Email
Print
Share
The following is a letter to the editor of The Wall Street Journal published on Nov. 22, 2000.
"In 1864, a coal miner, Elias Williams, lit the fuse to a blasting cap and was hoisted to the top of the shaft. Just as he reached light, the bucket he was in broke. He fell back to the bottom of the shaft hard, breaking bones and knocking away his breath. With just enough presence of mind remaining, he grasped a handful of dust to smother the sputtering fuse, inches from the dynamite."
"He was hauled out to his pregnant wife, who gave birth that same cold Pittsburgh November. Elias's healing took 18 months. There they were, as the Welsh say, "in a fix." Yet they made it, or I would not be here. They had come from Wales in 1861 -- apparently, an America suffering a Civil War looked better than home as it was then. They were the parents of my mother's mother."My mother's father was just three when his father was killed while working on the installation of the New York City subway electrical system in 1905. The widowed Mother Marsh raised him and his four brothers and two sisters, fatherless, to pull themselves up and found businesses that provided jobs for hundreds -- and to grow families of their own, his with a daughter, Victoria, so important to me.
"And it surely is certain that in your past, someone, somewhere endured sacrifice, pain, and risk with the courage to make a better life for themselves, directly leading to your well-being this very day.
"On Thanksgiving tomorrow, I will think of those people who came before me. I am, because they were. May we all have a blessed Thanksgiving Day, fully aware of what we have and more deeply aware of how it came to be."
Red Warner, New York
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone, to you and your families, and to all those who came before us and gave us so much.
This is a public forum. United Business Media and its affiliates are not responsible for and do not control what is posted herein. United Business Media makes no warranties or guarantees concerning any advice dispensed by its staff members or readers.
Community standards in this comment area do not permit hate language, excessive profanity, or other patently offensive language. Please be aware that all information posted to this comment area becomes the property of United Business Media LLC and may be edited and republished in print or electronic format as outlined in United Business Media's Terms of Service.
Important Note: This comment area is NOT intended for commercial messages or solicitations of business.