Asking for the Lord’s blessing on Thanksgiving

OPINION:

We gather together” are the three little words that set the theme for family and friends joining in the celebration of Thanksgiving. The words that follow — “to ask the Lord’s blessing” — are not from an American hymn, but from the gratitude of an unknown author set to 16th century Dutch music. The lyrics put down roots in America as a unifier, and were particularly popular during World War II when our enemies were recognized as “wicked oppressors” and the nation was united against evil.

During that war nearly everyone invited soldiers and sailors far from home to join the family’s Thanksgiving table, to include young men hungry for the feast that would remind them of home and relieve the most miserable malady of all, homesickness, if only for a few hours before they shipped overseas.

It isn’t merely nostalgia to recall a time of unity brought to life in the Norman Rockwell images of America. The images were markers documenting authentic faith and remembrances of family, of hope on the homefront. These were markers as important as Victory Gardens, collecting old rubber, old newspapers and tin cans, of sitting around the radio together, listening to Kate Smith sing “God Bless America.”

Anyone old enough to span the generations since is aware of the corrosive disunity in the land now as we gather together at the family table to participate in the most beloved of national holidays, devoid of commercial greed. But with no identifiable all-purpose enemy, the common culture is splintered by identity politics, and social media magnifies daily hurts and aggressions in the news, exacerbating the growing pains of each generation. Planetary concerns trump patriotic ones. Moral issues are blurred.

Gathering grandparents, parents, teenagers and toddlers is fraught with the vulnerable emotions of each generation, and it was ever thus. But the current emphasis on diversity and difference makes it difficult to find common ground. Pride in being an American is somewhat out of fashion. Polarized thinking dominates conversation, and it’s not just Donald Trump as focal point of anger, though he hardly contributes to consensus with spontaneous tweets about whatever comes to his mind.

Every grievance, including the president’s tweets, is enlarged and expanded on cable and Internet 24/7 as screens are relentlessly miniaturized and carried everywhere. It’s impossible to keep electronic devices away even from feasts and family reunions. That’s too bad. No one expects to make Thanksgiving a politics-free zone, but we can dream.

The Country Music Awards tried to keep politics off their red carpet, but it only led to defiant gags changing the titles of certain songs, such as “Before He Cheats” to “Before He Tweets” and “Stand by your Manafort.” Humor (sometimes with wit and sometimes not) can sometimes dilute disputes.

So can perspective and context. Thanksgiving, with different generations united in the joy of the feast and of just being together, is a wonderful time to listen to other points of view about different perspectives that span several wars and radicalized cultural attitudes.

For the oldest at the table, memories of the unabashed patriotism that defeated European Nazis and fascists and Asian imperialists remain fresh and clear, of the character and toughness of the male as protector who put his life on the line in uniform and sought only a little peace and security when he returned home.

The Baby Boomer generation confronted different challenges. Boomers were obsessed with righting wrongs, racial discrimination and inequality of opportunity for both male and female. They marched, waved placards and enacted new laws to make the system fair.

But change doesn’t drive events in a straight line. Progress is slowed by bumps and obstacles, detours and diversions, as idealistic purity is thwarted by unintended consequences. Millennials and igens move forward with identity politics, emphasizing differences rather than appeals to what makes society whole.

The collective sense of pride in country of the oldest generation at the table, often children and grandchildren of immigrants, is not born of shallow triumphalism, but pride in a nation that stood up to the evil intolerance and totalitarianism their ancestors fled, and forever tries to make things better.

They’re descendants of immigrants who preserved separate identities every bit as challenging as the new immigrants arriving today. But the ideal of the melting pot — “out of many, one” — worked better than the identity politics that now threatens national cohesion.

Continuing to change America for the good is such an important goal that discussions on how to do it can’t be narrowed to 140 characters, fact-checking with Wikipedia or resorting to assorted sources on Facebook. So here’s my wish: May the multiple generations that gather together during this Thanksgiving put away their electronic tools and enjoy the conversation, talk without the arrogance of hindsight or the narrowness of political correctness. Happy Thanksgiving (and give my regards to the turkey).

• Suzanne Fields is a columnist for The Washington Times and is nationally syndicated.