[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 187 (Thursday, November 21, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6728-S6729]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                              Thanksgiving

  Madam President, a week from today, we will be celebrating 
Thanksgiving. Like every Thanksgiving, I will be home in South Dakota 
celebrating with my family: My wife, my daughters, my sons-in-law, and 
my four--soon to be five--grandchildren. I will be taking on my 
traditional job of carving the turkey and helping with the dishes 
afterward. I am looking forward to a lot of good pie--apple pie a la 
mode, pumpkin, with a lot of whipped cream, and my favorite is anything 
in the creamed-pie family.
  I am looking forward to spending time outdoors. My daughters and I 
traditionally go on a trail run Thanksgiving morning. It is a good way 
to work up an appetite for all that pie. We all enjoy throwing around a 
football before or after the meal. South Dakotans are pretty resilient 
when it comes to being out in the cold. As long as we don't have tons 
of snow, we like to get outdoors on Thanksgiving.
  Like many South Dakotans, I love to squeeze in a little pheasant 
hunting over Thanksgiving, whenever I can.
  Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. I love sitting down with 
my whole family--and extended family--and getting to spend time in 
South Dakota outdoors before winter really hits us.
  Thanksgiving has a long tradition in this country. Long before the 
United States was a nation, various Colonies were celebrating days of 
thanksgiving. Our current celebration of Thanksgiving can be traced to 
Abraham Lincoln, who issued a proclamation in 1863 inviting a national 
celebration of Thanksgiving on the last Thursday in November.
  In 1941, Congress codified the Thanksgiving holiday and permanently 
set the date as the fourth Thursday in November. I don't think it is 
too surprising that the celebration of Thanksgiving is a recurring part 
of our history. On Thanksgiving in my family, typically, we go around 
the table and say what we are thankful for. In this country, that is a 
pretty long list, including the tremendous natural riches of this 
country, from great rivers to magnificent mountains, to our wide-open 
access to the sea, and the tremendous freedoms that we enjoy. And in 
the 21st century, we enjoy freedom of religion, of speech, of the 
press, and other freedoms, like the freedom from unreasonable searches 
and seizures, or excessive fines or cruel and unusual punishments. All 
of these freedoms that we so often take for granted are still unknown 
to too many people across the world.
  The United States is not perfect, and we don't always get it right, 
but we enjoy tremendous blessings in this country. It is important not 
to take them for granted. Thanksgiving gives us a chance to pause and 
reflect on all that we have been given.
  I am grateful to God for so many blessings this year. I am thankful 
for the great blessing of my family--my dad, Harold, a World War II 
aviator who will turn 100 next month; my brothers and sister; my wife 
Kimberly, the best thing in my life; my beautiful daughters and my 
sons-in-law; and our grandchildren, pretty much the most amazing 
grandchildren ever, in my own unbiased opinion.

[[Page S6729]]

  I am thankful for the great State of South Dakota, for our fresh air 
and wide-open spaces, from the prairies of farm country to the rugged 
terrain of the Black Hills.
  South Dakotans are a resilient, kind, and gracious people, and I am 
thankful every day that I am lucky enough to call South Dakota home.
  I am also tremendously grateful for the work I get to do. Getting to 
represent South Dakotans in the Senate is one of the great privileges 
of my life. While it has been a contentious year with a divided 
Congress, I have still had the chance to continue to work on important 
issues affecting people in my State and around the country, like 
helping our Nation's farmers and ranchers in this tough agriculture 
economy.
  I am grateful for the privilege of living in this great country, and 
I am grateful for all the men and women who put their lives on the line 
every single day to preserve the freedoms we enjoy. Our military men 
and women represent the very best of America, and I am grateful every 
day for their service and for their sacrifice.
  In that 1863 proclamation of Thanksgiving Day that I mentioned, 
Abraham Lincoln, in his referring to the blessings America had 
experienced even in the midst of the horrors of the Civil War, said:

       No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand 
     worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of 
     the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for 
     our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed 
     to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently 
     and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice 
     by the whole American People.

  God has blessed us with very great gifts in this country, and it is, 
indeed, fit and proper that we should dedicate a day to reverently and 
gratefully acknowledge them.
  I yield the floor.