Why We Celebrate Thanksgiving

[Guest guest]

I wrote this for autism parents, but it is for every parent who has ever had

to go toe to toe with practitioners, community or ex-friends who said there

was no hope for your child.

Blessings to all...(DADs TOO!)

We Wouldn’t Have Thanksgiving Without A Mother Warrior.

Her name was pha Hale. She lived from 1788-1879. Widowed with 5

young children, after not much success as a milliner, began writing. In all

she produced nearly 50 works of poetry, novels and children’s works. She

had a long career as an editor, first for Ladies Magazine and then 40 years

as editor of the Godey’s Lady’s Book. (Yes, THAT Godey’s Lady’s Book

– the one with the fashion plates that are well known even today). She was

a major influence on women’s literature and a voice on women’s issues in

her day.

So how did she make Thanksgiving happen? She wrote to Presidents and asked

for it. She wrote letters for 30 years, until Abraham Lincoln paid attention

and declared Thanksgiving to be a yearly event.

Mother Warriors have a long history. Warrior Fathers, too. pha

Hale’s success with Godey’s Lady’s Book was in part due to

subscriptions marketed to men to be purchased on behalf of wives, sisters

and daughters to help them, as the marketing went, to be better women.

pha Hale did not give up – we will not give up. She felt there

was enough to be thankful for to make a 30 year effort to declare it so.

Every smile on a child’s face where once there was pain. Every voice that

grows in a silent child. Every child who runs and plays instead of rocks in

pain is because of a Warrior Mother, and/or Warrior Father who has much to

be thankful for as well. For the companionship and comradeship of parents

with children just like theirs, for the doctors and health practitioners who

hear our voices, for access to information, for the industries who have

invested in the tools, supplements, curriculums and adaptations to help our

children heal, grow and thrive.

For the voices that join together, the keys that clack in the long hours of

the night, for the hours of research and dedication, for the phone calls,

the placards, the bumper stickers the cards and the clothing that declares

who we are, why we are here and that we are not going away, but getting

louder and stronger every day.

For the siblings and families that support us, for those in our communities

who take notice, ask, and learn with us. We have much to say “Thanksâ€.

For the people with vision who work hard to bring us together. For the

children – the light, the love, and the laughter they find as we travel

this road.

pha Hale, a lone voice, used the power of print and pen to make a

change our country observes as a time for coming together and renewing why

we are family, and to have all families united in one purpose

simultaneously. Like pha Hale, WE, as Warriors on behalf of our

families, are being heard, will continue to be heard and have a greater

voice, with the potential to create a coming together, too.

In recent days, the attacks in the media have escalated. That is because our

voice is growing. That is because we are getting through. We are shaking the

pedestals of the establishments that put our children into their misery, and

the ones who stand on those pedestals are feeling them begin to topple. The

arguments claim to be about science, but they are not. If the arguments were

truly about science, those making the argument would take up the study of

the physical conditions our children suffer, but they do not, in fact they

go so far as to deny any illness exists. In the absence of actual study,

they substitute the last bastion of futile argument – the ad hominem

attack. When all else fails, disparage the opposition. But that is my point.

There are no arguments. What we and our children experience is real. We have

direct experience, we have video documentation, we have lab verification,

and we have recoveries. Even without recovery we have improvement, and our

kids have a chance.

So today, embrace your children, embrace your family & friends. Be THANKFUL!

Tomorrow, we will ask again, for those who are true scientists, for those

who have intelligence and those who are ready to take up the challenge,

stand together. One woman accomplished this. Many thousands will do more.

Our story will not be set aside like pha Hale, because we are

women. Our story is the story of all children, all families, all people, all

nations. As the Truth of who is responsible for our Thanksgiving celebration

and traditions becomes known and is taught side by side with the story of

how Abraham Lincoln made her desire for togetherness come true, our story of

togetherness and unity will as well. Truth always wins.

Happy Thanksgiving to all.

More about pha Hale:

http://womenshistory.about.com/od/thanksgiving/a/sarah_hale_letter.htm

http://www.womenwriters.net/domesticgoddess/hale1.html

http://www.flickr.com/photos/23021987@N06/2873996882/

V