The following is the text of
President Clinton's 2000 Thanksgiving Proclamation:
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary (Hanoi, Vietnam)
November 18, 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.
WILLIAM J. CLINTON
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Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.
