> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.smdp.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Thanksgiving: Only true American holiday - URL: https://www.smdp.com/thanksgiving-only-true-american-holiday/ - Published: 2005-11-22T16:00:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-25T01:16:42.000Z - Author: David Pisarra - Tags: Opinion, Santa Monica, #archive-import *WHAT’S THE POINT?* Thanksgiving is here again. It is a timely reminder that life is short, glory is fleeting and time marches on. Thanksgiving is such an archetypal American event. It brings us together and does so without the need for God, religion, sermons, race-based distinctions, gender issues or any other divider. It is a holiday devoted to being thankful for the plenty in our life. It is not a day that has been co-opted by the religious zealots, the politicians, or those chasing their 15 minutes of fame. It has been taken over, however, by the foodies — but we’re an easy-to-get-along-with bunch, unless you’re a chef. This coming Thursday the entire nation will collectively sit down and relax. We’ll eat too much, drink too much and put aside our differences to recognize that in this country, we have more of everything. I love Thanksgiving precisely because it is a day that everyone can partake in without fear of feeling like they don’t belong. You never have the fights in the City Council over whether or not the annual Thanksgiving display should be put up in the park. There is no question about whether or not it violates the U.S. Constitution as an unlawful mixing of church and state. Thanksgiving stands for all that is American. Equality. Freedom. Community. Around the country families will be putting on feasts, inviting people they barely know to come over and enjoy their own brand of hospitality and sharing. This is what this country is capable of. Together we achieve, if only for a day, what is the very best of our country. I attended college across from the U.S. Naval Academy at a very liberal, open minded, peace and freedom, retro-hippie school for lost and broken children. We were the social rejects in high school who outscored the jocks on the SATs and made friend with the teachers. The mid-shipmen were a brainy bunch, athletic but geeky. Handsome and romantic in their uniforms, yet still unsure of themselves and their role in the world. At first blush they should not get along with the hippy-dippy, philosophy reading students of my college. Yet, frequently there was more in common than not amongst us. At Thanksgiving one year I was invited to a co-worker’s home along with five or eight mid-shipmen. As we spent the day together, sharing stories of our life in the way that youths who still have that starry eyed naiveté do, we were all one people. We were Americans. That is the point of Thanksgiving to me. It’s a day that celebrates our commonality. It brings us together as a nation without any of the divisive rancor and anger that so permeates the religious holidays. As we approach Thanksgiving this year, let’s just stop for a moment to look at how easy it is for us to really be an undivided country. When we want to, we can do it. And it doesn’t take a national disaster, which really doesn’t work. Look how quickly we forgot about the hurricane victims. And it shouldn’t take an attack on our soil by a foreign terrorist or government. All it really takes is for us to invite someone we don’t know so well to come enjoy a little hospitality, share some stories of our lives and be open. It doesn’t matter if you invite someone who is of a different race, creed or economic background — the goal should be to find the most diverse people you can. This year we’re hosting a party and having Republicans and Democrats, Jews and gentiles, straights and gays, couples and singles, meat lovers and vegetarians, dog people and cat people, fat people and skinny people, couch potatoes and health nuts. And the one thing they all have in common is being American. We have much to be thankful for this year. As Californians, we live in a wonderful state that allows us the opportunity to become who or what we want. We have a city with more than abundant food and clean water, electricity and freedom. We have access to a world of cultures just outside our doorway. I like to say, “This is America; we have more of everything.” I mean that. We have more food, more freedom, more tolerance, more cultures than any other place on earth. We are the “great experiment,” and it’s going well. This Thanksgiving, you probably won’t have time in between the football games and yelling at the kids to reflect on where we live, on who we are and how we have more than many. Today take a break and look at your life and the life of someone who you think is opposite to you. As I did many years ago with a group of mid-shipman, you’ll likely find you have more in common than you want to believe. But in many ways, that’s the real point of Thanksgiving — to see our points of agreement. That, and to help the cranberry industry. (David Pisarra is a business development lawyer in the Santa Monica firm of Pisarra & Grist. He welcomes your questions and comments. He or 310-664-9969.) *Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on November 22, 2005.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/112205.pdf?ref=smdp.com)