American Heritage Treasures

Dear Friends, It seems almost impossible to believe that ten years ago this month we sent our first Thanksgiving greeting. At that time, we had no idea this would become a tradition, nor did we realize it would evolve into an annual reminder of our blessed heritage. In that first letter of 1995, we provided…

Dear Friends, The Liberty Bell is one of the most famous visible symbols of freedom in our nation’s history. It was used to announce the first public reading of our Declaration of Independence and celebrated the 100th anniversary of President George Washington’s birth. After the Civil War, it was sent on tour throughout the South…

Dear Friends, As we are bombarded daily by the political “wisdom” of the presidential candidates about the character of our individual and national life, we all would do well to consider the Thanksgiving thoughts of a man who became President, without being elected to office. He was a man of destiny. Born to a family…

Dear Friends, It was a time of serious stock market losses, deep disappointment over greed and selfishness in high places, and palpable national anxiety over the economic days to come. No, we’re not talking about the Fall of 2008, but the Fall of 1933. It was in that year that the newly elected president, Franklin…

Although the time and date of the first American thanksgiving observance may be uncertain, there is no question but that this treasured custom derives from our Judeo-Christian heritage… A band of settlers arriving in Maine in 1607 held a service of thanks for their safe journey, and twelve years later settlers in Virginia set aside…

Dear Friends and Family, It was 20 years ago this year that a low-orbit telescope was launched from the earth by Space Shuttle Mission STS-31. At the time there were modest hopes that a new telescope operating outside the confines of earth’s atmosphere would offer us a slightly better view of the cosmos and what…

Dear Friends, Just two days after the horrendous events of 9/11 at the World Trade Center in New York City, a construction worker approached a Catholic priest standing among the smoking ruins, “Father, do you want to see God’s house?” he asked. “Look over there.”* Father Brian Jordan squinted across the tons of twisted rubble…

Dear Friends, America – “The land of the free and the home of the brave.” At one time or another, all of us have heard our great land described in those terms. Recently, we were all bombarded with each candidate’s view of what that looks like. In the process, I’m afraid, all too many lost…

Dear Friends, They were a group accustomed to hardships. Imprisoned in their native country because of their beliefs, they fled their homeland when first possible. Treacherous weather conditions caused them to set sail without their wives and families. The hostile king they fled sent agents to hunt them down even in the foreign country where…

Dear Friends, “It should be the object of all to avoid controversy, to allay passion, give full scope to reason, and to every kindly feeling.” “With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we…