It’s easy to fall into a routine.
Once a year we sit at a table and break bread with family members we haven’t sat down with family members we haven’t sat down with for month, or maybe since last Thanksgiving. We share the traditional fare, turkey with all the “fixins.” I’m rather partial to the un-fancy cranberry sauce, you know, the one that comes in a can. And then, of course, there’s pie! (I never understood pumpkin pie. It’s pecan for me!)
I wasn’t born into the Thanksgiving tradition since I’m an immigrant to America. A legal immigrant. So this holiday celebration is different for me. It’s not something I grew up with, and it’s a practice that only took on real meaning for me after 2012, the year I stood before the Stars and Stripes and, with raised hand, swore allegiance to the United States and became one of her citizens. Are you familiar with that oath?
It’s a powerful statement:
“I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty, of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen; that I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I will bear arms on behalf of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform noncombatant service in the Armed Forces of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform work of national importance under civilian direction when required by the law; and that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; so help me God.”
I especially like the renunciation of fidelity to any “foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty.”
After I took that oath, Thanksgiving crystallized for me and I could finally connect with my wife’s family’s tradition of everyone going around the Thanksgiving table, one by one, each member saying what they are thankful for during dinner. I’m sure you and your family do something similar.
What are we thankful for? I’m thankful for my parents, Paul and Susan, who loved me unreservedly and without limit. I’m thankful for my wife, Katie, who makes me a much better man every day. I’m thankful for our children Julia and Paul, who are the most important of all and never wavered even during the withering smear campaign we lived through together after I joined the Trump White House. I am grateful to the amazing man and legendary Marine, A. Nick Pratt, who changed my life when he asked me to teach on a new US government counterterrorism program. I am grateful to the powers-that-be at SALEM Media and Newsmax, who took a chance on a national security guy and former Presidential Deputy and gave me my own show on their national platforms. And I am so very grateful to Donald J. Trump, who allowed an immigrant to work in the West Wing as Strategist to the President of the United States.
But most of all, I am grateful to God, our Lord, and Creator, for giving us America, for giving us life, and for sending his only Son to re-establish our Covenant with Him and secure for us eternal life.
We have a great deal to be thankful for as Americans, and not just on one day out of 365.
Give Thanks.
Sebastian Gorka Ph.D. is host of SALEM Radio’s AMERICA First and The Gorka Reality Check on NEWSMAX TV. A former Strategist to President Donald Trump, he is a member of the National Security Education Board of the Pentagon. His latest book is The War for America’s Soul. Follow him on his SubStack page and website.