflecting their desire to foster national unity and shared values.

Washington issued it on October 3, 1789, designating November 26, 1789, as a a day of public thanksgiving and prayer. What follows is an excerpt; the full proclamation is linked.

“Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor;…the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer…observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God,…”

Link to Proclamation:  Thanksgiving Proclamation of 1789 | George Washington’s Mount Vernon

Yesterday in History

November 23, 1889: S.F. Gin Joint Hears the World’s First Jukebox

The first jukebox is installed at the Palais Royale Saloon in San Francisco. It became an overnight sensation, and its popularity spread around the world.

That first jukebox was constructed by the Pacific Phonograph Company. Four stethoscope-like tubes were attached to an Edison Class M electric phonograph fitted inside an oak cabinet. The tubes operated individually, each activated by the insertion of a coin, allowing four different listeners to plug into the same song simultaneously.

Towels were supplied to patrons so they could wipe off the end of the tube after each listening.

This is only important to me because my grandparents owned a bar and had a Seeburg M100 jukebox there. The bar was a neighborhood, somewhat redneck place. I spent a great deal of time there and saw some things in my preteen and teen years that most people never see in a lifetime. Ever see a guy get stabbed? Weird times, but somehow valuable later in life.

The jukebox held 50 records, playing 100 songs, mostly country, some polka, and a few rock. One song for a dime, three for a quarter. It played almost continually, but less than the pool table. I have a pool table story too.

When a guy named Al would come to change the records and take out the money, after a split of the skim, he would sell records to my mom for a quarter a piece. We had the largest collection of 45 rpm records in the area.

When you look at it, you recognize it as the one at Arnold’s Drive-In on Happy Days and the famous “Fonzie Bang,” his ability to start or stop the jukebox with a single punch.

When my grandparents finally retired it in the mid-60s, they gave it to my family. It was in our basement for years, with the lock on the coinbox removed, so it could be played anytime with the same quarter. The speaker was blown out, but a new one magically appeared from the local drive-in theatre. A gift from Bad Santa I reckon. It worked.

From there, it went to southern Ohio with me, but I used it to pay a great guy, whose wife worked for me, to clean out my basement. There was a lot to clean out, three or truckloads of junk, and it was quite a deal. Refurbished, and it is, it’s worth $8-10,000, and if not, it can still bring a couple grand. Not one of the best deals I ever made. But at least it was being used again.

Life is about memories of the past and the new ones we make.

Read to the end of my take because there’s a question there for you, if you choose to. Apologies for the length. I was going to ask a simple one-line question when I started.

Six Democratic lawmakers with military backgrounds released a video telling troops to refuse ‘illegal orders’ right after Trump started using the National Guard domestically. They never named a single actual illegal order, and every service member is already taught this in basic training. The timing and wording made it impossible to read as anything but a political attack on the Trump administration. They knew it would be called traitorous, seditious, or mutinous by half the country, and it would scare the other half into thinking a dictatorship is coming. Whatever their intent, the real effect was to drive another wedge between Americans, make troops question lawful orders for political reasons, and deepen the division they claim to be worried about. In my view, that was reckless and wrong.

By the way, the six lawmakers featured were Senator Elissa Slotkin of Michigan (former CIA analyst), Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona (Navy captain and astronaut), Representative Chrissy Houlahan of Pennsylvania (Air Force Academy graduate and former helicopter pilot), Representative Chris Deluzio of Pennsylvania (Navy veteran who served in Afghanistan), Representative Maggie Goodlander of New Hampshire (former Justice Department national security prosecutor and Navy Reserve officer), and Representative Jason Crow of Colorado (Army Ranger and Iraq/Afghanistan veteran).

The video’s phrasing and timing carries a heavy implication that the Trump administration is issuing (or poised to issue) precisely those kinds of illegal orders it’s warning against, without ever naming specifics or providing examples. Lines like “This administration is pitting our uniformed military against American citizens” and “Threats to our Constitution aren’t just coming from abroad, but from right here at home” are broad enough to feel like a veiled shot at Trump’s recent moves, such as deploying National Guard troops to cities like Chicago and Portland over local objections, or authorizing strikes on suspected narcoterrorism vessels min international waters.

Words like traitor are used, so is seditionist and insurrectionist. If soldiers refused to obey orders based on the video because there was now a question on the legality of the orders based on the video, which word would best describe it for promoting insubordination. The correct charged would ne mutiny by the way. What the six lawmakers did may not illegal, but a lot of people (veterans, active-duty folks, legal experts, and regular citizens) see it as wrong because it injected congressional political theater directly into the chain of command at a moment of high tension. Even if every word they said is technically true (“You must refuse illegal orders”), the context, timing, and tone turned a routine legal reminder into something that looks and feels like a green light for selective obedience based on political disagreement, making it as reckless and corrosive.

Every one of those six lawmakers is a “sophisticated “national-security professional. They’ve all sat through classified briefings, worked in or around the Pentagon or CIA, and understand how quickly a 90-second viral clip can be weaponized in an already polarized environment. As a defense, they will fall back on a clause in the Constitution to defend it as protected speech.

So, in short, they made a deliberate choice to escalate the division rather than lower it leading to another round of Americans screaming “treason” at other Americans. What will happen is that some will view their actions as traitorous, seditionist, insurrectionist, or mutinous, which will create further division in a country already divided, and I believe they knew that.

All that being said, use the word “traitor” interchangeably with seditionist, insurrectionist, and mutineer, and with it, do you feel the meme is correct?

Grief touches all of us in different ways. Sometimes it feels like the weight of sorrow will never lift. Yet Psalm 34:18 reminds us that God is not far away in those moments. He is close. When our spirit feels crushed, His presence is our rescue. This verse is a promise for today, when the burden feels heavy and memories of yesterday bring both comfort and longing.

World War I

The war to end all wars

This is written as a history of Veterans Day, but for another reason. In part, the election of Zohran Mamdani as mayor of New York City prompts it. Mamdani is a communist. I know he calls himself a democratic socialist, but remember: “The goal of socialism is communism.” Vladimir Lenin. Democratic socialism is a euphemism for communism as far as I’m concerned, so don’t be lulled into the false idea that there will never be another Lenin or Stalin. He’s here.

Another reason is that this is another year my town is not having a parade or, to my knowledge, a public program. I hear the school is having some vets in to speak, and that’s a good thing, but the schools really don’t teach civics anymore, which was required when I was a kid. But things were different. Our dads were WWII veterans. The country hated communism then. I mention this because Mamdani won the youth vote overwhelmingly.

Schools don’t teach the failures of communism. It’s been glorified, which leads to my final reason for writing. Earlier today, I posted a story about a disclaimer: “The Anchorage School District does not endorse these materials or the viewpoints expressed in them.” Earlier this month, the ASD added a disclaimer sticker to physical copies of the U.S. Constitution and Declaration of Independence used in classrooms and libraries. What the hell does that teach our kids? Okay, let’s get on with this.

Another benefit is that, as the author, I get to choose the pictures to attach, and I have. The second is my dad, Cpl. Edward Thompson, somewhere in France during World War II. The other is my uncle, Kenny, taken in 1966 after he completed basic training.

Today is not Veterans Day, but here’s a little background on the upcoming holiday. At the time, it was referred to in various ways—but never as World War I. That designation came later with the advent of World War II. Initially, it was known as The Great War. History shows that the end of what is now known as World War I set the stage for the next; the peace terms were so harsh that a second global conflict became almost inevitable.

Approximately 9 million soldiers died during World War I, and civilian deaths are estimated between 5 and 13 million. Consider this: civilians perished due to famine, disease, and direct military actions. The connection between World War I and the 1918 flu epidemic is clear—the war created ideal conditions for the virus to mutate and spread.

The epidemic, often called the Spanish flu, claimed the lives of up to 100 million people worldwide. Suddenly, the total death toll from this era could be said to reach 120 million, nearly one in ten people on the planet.

Technically, there was no surrender, but rather an armistice signed at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918. If you’re older, you may remember commemorating Armistice Day each November 11, before it became Veterans Day. At my school, we observed a moment of silence at 11:00 a.m.

Call it what you will, the net effect was a surrender, and the terms imposed on Germany were severe. Despite the staggering loss of life, I’m not sure the world learned much from the bloody fighting between 1914 and 1918. The fighting ceased on November 11, 1918. However, the war officially ended with the Treaty of Versailles, signed in 1919 and taking effect the following January. It’s confusing, but the cessation of hostilities is recognized on November 11 as Armistice Day, now Veterans Day.

World War I was back in the news in 2018, at least in my mind. President Trump proposed a large military parade. Critics mocked the idea, calling it “Trump’s Parade.“ There had been at least two such parades in earlier times. Due to cost concerns, President Trump canceled it. Don’t confuse it with what pundits called the “Trump Birthday Parade.”

I supported the idea in 2018, not as a political endorsement, but because it marked the 100th anniversary of the war’s end. While it didn’t achieve the goal of ending all wars, a fact made clear less than 21 years later, we let political division overshadow a historical moment that could have taught us something. Guess what, we have something called Trump Derangement Syndrome, keeping us divided.

History is always important, yet it is often overlooked. We all know the quote, stated in various ways by different people: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.“ In other words, learn history, or keep making the same mistakes.

By the way, I believe it’s wrong to say “Happy Memorial Day.” It’s okay to say “Happy Veterans Day,“ but if you see a veteran tomorrow, “Thank you for your service“ is the best way to express your gratitude.

Veterans come in all shapes, both sexes, and all races. Those still with us fought on the front lines in Okinawa, the Battle of the Bulge, Anzio, the Chosin Reservoir, Khe Sanh, Hue, Firebase Ripcord, Grenada, Panama, Kuwait, Baghdad, Kandahar, Fallujah, the Battle of Do Ab—and the list goes on. We still have soldiers stationed around the world. Americans have stood guard over the rest of the world.

Today is not just for combat veterans, it’s for all veterans. Many people think first of those on the front lines, but it takes more than combat troops to make an army. All who wear the uniform are important. All are at risk.

Veterans come from diverse backgrounds. They are parents, children, grandparents, brothers, and sisters-all charged with the duty of keeping us safe.

So when you see a veteran, not just on Veterans Day, but any day, say, “Thank you for your service, and for keeping me safe and free.” And teach your children and others, at a minimum, about American history, capitalism vs communism, western civilization, civics, and expose them to God. Our survival depends on it.