Thanksgiving Day, 2000

Proclamation 7381 of November 17, 2000

Thanksgiving Day, 2000

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.