Every Thanksgiving, I like to go back and read this piece in the USA Today, written by my colleague and friend, Steve Gimbel. Satirically pointing out that the notion of pausing our lives to reflect, in gratitude, on what we have runs counter to the American doctrine of 'more,' 'more,' 'more,' Gimbel argues that the real holiday is the day after Thanksgiving. For it is on this day that the holiday shopping season begins, when the real American spirit is celebrated. But in place of the ominously titled 'Black Friday,' Gimbel proposes the holiday title, 'Thanksgetting,' to commemorate and anticipate the obligatory 'thank you' we mindlessly utter as we're opening our umpteenth gift from the umpteenth relative we haven't seen since the last holiday season. It's interesting to note that, since the time that Gimbel wrote this piece, (four years ago), 'Black Friday' has encroached more and more upon the Thanksgiving holiday. Time was, you'd go out to the stores at 2 or 3 in the morning, to line up for the openings of the doors. Nowadays, 'Black Friday' sales begin mid-evening on Thanksgiving itself. It seems that America has begun taking Gimbel's advice, cutting larger and larger chunks out of the day of thanks. It's a good thing, too. I mean, come on... do we really need a whole day to be grateful? 

'When a foreigner resides among you in your land, do not mistreat them. The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt. I am the LORD your God.' 
                                                                     --Leviticus 19:33-34

'I have never turned away a stranger, but have opened my doors to everyone.' 
                                                                                    --Job 31:32

'Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the foreigner or the poor. Do not plot evil against each other.'
                                                                          --Zechariah 7:10

'Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.'
                                                                                                                                             --Matthew 25:40

'Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it.'
                                                                                                                                            --Hebrews 13:2

Righteousness is not that you turn your faces toward the east or the west, but [true] righteousness is [in] one who believes in Allah , the Last Day, the angels, the Book, and the prophets and gives wealth, in spite of love for it, to relatives, orphans, the needy, the traveler… 
                                                                                                             --The Holy Quran, Al-Baqarah 2:177

'You must come home with and be my guest; you will give joy to me, and I will do all that is in my power to honor you.' 
                                                                                                                                    --Percy Bysshe Shelley

'The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself to the service of others.' 
                                                                                                              --Gandhi

'Only a life lived for others is the life worth while.'
                                                                                   --Albert Einstein

'Give us your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, and we will tell them to get the hell out of our great country.'
                                                                                                                           --Donald Trump's America

On Friday, October 26, at the Gettysburg College Honors Day ceremony, the students of Gettysburg College awarded me the Ralph Cavaliere Endowed Teaching Award. This award was endowed in honor of Emeritus Professor of Biology, Ralph Cavaliere (left in the photo), and is voted on by the student senate of Gettysburg College. I cannot imagine a greater honor to have bestowed upon me, than to have the appreciation and recognition of the student body of Gettysburg College. In my time here they have challenged me as much as or more than I have challenged them, and I feel as though I have learned from them far more than I have taught. This was a profoundly beautiful moment in my career, and I am forever grateful to the students. 

One month on from the mass murder in Las Vegas, and the bump stock - that law-skirting piece of ingenuity that enables someone to turn a semi-automatic weapon into a de facto automatic weapon, enabling Stephen Paddock to murder 58 people and paralyze and wound hundreds more - is not only not illegal; it is back out there on the market. Way to go, NRA!