Holiday Wishes from Rudy

Happy Thanksgiving Day!

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays of the year, and while I enjoy all of the traditional aspects--a large parade followed by family, food, and football--we should not forget that today is, first and foremost, "a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God especially by affording [the People of the United States] an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness" (from George Washington's Thanksgiving Proclamation of 1789).

With this in mind, I would like to share with you the following prayer:

Father all-powerful, Your gifts of love are countless and Your goodness infinite. On Thanksgiving Day we come before You with gratitude for Your kindness: open our hearts to concern for our fellow men and women, so that we may share Your gifts in loving service.

Bless our nation and make it true to the ideas of freedom and justice and brotherhood for all who make it great.

Guard us from war, from fire and wind, from compromise, fear, confusion.

Be close to our president and our statesmen; give them vision and courage, as they ponder decisions affecting peace and the future of the world.

Make me more deeply aware of my heritage; realizing not only my rights but also my duties and responsibilities as a citizen.

Make this great land and all its people know clearly Your will, that they may fulfill the destiny ordained for us in the salvation of the nations, and the restoring of all things in Christ.

Amen

A Veterans Day Message

From Congressman Kuhl:

When I look out from the steps of the United States Capitol Building, I am always in awe of the sight before me. The Washington Monument is surrounded by the circle of American flags and the Lincoln Memorial emerges in the distance. We teach our children that the Presidents honored by these magnificent edifices were heroes of our country and should be remembered with honor. It is appropriate then, that in the shadow of these two great monuments, reside memorials to the men and women who defended the ideals of Washington and Lincoln during the 20th Century.

The horrific battles fought carved into the World War II Memorial, the bronze faces of brave soldiers at the Korean War Memorial, and the names of the fallen etched into the Vietnam Wall serve as constant reminders why the people of the United States live in the most free country the world has ever known.

These memorials honor the sacrifices made by these brave men and women who put their country before themselves. They came from farms and cities, from mountains and valleys, and from lives of privilege and lives of poverty. They each answered the call when their nation needed them most. These men and women represented the best America had to offer and they served their country with pride, with honor, and with courage.

Today is Veterans Day. It is a day to celebrate and honor those who have answered their nation’s call. During my time in the State Legislature and since taking office in 2005 as a member of the House of Representatives, I have fully, wholeheartedly supported our nation’s heroes. I have heard from many veterans who express their frustration with the VA system, which is not providing them with ample funding to take care of their injuries and needs that are the result of serving our country. I agree with our nation’s veterans that they should be provided mandatory funding. Just this week I voted for the Military Quality of Life Appropriations bill that provides the largest increase in funding for veterans health care in the history of the VA. This bill also adds over 1,000 new claims processors to reduce the backlog of 400,000 benefits claims and increases oversight to better track how funds are
being spent.

Support for our veterans must always be an American issue and never a partisan issue as our nation’s veterans are defending each one of our rights as American citizens. We must do what is best for veterans: not what’s best for a sound bite, political propaganda, or election year politics. These are our nation’s heroes and we must never let our fellow American’s forget their bravery or their sacrifice.

Veterans Day

Today we thank our veterans for their service and their contributions to our freedom and security. So please, if you know a veteran, go out and thank him or her personally.

Happy Columbus Day!

Today we celebrate the 515th anniversary of Columbus's landing in the New World, which actually took place of October 12, 1492.

Columbus Day has been a federal holiday since 1937, thanks in large part to the Knights of Columbus. It has been designated as the second Monday in October since 1971.

This past Saturday, the City of Rochester held its first Columbus Day Parade!