Skip to main content

Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee Celebrates Thanksgiving 2018 Through her Annual Thanksgiving Turkey Giveaway

November 19, 2018

Image
PRESS STATEMENT HEADER

For Immediate Release Contact: Robin Chand

November 19, 2018 (202) 225–3816

Press Statement

Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee Celebrates Thanksgiving 2018 Through her Annual Thanksgiving Turkey Giveaway

Jackson Lee—"This annual event helps over 1000 families and individuals realize the holiday by being furnished the centerpiece of the Thanksgiving feast. Let all who will celebrate this Thursday do so with these sentiments, with gratitude for our bounty and unity of voice."

Washington, D.C. - Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, a Senior Member of the House Committees on Judiciary, Homeland Security, and Budget, and the Ranking Member on the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, Homeland Security and Investigations issued this statement on the occasion of her annual Thanksgiving Turkey Giveaway:

"Thanksgiving is a uniquely American holiday that celebrates universal truths: family, fellowship and gratitude. It is also a time to renew our values as a country—that we look out for those in need, that we help when we can and that we believe in a sense of family, neighborhood, and community.

"This year marks the 155th anniversary of President Abraham Lincoln's original Thanksgiving proclamation. As he presided over a civil war that scarred this nation, President Lincoln explained that the bounties which are to be celebrated are the ‘the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People.'

"While well over a century-and-a-half has passed since those words were uttered, the sentiment of unity and togetherness embodied in the message remains after all these years, and the sense that gratitude towards the divine is paramount is a credo that many of us carry forth in our daily lives.

"Our American holiday, of course, would not be what it is without the bounty. But for many families, the promise of a traditional Thanksgiving, replete with a turkey, is beyond reach for many, for differing reasons—some lack the means and some lack the ability, while countless others are still recovering from the devastation of Hurricane Harvey, which pummeled Houston just one year ago. Which is why the Office of Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee is proud, once again, to facilitate its Thanksgiving Turkey Giveaway. This annual event helps over 1000 families and individuals realize the holiday by being furnished the centerpiece of the Thanksgiving feast. Let all who will celebrate this Thursday do so with these sentiments, with gratitude for our bounty and unity of voice."

Sheila Jackson Lee, a Democrat representing the 18th Congressional District of Texas, is a senior member of the House Committees on Judiciary, Homeland Security and the Budget. She is a Ranking Member of the Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, Homeland Security, and Investigations.