President Obama pardoned a turkey Wednesday, an annual custom started by George H.W. Bush in 1989. The turkey, named Courage, is now free to live his life at Disneyland. And - not even joking here - he served as grand marshall at the Disneyland Thanksgiving parade. Please take a moment to picture that.
The president’s daughters, Sasha and Malia, joined him in the pardoning, which included a slightly awkward series of hand gestures from the commander-in-chief.
“I hereby pardon “Courage” so that he can live out the rest of his days in peace and tranquility in Disneyland,” Obama said. (from The White House)
Obama mixed plenty of jokes about his weird bird-pardoning duty with a lot of serious comments about the hardships America is facing at the moment:
You know, there are certain days that remind me of why I ran for this office. And then there are moments like this — (laughter) — where I pardon a turkey and send it to Disneyland.
So does that mean everyone who gets pardoned by the president gets to live in Disneyland? Sign me up!
He went on, expressing hope for the future and gratitude to what makes America great:
This is an era of new perils and new hardships. But we are, as ever, a people of endless compassion, boundless ingenuity, limitless strength. We’re the heirs to a hard-earned history and stewards of a land of God-given beauty. We are Americans. And for all this, we give our humble thanks — to our predecessors, to one another, and to God.
Obama ended with Thanksgiving wishes:
And to every American, I want to wish you, on behalf of myself, Malia, Sasha, and Michelle, the happiest of Thanksgivings. Thank you very much, everybody.
And we at The UpTake echo the president’s sentiments: Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!
