The American Thanksgiving has undergone a shift since the Pilgrims’ 1623 celebration of the good harvest, which arose from abandoning the common-store system in favor of each man working his own property. Currently, most Americans primarily focus on big meals with families, football games and sales as early as Thanksgiving Eve. U.S. presidents, though, have proclaimed more transcendent perspectives of the holiday’s purpose. Washington, quoted by many other presidents on this holiday, directed in his proclamation “that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech him […]

Recent events have brought the debate on so-called “death with dignity” and assisted suicide into the spotlight again. And yet, the argument is not really a new one. There is no less light than when William Shakespeare extensively dealt with the subject in his writing. “Death with dignity” is essentially a code word for suicide, sometimes in the face of a terminal illness. As one humanist put it, he wants to kill himself on his own terms rather than die from some disease. He said it would be like telling God, “You can’t fire me . . . I quit.” […]