| FrontPageMag.com | By Robert Spencer | By Hugh Fitzgerald | Books | Dhimmi Watch | Robert Spencer | Islam 101 | Qur'an Blog |  |
|
|
||||||||||
|
|
In a precursor to Thanksgiving Day, on March 23, 1798, President John Adams proclaimed a national Day of Fasting and Humiliation, set for the following May 9. It was a dark time. His proclamation read:
As the safety and prosperity of nations ultimately and essentially depend on the protection and the blessing of Almighty God, and the national acknowledgment of this truth is not only an indispensable duty which the people owe to Him, but a duty whose natural influence is favorable to the promotion of that morality and piety without which social happiness can not exist nor the blessings of a free government be enjoyed; and as this duty, at all times incumbent, is so especially in seasons of difficulty or of danger, when existing or threatening calamities, the just judgments of God against prevalent iniquity, are a loud call to repentance and reformation; and as the United States of America are at present placed in a hazardous and afflictive situation by the unfriendly disposition, conduct, and demands of a foreign power, evinced by repeated refusals to receive our messengers of reconciliation and peace, by depredations on our commerce, and the infliction of injuries on very many of our fellow-citizens while engaged in their lawful business on the seas – under these considerations it has appeared to me that the duty of imploring the mercy and benediction of Heaven on our country demands at this time a special attention from its inhabitants.I have therefore thought fit to recommend, and I do hereby recommend, that Wednesday, the 9th day of May next, be observed throughout the United States as a day of solemn humiliation, fasting, and prayer; that the citizens of these States, abstaining on that day from their customary worldly occupations, offer their devout addresses to the Father of Mercies agreeably to those forms or methods which they have severally adopted as the most suitable and becoming; that all religious congregations do, with the deepest humility, acknowledge before God the manifold sins and transgressions with which we are justly chargeable as individuals and as a nation, beseeching Him at the same time, of His infinite grace, through the Redeemer of the World, freely to remit all our offenses, and to incline us by His Holy Spirit to that sincere repentance and reformation which may afford us reason to hope for his inestimable favor and heavenly benediction; that it be made the subject of particular and earnest supplication that our country may be protected from all the dangers which threaten it; that our civil and religious privileges may be preserved inviolate and perpetuated to the latest generations; that our public councils and magistrates may be especially enlightened and directed at this critical period; that the American people may be united in those bonds of amity and mutual confidence and inspired with that vigor and fortitude by which they have in times past been so highly distinguished and by which they have obtained such invaluable advantages; that the health of the inhabitants of our land may be preserved, and their agriculture, commerce, fisheries, arts, and manufactures be blessed and prospered; that the principles of genuine piety and sound morality may influence the minds and govern the lives of every description of our citizens and that the blessings of peace, freedom, and pure religion may be speedily extended to all the nations of the earth.
And finally, I recommend that on the said day the duties of humiliation and prayer be accompanied by fervent thanksgiving to the Bestower of Every Good Gift, not only for His having hitherto protected and preserved the people of these United States in the independent enjoyment of their religious and civil freedom, but also for having prospered them in a wonderful progress of population, and for conferring on them many and great favors conducive to the happiness and prosperity of a nation.
Given under my hand the seal of the United States of America, at Philadelphia, this 23d day of March, A.D. 1798, and of the Independence of the said States the twenty-second.
By the President : JOHN ADAMS.
There are many obvious parallels between the situation he outlines and the one that prevails today. We are "placed in a hazardous and afflictive situation by the unfriendly disposition, conduct, and demands of a foreign power," although not strictly speaking a nation-state. We have experienced "depredations on our commerce, and the infliction of injuries on very many of our fellow-citizens while engaged in their lawful business on the seas." Adams was referring to an undeclared naval war with France that was going on at the time, but he could just as well have meant the undeclared war that we face today: the jihad that could strike anywhere, anytime, while you're shopping, or going for a walk, or flying in an airplane.
Adams asks that on the "said day the duties of humiliation and prayer be accompanied by fervent thanksgiving to the Bestower of Every Good Gift," and that seems like a good idea today, particularly since his call for fasting and prayer has given way to a regular day of thanks. Today we should, in his words, "give thanks to the Bestower of Every Good Gift," for all those individuals who never would have flourished in a strict Sharia state such as the Islamic supremacists are laboring to impose upon the world, and for their achievements that are likewise not consonant with Sharia.
These include: Adams himself and his son, truculent as they were. George Washington. Thomas Jefferson. James Madison. The Declaration of Independence. The U.S. Constitution. Sam Houston. Davy Crockett. William Lloyd Garrison and Harriet Beecher Stowe. Frederick Douglass. The Gettysburg Address. The Emancipation Proclamation. Abraham Lincoln. Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Walt Whitman, Henry David Thoreau. Longfellow and Poe and Emily Dickinson. Louis Moreau Gottschalk and Stephen Foster, Scott Joplin and Mr. Ferdinand Joseph LaMothe. Louis Armstrong, George Gershwin and Duke Ellington and Miles Davis and John Coltrane. Frank Sinatra, Elvis, Bob Dylan. Mr. A. Braxton. Georgia O'Keeffe, Walker Evans.
This is a list made in haste. It is drastically incomplete. It also consists only of Americans, since this is, after all, an American day, but the list of the great people whose lives and works could never have taken the course they did under Sharia, and great achievements that could never have been made under Sharia, is international.
Make your own list. The only condition is that they all must conflict with Sharia: people who paved the way for free and representative government, or for freedom of inquiry. People who celebrated the human spirit in whatever way, leaving monuments to its strength and vitality. Artists, musicians, and others whose life's work would be forbidden and destroyed by the likes of the Taliban. This is a dark time like the one Adams spoke of. Let us give thanks, because in doing so we remember what we have that is worth defending.
Happy Thanksgiving.
Posted by Robert at November 22, 2007 7:35 AM
Print this entry
| Email this entry
| Digg this
| del.icio.us
G-d bless America.
G-d have mercy on your souls, turkies. :(
Posted by: Shy Guy![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.jihadwatch.org/nav-commenters.gif)
at November 22, 2007 8:33 AM
God bless America.
God bless the American Troops (Capital 'T') who have fought world wide for the cause of freedom, democracy, and liberty, specially in here Europe.
Praise God for raising up this nation in a critical moment in human history,
Praise the LORD all ye nations, for He is Good.
God bless Israel.
Posted by: Crusader at November 22, 2007 8:39 AM
Happy Thanksgiving, Robert, Hugh, Marisol and all Jihadwatch staff! Although I feel very thankful to live in this country and era, I do wish we could speak frankly about the forces threatening our way of life as John Adams so ably did.
May thanks to all men and women who stand watch in horrible places on this planet so that we who live here can enjoy this nation's bounty and freedoms.
Posted by: 3812Michelle at November 22, 2007 9:01 AM
"Adams himself and his son [John Quincy Adams, expert on, inter alia, Islam], truculent as they were..."
-- from the comments by Robert on the words of John Adams above
There's a lot to be said for truculence. This country should be as truculent as all get-out at the U.N. and most other gatherings of the so-called "international community." Gatherings of like-minded, or nearly like-minded, Western states -- such as those of NATO -- are a different matter. And within this country, and those other countries that possess citizens and not subjects or slaves -- truculence, an unwillingness to go along or to accept things as they so often are (the calamitous decline of public education, the calamitous rise in preposterous private fortunes, the calamitous heedlessness or confusion about so much until it may be too late) is a quality to be encouraged. Some people, not to be confused with political cranks and simpletons, of whom one or two are thrown up at every election cycle, have no trouble being permanently truculent.
Posted by: Hugh at November 22, 2007 9:23 AM
Happy Thanksgiving Robert and Hugh...God bless you...and thank you.
Posted by: storagemanager at November 22, 2007 9:32 AM
Robert:
Many thanks for this wonderful quote and for your updating of the blessings.
We have much to be grateful for including the grace given to us to be able to have a dog in this fight (or be a dog in this fight).
Tis not the size of the dog, but the fight in the dog.
Bless us all.
Posted by: dgene at November 22, 2007 9:50 AM
WOW, and people want to say that America was not founded on Christian principles!
May God bless us all today, and may we have peace for at least one day.
Posted by: Cinder at November 22, 2007 10:02 AM
Who is "Mr. A. Braxton"?
Posted by: Hugh at November 22, 2007 10:34 AM
Here is a book for those who would like to read an americans account of being enslaved by Muslims, "Skeletons on the Zahara", written by the captain of the Commerce whose ship wrecked off the coast of North Africa, they were enslaved by the local Muslims and were eventually redeemed with the help of a Muslim. The book was a best seller in its day.
Readers of this site will recognize that Muslim attitudes to dhimmis are similar today as they were in the early 1800s when the book was originally written.
I noted when reading the book that the Koran serves a purpose among those tribes, in that it serves as a sort of lawless type law, violent arguments revolve around questions of who owns the men, the Koran is used as authority by all contenders, the minute differences between views are enough to cast the other as being departed from the faith and then fair game for depradations by other tribes. Though when it comes to followers of Jesus or Jews there is no disputation of their status between the north african tribes subverted by Mahometanism.
at November 22, 2007 11:00 AM
Guessing: Anthony Braxton.
Posted by: Shy Guy at November 22, 2007 11:01 AM
Who is "Mr. A. Braxton"?
A Jazz Musician?
at November 22, 2007 11:08 AM
I add Hyman Rickover to the list. Rickover was a short Polish Jew who ended up as a Navy officer. He was a pain in the ass and the Navy brass despised him. After eventually getting his orders to the Pentagon, he was assigned an office in the women’s bathroom (true story). Rickover was brilliant though, knew his facts, believed in his purpose, and eventually became the most powerful military officer to ever wear the uniform, in my opinion. We’ve all benefited from his service, whether we know it or not.
He authored the link in 1977, which is worth your time to read or re-read.
http://www.limes68.blogspot.com/
As a post-script, Rickover controlled Jimmy Carter’s life through Carter’s twenties. The address was given while Rickover was still wearing the uniform, reporting to President Carter. You can feel the contempt:
“This principle of excellence is on which Americans seem to be losing, and at a time when the Nation stands in need of it. A lack of excellence implies mediocrity. And in a society that is willing to accept a standard of mediocrity, the opportunities for personal failure are boundless. Mediocrity can destroy us as surely as perils far more famous.”
Happy Thanksgiving. Thanks to the JW crew for maintaining the principle of excellence.
at November 22, 2007 11:45 AM
Imagine any modern President or politician giving a proclamation of such eloquence today. And to think, Adams did not even need a speechwriter. He wrote that all by himself.
Adams was perhaps the greatest patriot of all, the more deserving of our gratitude because he labored in relative obscurity to the likes of the more flashy Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, et. al. It was Adams's holding fast to dearly held principles in the early days of the country--in the face of stern opposition and incredible derision--that ultimately preserved our independence.
As we settle in for a long winter's nap, those interested might buy a copy of David McCullough's excellent biography "John Adams." The man truly in every way lived up to the ideal of "Founding Father."
Today I am thankful for the patriotism and vigilance of Robert Spencer, Hugh Fitzgerald and the Jihad Watch staff, who have given me an incredible education and profound hope in the few months since I've discovered this forum. God bless you all.
And of course it is no that since signing on here I have, with humility, posted my ramblings by such a handle.
Posted by: JohnAdams at November 22, 2007 11:51 AM
Hugh,
ShyGuy is right. Mr. A. Braxton is Anthony Braxton, composer, multi-instrumentalist, restructuralist, innovator. His music, albeit little known, is large, huge, magnificent, magnanimous, ranging from the strangest freeform advertures to largescale opera and straightahead jazz. I had the honor of meeting him in 1997 after a concert of his Tentet in Oakland. I went two nights, captured on these discs:
http://www.amazon.com/Ninetet-Yoshis-1997-Vol-2/dp/B0000ZUAGY/ref=sr_1_105?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1195752132&sr=1-105
(Wrong picture)
When I met him, I didn't know what to say, and gushed, as is unfortunately my wont in such situations. I told him if he kept making records, I'd keep buying them. He thanked me, with a bit of emphasis, and went back to his work.
And there you have it.
Cordially
Robert Spencer
at November 22, 2007 12:24 PM
Just looked on YouTube. There is, of course, some Braxton there.
Here is Mr. Braxton playing his contrabass saxophone, earlier this year, in a somewhat chaotic setting. It is bigger than he is:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1VuZbfGsHQ
RS
Posted by: jihadwatch at November 22, 2007 12:27 PM
And here is a bit more immediately accessible clip: Anthony Braxton playing John Coltrane's "Impressions":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0o0AYFRFX7g
RS
Posted by: jihadwatch at November 22, 2007 12:30 PM
Wow.
That take of "Impressions" is just astonishing, even though I have heard Braxton do this sort of thing hundreds of times. Don't miss it.
RS
Posted by: jihadwatch at November 22, 2007 12:33 PM
You met Anthony Braxton.
You met Jimmy Carter.
So tell us -- how do they compare?
Posted by: Hugh at November 22, 2007 12:52 PM
Hugh,
Braxton was much more pleasant and rewarding to meet.
Yrs
RS
at November 22, 2007 12:57 PM
Hi Robert, Hugh, and Marisol, plus all who post here, greetings for a wonderful Happy Thanksgiving Day to all of yous and your dear ones. Thanks for all that you do. :)
Posted by: bigcatgirl13106 at November 22, 2007 1:14 PM
Wow, Robert. I would never have suspected you're a jazz fan.
That being the case, let me post a great video of Bill Evans, one of the giants of jazz. The edifice of his work looms so large and is so gloriously magnificent that all the Mohammedans in the world, all thirty-five billion of them, couldn't tear it down. And then what would they erect in its place anyway?
This particular performance, not one of Bill's most celebrated, by any means, may even satisfy Hugh, so lyrical and poignant as it is.
Since you're name dropping, I once met Bill. He was high on heroin and three hours late for the show, which time was filled by Ella Fitzgerald, Ray Brown, Tommy Flanagan, and Eddie Thigpen, who were groovin’ and smokin’. By the time Bill was straight enough to come out, supported by Eddie Gomez who walked him to the piano, the huge crowd was starting to dwindle, for not even the most avid Bill Evans fan could have imagined that the climax was yet to come. Within five minutes of him sitting down at the Steinway, there wasn't a soul at Blossom who felt he'd had enough music for the day. The concert was just starting.
Enjoy.
HAID
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=a2LFVWBmoiw
at November 22, 2007 1:39 PM
You met Anthony Braxton.You met Jimmy Carter.
So tell us -- how do they compare?
Posted by: Hugh at November 22, 2007 12:52 PM
Wow, Robert. I would never have suspected you're a jazz fan.Posted by: Haid Dasalami at November 22, 2007 1:39 PM
at November 22, 2007 1:51 PM
Robert --
You've just offered conclusive evidence that we are not both you, or not both I, or both of us not both of us, or something.
I've just listened to the link to Anthony Braxton you supplied above. Show me one person who can be enthusiastic about both Anthony Braxton and Jessie Matthews, and I'll eat my hat. I'll eat all 500 of my bartholomew-cubbins hats.
Posted by: Hugh at November 22, 2007 1:58 PM
Hugh
OK, how about this?
The late and much-lamented Steve Lacy, the world's premiere soprano saxophonist:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocNsHpG5T10&feature=related
Posted by: jihadwatch at November 22, 2007 2:35 PM
I hear what you're saying, Hugh, but you may have to eat a plethora of hats. Robert is proof that there are folks out there who are, let's just say, a tad eclectic in their tastes. Robert also likes Bob Dylan. Go figure.
No doubt there are folks who can be enthusiastic about both Jessie Matthews and Anthony Braxton. Please enjoy some turkey and dressing before munching away on the first brim.
I agree, however, that no more proof is needed that Hugh and Robert are not the same person. I mean, I was surprised to learn that Robert is a jazz fan, but I'd eat MY hat if Hugh Fitzgerald ever promoted anything like that abominable bass sax thing.
Regards,
HAID
at November 22, 2007 2:43 PM
Haid
...that abominable bass sax thing.
That "abominable bass sax thing"?
Humph. Listen to Braxton's legendary Dortmund concert (from 1976, on Hat Hut, of course):
...and tell me how "abominable" that is.
Cordially
Robert Spencer
at November 22, 2007 2:46 PM
"Humph" to you too, Robert LOL.
All I know is, I'm willing to bet Hugh is sorry he ever inquired about the obscure "Mr. A. Braxton" in your "drastically incomplete" list, admittedly "made in haste."
I know I am.
I remain your most effusive admirer, but abominable is as abominable does, momma always said.
Regards,
HAID
Posted by: Haid Dasalami at November 22, 2007 3:06 PM
Robert Spencer,
Thank you for all that you do. I admire you.
I hope you have a great Thanksgiving.
Happy Thanksgiving for the people that also contribute to Jihadwatch and keep this site running. It has got to be a ton of work and I appreciate it.
People such as Robert, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Charles (LGF) make this world a better place. I'm sure I can name more but those are the ones I have a time to follow their work.
Posted by: Highrise at November 22, 2007 3:46 PM
"You've just offered conclusive evidence that we are not both you, or not both I, or both of us not both of us, or something."
...I'm still not convinced.
Excellent list, however.
Posted by: RoobartSbunsar at November 22, 2007 4:22 PM
...oh, and Happy Thanksgiving to everyone.
Posted by: RoobartSbunsar at November 22, 2007 4:22 PM
Roob:
You're being silly again. Hugh and I were both at the Restoration Weekend. Hugh doesn't like his picture taken, but we were both seen there by many people. Ask, for example, Rebecca Bynum of the New English Review, formerly of Jihad Watch. She was there also.
Cordially
Robert Spencer
at November 22, 2007 4:44 PM
I'll eat all 500 of my bartholomew-cubbins hats. ~ posted above.
Would you like them here or there?
Would you like them in a house?
Would you like them with a mouse?
Happy Thanksgiving everyone.
at November 22, 2007 4:55 PM
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!!!
Posted by: Infidel Pride at November 22, 2007 4:56 PM
"Roob:
You're being silly again. Hugh and I were both at the Restoration Weekend. Hugh doesn't like his picture taken, but we were both seen there by many people. Ask, for example, Rebecca Bynum of the New English Review, formerly of Jihad Watch. She was there also.
Cordially
Robert Spencer"
*sigh* I know, I know...but the idea of Hubert Fitzspencer is a lot more fun, don't you think?
--and one more time: happy thanksgiving to all.
Posted by: RoobartSbunsar at November 22, 2007 7:22 PM
Since something by Anthony Braxton was posted, I thought I'd post something by another of those listed by Robert Spencer in his commentary above.
Here is Ferdinand Joseph LaMothe:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=4n20U8hWHSE&feature=related
Posted by: Hugh
at November 22, 2007 8:33 PM
Here are just some of those whom I know could never have been the people they were, or done what they did, had Islam been able to devour Western Europe.
For science:
Marie Curie. Blaise Pascal.
For music - the 'Sybil of the Rhine', composer, abbess, healer, visual artist, general polymath, Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179).
And another German, much later, born only two years after the Turkish Muslim advance was turned back at Vienna in 1683 - Johann Sebastian Bach.
For social reform:
Robert Shaftesbury. William Wilberforce.
Literature: Jane Austen. Samuel Johnson.
Politics: Winston Churchill.
Architecture: the twelfth-century Christian craftsmen and their backers, who conceived, designed, built and adorned Chartres Cathedral, with its sculptures and its stained-glass windows.
Theology and devotion - Abelard. Thomas Aquinas. The Lady Julian of Norwich. Teresa of Avila.
Medicine - Pasteur. Lister (antisepsis). Fleming (penicillin).
Art - Rembrandt. Hans Holbein. Giotto. Botticelli. Marc Chagall (the ceiling of the Paris Opera).
Sculpture - Rodin. Michelangelo.
Posted by: dumbledoresarmy at November 22, 2007 9:55 PM
Thanksgiving at duh_swami's temple.
Fasting and humiliation, John Adams? I can go for fasting, but not the humiliation. I got enough of that from my x wife whose name oddly enough is Shari, put an 'a' on the end of that and what do you have?...Yep,
Shari-alaw, and boy did she ever live up to that, I could show you the scars.
I went wild turkey hunting yesterday, to bag one for Thanksgiving dinner. I had no idea they were so fast. I finally grabbed one, and tried to stuff him in the bag, he kicked, and pecked, and flapped his wings, and squawked a lot, it was very hard to get him into the bag. There are cuts and bruises all over me. Another hunter said that I was supposed to shoot the turkey...'oh shoot it', why didn't I think of that. I made the mistake of taking him out of the bag in front of my dog. The bird took off running with the dog right behind it. They have not been seen them since, still running as far as anyone knows. Now I don't have a bird or a dog.
Now I understand why people buy their turkeys at the market. Well, there was no turkey for dinner, but there was enough tofu to make a burger. I suppose I should be thankful for that. If Allah wants me to eat tofu instead of turkey, who am I to argue...Tofu-akbar is not so bad with a little mustard and mayo...
at November 22, 2007 10:16 PM
Happy Thanksgiving to all.
Posted by: interestinconundrum at November 22, 2007 11:14 PM
Actually, Thanksgiving is a British North America tradition. It was Americanized after the Revolution. Loyalists brought holiday traditions with them when they moved to Canada.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thanksgiving
Posted by: supercargo at November 23, 2007 4:42 AM
For philosophy, I'd include Nietzsche, John Rawls, and Isaiah Berlin. For literature, Naguib Mahfouz and Anthony Trollope.
It's impossible to make a complete list--there are so many.
Posted by: RoobartSbunsar at November 23, 2007 5:20 AM
Comments are turned off and archived for this entry.
(Note: Comments on articles are unmoderated, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Jihad Watch or Robert Spencer. Comments that are off-topic, offensive, slanderous, or otherwise annoying may be summarily deleted. However, the fact that particular comments remain on the site IN NO WAY constitutes an endorsement by Robert Spencer of the views expressed therein.)