[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 36, Number 47 (Monday, November 27, 2000)]
[Pages 2900-2901]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Proclamation 7381--Thanksgiving Day, 2000

 November 17, 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

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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

 [Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 8:45 a.m., November 21, 
2000]

Note: This proclamation was released by the Office of the Press 
Secretary on November 18, and it was published in the Federal Register 
on November 22.