In Virginia, Thanksgiving Comes in December

We all know the familiar story: in 1621 the Pilgrims in Plymouth, Massachusetts, sat down with their Native American friends and had a day of feasting and thanksgiving to God for blessings received: the first Thanksgiving, right?

Well, not quite.  When a group of English settlers arrived at the Berkeley Hundred on 4 December, 1619 they knelt and prayed, thanking God for their safe passage.  Moreover, the Berkeley Company, which organized their settlement, decreed that "the day of our ships arrival at the place assigned... in the land of Virginia shall be yearly and perpetually kept holy as a day of Thanksgiving to Almighty God."  (If, however, you want to be a real stickler, Spanish settlers in Florida beat their English brethren by several decades, with a mass of thanksgiving and dining with local Native Americans in 1565.)

To be honest, most Virginians don't actually celebrate Virginia Thanksgiving, though there is an annual Virginia Thanksgiving Festival (which was moved to the first Sunday of November, in the hope of avoiding bad weather).  So why bring it up at all?

I have no problem celebrating the Massachusetts Thanksgiving, which has been a federal holiday - currently marked on the fourth Thursday of November - since 1863.  As Americans, we are all part of a single body.  We rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep.  But we also belong to local communities and cultures.  Apart from a short stint my in-laws spent in Boston when in graduate school, neither I, nor my wife, nor any of our ancestors have any ties to New England.  So why not celebrate something tied to our own state?

Fostering local holidays and culture can be an important part of building local solidarity, a sense of brotherhood with our neighbors, one which ultimately bears fruit in helping one another.  But how do we go about doing that?  For starters, what do you eat for Virginia Thanksgiving?

The Virginia Thanksgiving Festival offers a wide range of foods, from the usual turkey and cranberries to BBQ, baked beans, coleslaw, Brunswick stew, Virginia ham, sweet tea and pecan pie.  If you're historically minded, Colonial Williamsburg and Mount Vernon both offer colonial recipes.  If you'd like more contemporary fare, simply ask your Virginia neighbors what they like to have at the holidays.  (It's a good excuse to actually talk to your neighbors!)  Or make up your own family customs; historical longevity is great, but it's the building of community that matters most.

Tomorrow our family will be eating turkey and mashed potatoes, like most Americans.  But in a couple weeks, we'll take a stab at celebrating Virginia Thanksgiving as well.  If you live in the Commonwealth, maybe you should try it too.

Can We Afford To Care for Our Neighbors?

Virtually everyone recognizes the desirability of caring for our neighbors.  But in an age of spiraling debt, can we afford to do so without busting the bank?  (In the recent election here in Virginia, Ralph Northam's opponents' primary argument was that the state could not afford his policies.)  I think we can afford to care for our neighbors, for several reasons:

1. Social welfare should be a safety net, not a free ride.  There are a few with incapacitating handicaps who may require care for the remainder of their lives.  But these are few and far between.  Most people simply need a little help getting back on their feet.  Programs should be designed with this focus, providing, for example, vocational training, job searching services, and various forms of matching funds.  If you're providing for every need from cradle to grave, you're not only spending beyond the government's means, but also robbing people of the dignity that comes from being responsible for themselves.
2. Local duties always come first.  Families should not be asked to care for their neighbors when they cannot provide for their own children.  Communities should not be asked to care for the next town over when the cannot afford to care for their own.  Christian Democracy embraces the idea of subsidiarity: problems should be solved at the lowest level possible, by the people who understand them best and have the greatest stake in them.  When we return more powers to state and local governments, taxpayers can have greater confidence that they are being asked to shoulder burdens that match their abilities.
3. Social welfare should include frequent public-private partnerships.  Civil society has a vigorous role to play.  Just as the safety net should support, not replace, personal responsibility (see point #1), so too government welfare should support, not replace, the excellent work of private charity.  Americans have a strong tradition of helping our neighbors through a wide variety of civic and charitable organizations.  Deep in our American DNA is the sense of duty to volunteer and that's a wonderful thing.  Government programs should be tailored to support, with matching funds and light-touch regulations, the work of private organizations.
4. There are opportunities for savings.  Increased transparency can shine a light on waste and reveal places where we can save money.  Spending on big-ticket hardware and government support to large corporations, typically in the form of generous tax breaks, cost taxpayers every year.  If we can close some of the loopholes and trim some of the waste, that leaves more money available for caring for ordinary Americans, particularly veterans, the elderly, the sick, and the poor.
5. Not caring comes with costs too.  Minor health problems which would have been small, had they been addressed early on, can become costly chronic ailments.  Small investments in basic health can avoid those costs.  Drug abuse can become drug addiction which can lead to a variety of crimes, which in turn harm society and force us to spend money on policing and prisons.  A little money spent on drug rehabilitation may go a long way.  The list goes on and on.  The point is: before balking at every dollar spent, let's think about the issues at stake and make prudent, long-term decisions.

The American Solidarity Party platform states that, "we have an obligation to care for our neighbor, and especially to defend those who are most vulnerable. We believe that ensuring every person has access to essentials such as food, shelter, education and healthcare is an achievable goal in our society."  Let's work together and make it happen.