ACH Study Groups
Ben & Fran Gilmore – Cofounders
7659 Gingerblossom Drive
Citrus Heights, CA 95621
916-722-2501 histbuff@garlic.com
www.ACHStudyGroups.com
November 17, 2016
This is a letter to our friends –
Thanksgiving
Warm greetings. Just before the election, my mail-merge function and a batch of other software stopped working with reliability. I have no idea whether any of these blog posts were posted since then. Several days, some prayer with lots of tweeking and talk with techies appears to have fixed things. For this I am most thankful.
Last December 2nd this column handicapped the candidates for President:
”Trump – As president, I believe he would be very good at getting things done. His following would stay with him with popular support for a time. This would make him a powerful leader. On the other hand – Nothing exists without a set of rules to govern it. Trump appears to me to lack a depth of understanding about the rules that will “make America great again”. I believe he would not respect private property, or the limits on the president by the legislature and courts. We would have exchanged a traitorous-tyrant for a patriotic-tyrant. A tyrant nonetheless. Tyranny is unstable.”
I am thankful that I appear to be right about his being a powerful patriotic leader. I am also thankful that I appear to have been wrong about his not respecting legislative and legal limits. He appears to be surrounding himself with well qualified mentors.
It has become somewhat of a tradition to have the Thanksgiving table set with 5 small grains of corn in honor of the Pilgrims’ Thanksgiving feast. Another is to have someone read “Pilgrim Fathers” by the late Larry Wagner, during the Thanksgiving meal. I will Paste it at the end after a page-break so it will be on one page.
The entire Gilmore clan together with many friends and extended family will be together this Thanksgiving. Our best wishes go out to you and yours. We are truly thankful for our country.
Pilgrim Fathers
By the late Lawrence Wagner
“The second harvest gathered since they crossed Atlantic waters,
A feast of thankfulness was set by grateful Pilgrim Fathers:
So great the providence of God, so blest with fruit their labors,
So sweet the bond among their band, such peace with Indian neighbors.
“But most among the festive crowd could count harsh years of toil.
Of wand’ring for their faith in God, of want on alien soil.
Of flagging hopes and faith, bad health, of chills that hell could send,
Of half their number that had died before first winter’s end.
Of hunger pangs that second year in their New Plymouth home,
Of weeks when all they ate a day was five small grains of corn.
A few remembered treasure lost, of titles cast aside,
But all could measure conscience’ cost in tears and trampled pride.
Oh, at this feast could they foresee their blessed future years?
That nevermore would they know want, nor run from any fears!
Then after prayers of gratitude, before the feast was set,
Each plate was served five grains of corn, lest anyone forget!
A humble band in hardship born, rejected by their own,
A rock flung o’re the ocean, they were laid a cornerstone.
By them God stamped His pattern for a nation on the land,
And seeds of freedom under God were planted by their hand.
Oh, pray their heirs would ever know how dear was freedom’s cost,
And know to hold their faith and freedom dear, or see them lost,
And praise the Providence that brought those pilgrims to this shore,
And eat the grains of memory, or pay the price once more.
These columns are archived since 12/10/2009
See www.ACHStudyGroups.com
“Ben’s Blog”
