Author Archives: jeffbensch

The images of Thanksgiving Day include pilgrims and native Americans from the 1600s sharing a feast and celebration.  This version of Thanksgiving may be taught in elementary school, but the holiday traditions of our modern Thanksgiving were first described by Ms. Sarah Josepha Hale in her 1827 novel, Northwood: A Tale of New England. 

“…this was a Thanksgiving entertainment, one which was never before, I believe, served up in style to novel epicures, I may venture to mention some of the peculiarities of the festival… The roasted turkey took precedence on this occasion, being placed at the head of the table; and well did it become its lordly station, sending forth the rich odor of its savory stuffing, and finely covered with the frost of the basting…innumerable bowls of gravy and plates of vegetables…[and] a chicken pie. …a side table was literally loaded with the preparations for the second course, there was a huge plumb pudding, custards, and pies of every name and description ever known in Yankee land; yet the pumpkin pie occupied the most distinguished niche”

Maybe everyone already knows this, but Veterans Day started as Armistice Day commemorating the end of World War I.  I often wondered what that meant and today I expanded my vocabulary to learn that armistice means ‘truce’ or ‘ceasefire’.  Now we know, but what do we really know? 

The armistice ending WWI was particularly significant because this was the war to end all wars.  The armistice was signed at the 11th hour, on the 11th day, of the 11th month in 1918.   It is common to observe a moment of silence at 11:00 AM on Veterans Day.

There are so many lessons from WW I, such as: the dominoes in place that started the war; the brutality of the war; and the peace treaty ending the war.  Expanding militaries, defense alliances, imperialistic aspirations, and nationalism were the dominoes that began to fall when Archduke Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary was shot by a Serbian nationalist.  The war was so brutal that War went from glorious and noble to horrific and morally wrong.  Finally, at the end of the war, the defeated (Germany) were left humiliated and the victors sought revenge with the Treaty of Versailles.  Even the peace treaty was flawed and set the stage for World War II.

The passing of summer to winter was a scary time more than 2,000 years ago when the chance of death loomed large over the long cold winters.  The Celts of Ireland, England and northern France celebrated this transition on November 1st believing the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred on this day.  Individual hearth fires were extinguished the night before and sacred community bonfires were built.  People gathered to burn crops and animal sacrifices to the Celtic gods.  The Celts would wear costumes, told fortunes, and left their windows open to welcome the dead back home.  When the celebrations were over, they would re-light their own hearth fires with coals from the sacred bonfires to help protect them during the coming winter.

Do you ever wonder:  Why do we fear the dead?  What happened to Casper the Friendly Ghost? Can we leave our windows open to welcome the dead back home?

Columbus Day is moving toward Indigenous Peoples’ Day as we understand the realities of European exploration and conquest with respect to today’s standards of decency.  When Columbus ‘discovered’ America in 1492, he was looking for India, he was in the Bahamas, and people were already there.  

What did he discover?

Under the Doctrine of Discovery, first issued by Pope Urban II in 1095, then by Pope Nicholas V in 1452, and finally by Pope Alexander VI in 1493, Christians were considered the only civilized people in the world and Christians had a God-given right to capture, vanquish, and take possession of lands from pagans such that barbarous nations may be overthrown and brought into the Catholic faith.

One of my favorite examples of today’s labor struggles is sports labor.  Baseball has the strongest union and the highest paid athletes from rookies to stars.  Basketball also has a strong union with players and owners sharing the gross revenues.  Football, on the other hand, has a weak union and players can be cut without further pay each year.  The working life span of the average NFL player is only a few years, and the average players make only a fraction of what the star players make.

Currently the Cleveland Browns quarterback is making $50M per year guaranteed, although this year he cannot play the first 11 games because he sexually assaulted 28 women.  The Cleveland Browns Pro-Bowl (all-star) center does not have a contract this year.  No team in the league will sign him.  No one will say why, but he is president of the player’s union.  It is not too difficult to connect the dots.

Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin, and John Adams are given credit for writing the Declaration of Independence, but we often forget that Thomas Paine told them how to do it. Mr. Paine took the work of 17th century philosopher John Locke who observed that people were free by nature and that government should exist to promote the public good, and protect life, liberty, and property. Mr. Locke’s 1689 Second Treatise on Government formed the basis of our government today.

Holidays are about bringing Americans together and Juneteenth celebrates the long progression of integrating freed black persons into the economic, political, and social American life.

It all began with the final announcement of the Emancipation Proclamation to freed slaves on June 19, 1865 in Galveston Bay, Texas. Since then, America has progressed through the Civil War, the 13th, 14th, and 15th Constitutional Amendments, initial reconstruction, Black Codes, Jim Crow laws, segregation, integration, and civil rights legislation of the 1960s including the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Fair Housing Act of 1968.

Our traditional Father’s Day began in 1909 when Sonora Smart Dodd thought her dad deserved special recognition.  Mr. Smart was a widower raising six children in Spokane, Washington.  Ms. Dodd visited churches, local establishments, and government officials, and quickly the State of Washington celebrated the first official Father’s Day on June 19, 1910.

It did not take long for national recognition when President Woodrow Wilson acknowledged the day in 1916 by sending a telegraph signal from Washington D.C. that unfurled a flag in Spokane.  The holiday became official in 1972 when President Nixon signed a proclamation making the third Sunday in June Father’s Day.

The more you learn about Memorial Day, the more interesting it becomes.  It was started by grieving mothers, wives, sisters, and daughters during and after the Civil War.  Independent gatherings were held in towns throughout America to help with the healing process.  It is interesting that these similar gatherings were occurring without the aid of mass communication or travel.  From this, in 1868 former general John Alexander Logan proclaimed that Memorial Day would be observed on May 30 each year to honor fallen soldiers. The south, however, did not recognize Memorial Day until after WWI when it was changed from honoring those who died in the Civil War to honoring all American soldiers who died in any war.

While Mothers have been celebrated in Greek and Roman mythology, it was Ann Reeves Jarvis in the 1850s who held Mother’s Day work clubs to improve sanitary conditions to help lower infant mortality rates. These clubs tended wounded soldiers from both sides during the Civil War, and after the war, in 1870, Julia Ward Howe wrote the Mother’s Day Proclamation:
“…As men have often forsaken the plow and the anvil at the summon of war, let women…take counsel with each other as to the means whereby the great human family can live in peace…”