booandbunny

“Some SuperHero,” my 7-year-old said in one of his ornery moods. “All she had was a stupid pen.”

“Well, the pen is mightier than the sword,” I said, uncertain of why, as it came out.

“What’s that mean?” he asked. “Oh, ’cause she could jab people in the guts with that pointy thing?”

How typical of the young American male. Exactly when did good-deed doing (which is what superheroes do, right?) become enveloped with explosions and weaponry?

“No, because she believed in something and she never stopped working to make it happen.”

“Whatever.”

Definitely too ornery to talk about a book we’ve enjoyed for several years now, Thank You Sarah, the woman who saved Thanksgiving (Laurie Halse Anderson).

The SuperHero in question is Sarah Hale: author, publisher, the first female magazine editor in our country, proponent of schools for girls, opponent of spanking, corsets, bloomers and bustles and, more importantly slavery.

“When Sarah saw something she didn’t like, she picked up her pen and wrote about it. She wrote letters. She wrote articles. She wrote and wrote and wrote until she persuaded people to make the world a better place. Nothing stopped Sarah.”

So when she saw our great feast relegated to a regional celebration she set to the work of creating a national day of thanksgiving. Slowly, slowly states beyond New England began to declare an annual holiday, but this wasn’t enough for her. “Sarah Hale wanted the whole country to celebrate together, like a family.”

Here the illustrator depicts a group of women headed for an official looking building. They bear an enormous quill as if it were a battering ram. The men on the steps are unmoved. Sarah, of course didn’t give up. Thirty-eight years and finally the fifth president she lobbied agreed with her. It was in the midst of the Civil War. “America needed Thanksgiving, now more than ever. A holiday wouldn’t stop the war, but it could help bring the country together.” And in 1863 Abraham Lincoln said yes.

And so, as I do every year, I take heart in Sarah’s tale. One person can make a nation stand up and take notice. So this week, as we sit down together, I’ll be thankful for Sarah Hale, without whom children across America wouldn’t have taken those few moments in class this week to pick up a pen, pause in search of the words, and then write: “I am thankful for … ”

// posted by HoBess @ 11/22/2006 08:15:00 AM