THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 28: American Thanksgiving ushers in a host of annual traditions nationwide.

EDITOR’S NOTE:This year, we are asking our writers to send us memories of especially meaningful holidays. This story was sent to us by Joe Grimm, founder of the MSU School of Journalism Bias Bustersproject.

In 2010, I worked with students at Unis Middle School in Dearborn, Michigan. The project, for the Asian American Journalists Association, was to help the first Arab American students to grow up in a post-9/11 tell their stories.

After Thanksgiving, I asked the students whether they celebrated this American holiday—knowing that it was new to so many of their families.

They said, “Oh, we love Thanksgiving.”

“How do you celebrate?”

Their families cooked a turkey—not a ham, of course, as many were Muslim. Some crowded around a big spread set on a blanket. Others ate at tables. The main dish was accompanied by side dishes.

These families put out their traditional meze including hummus, garlicky baba ganoush, labneh with za’atar, fattoush or tabbouleh salads and stuffed grape leaves. Some added American standbys including cranberry sauce and maybe a Jell-O salad.

Depending on their background, families in other homes likely put out guacamole, latkes, samosas or dumplings.

We asked the Arab American students what they did to work off their meal. They said they played football or watched an NFL game.

So here it was: a unifying American tradition that unites people as they customize it to the literal tastes of their own culture, ethnicity or religion.

I now carry those memories I shared with those kids with me through my own family’s Thanksgiving observances each year.

By JOE GRIMM
Founder of the MSU School of Journalism Bias Busters project

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 11—If you’ve recently seen a green light in a doorway, at a business or a county building, you likely picked up on a message.

Operation Green Light for Veterans is a national campaign, driven by the the National Association of Counties and the National Association of County Veterans Service Officers .

The purpose is to show military veterans support and to highlight access to services.

The green light campaign is pegged to Nov. 4-11, around Veterans Day, which honors living men and women who have served in the military. Some supporters also show their green around Memorial Day in late May, which honors those who have died in the U.S. military.

A few light up the green year ’round. Often, someone places just a single green bulb near the entranceway to their home.

Learning more about our veterans

The proportion of adults in the country who are veterans has declined, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. It was about 18% in 1980 and 6% in 2022. The Veterans Administration projects that the number of veterans in the United States will decline by about a third over the next 25 years.

With the number of veterans declining, the need for information about them and their experience grows. You can learn about them in Michigan State University’s “100 Questions and Answers About U.S. Veterans: A Guide for Civilians.”

Origins of the observance

Honoring men and women who have served our country, in the shared hope that we might actually end wars someday, is a noble idea that dates to the origins of this Nov. 11 observance at the close of World War I. The world’s “Great War” officially ceased on June 28, 1919, but fighting had stopped seven months earlier, on Nov. 11—and thus, President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed Nov. 11, 1919 as the first Armistice Day. Nearly two decades later, November 11th was declared a legal holiday in the United States.

By 1954, the world had survived WWII and Korea, and a WWII vet began raising support for a more general Veterans Day. Among other arguments made in this campaign: WWII had required even more soldiers, sailors, Marines and airmen than WWI. At the urging of citizens, November 11th officially became Veterans Day in 1954.

Did you know? France, Australia, Great Britain and Canada also commemorate the veterans of World War I and World War II on or near Nov. 11. In Europe, Great Britain and the Commonwealth countries, it is common to observe two minutes of silence at 11 a.m. every Nov. 11.