A Thanksgiving Message - 2008

Dear Colleagues:

This Thursday we celebrate Thanksgiving. This Thursday, we will join with family and friends around a common table.

At the same time we face a great deal of uncertainty and fear – in our nation and world, in our Commonwealth, and here at Germanna Community College. It would be easy to give way to worries about the economy, to give way to all our uncertainties and fears. It would be easy to say we don’t have much to be thankful for this year, then sit down, eat turkey, and watch football.

This year, it is even more important that we remember those first Thanksgivings:

On December 4, 1619, Captain John Woodlief and the English colonists arrived after a long sea journey to the New World. They were thankful for their safety. They were thankful for a new opportunity, a new place of hope along the James River. Together, they vowed:

"Wee ordaine that the day of our ships arrivall at the place assigned for plantacon in the land of Virginia shall be yearly and perpetually keept holy as a day of Thanksgiving to Almighty God."

A little over one year later on December 26, 1620, in what would become Plymouth, Massachusetts, the Pilgrims joined with their new Native American neighbors to express thanks for having survived their first winter. Half of the colonists had died, and without the support of Squanto, Samoset and Chief Massasoit they all would have perished. They were thankful for a new place of hope.

We know these stories. We were told them as children.

The difficulties we face as a nation, as a Commonwealth, and as a college are nothing like the life or death dangers of long voyages and deadly winters these pioneers faced. But these are worrying times nonetheless.

I offer the following reasons why we should be thankful not just in the face of these fears but in order to better face those fears. Each of you will add your own reasons to this list.

· I am thankful that Germanna is a place of hope for many whose life journeys are difficult and trying.
· I am thankful for those who have taken voluntary retirements so that we can bank their wages against future budget cuts, helping to preserve jobs for their colleagues here at Germanna.
· I am thankful that I have the opportunity to be a servant leader and to work with such devoted and caring faculty and staff.
· I am thankful that you have welcomed my wife, Linda, and me in our first year-and-a-half here in Virginia.
· I am thankful that Rich Gossweiler is recovering from his accident.

As the New Year approaches, we face another budget cut to be effective July 2009. We are preparing for that now so that we do not have to be reactive when it comes, so that we can do our best to protect our mission, our students, and each other.

All of us here at Germanna Community College have a great spirit of compassion and dedication. We will work together to keep the college moving forward, albeit more slowly than we would like. We will care for each other and for our students. We will boost each other’s spirits when they flag. We are a place of hope in the tradition of the founding of our nation.

I am confident that we will come through this time as a stronger nation, a stronger state, and a stronger college. Americans have always faced adversity and become stronger than ever for it.

For all of those reasons, and because of all of you, I am deeply thankful.

I wish each of you the best of Thanksgivings, one in which you have a richness of family and friends to celebrate, and that you take a moment to remember those whose blessings are fewer.

In thanksgiving,

David

Veterans deserve far more than a single day of thanks

According to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, there are 17 million surviving war veterans in the United States.

All of them have put their lives on the line for their country. All were prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice for us. And many must live with the memory of seeing their comrades do just that.

Nov. 11 has been designated as Veterans' Day, but for too many of us, it has become just a day off, just an opportunity to take advantage of sales at the mall.

Wherever we are, we should seriously contemplate the sacrifices veterans, living and dead, have made for us.

I ask everyone at Germanna to pause today at 4:30 p.m. to remember the brave men and women who have served and are serving our nation, those who gave a part of their lives or indeed their very lives to protect us and freedom.

As we sit in our classrooms we should express deep gratitude to those who protect us so we can teach and learn and live.

Today we thank all of America’s veterans, from those who fell during the Revolutionary and Civil Wars to those serving our nation in Iraq and Afghanistan today.

But our gratitude is not limited to this single day. We should thank the veterans we meet each and every day.

They have earned our eternal gratitude and undying respect.