The Chronicle gives thanks to readers who support our work with voluntary subscriptions. Happy Thanksgiving!

The Chronicle gives thanks to readers who support our work with voluntary subscriptions. Happy Thanksgiving!

When represented as a pie chart, it's not as clear whether 1% is the top or the bottom. (Chart by The Chronicle)

Also addressing the audience was Ward 1 city councilmember Sabra Briere. Though The Chronicle did not attend the event, with Briere’s permission, we’re publishing the draft of her speech. We think it deserves a wider reading – as the calendar turns to the traditional season of giving, and as police in more than one city appear to be in a mood to move against Occupy demonstrators.

The official motto of the dinner was: “Building the Future on the Foundations of the Past” 

Tonight I’m filling in for the mayor of Ann Arbor, John Hieftje, and for the mayor pro tem, Marcia Higgins. It’s an honor to play your mayor this evening.

I’d like first to remind everyone that tonight we’re not just breaking bread together. We’re celebrating Ann Arbor’s NAACP day, the first Saturday in November. Each year we hold the dinner on this night to remind us of our need to work together.

There are several people in the audience tonight who currently hold office, who have held office in the past, or who would like to hold office in the near future.

If you are a current elected official, please stand. Those who’ve been elected in the past, please join them. And those who are running for office, could you stand too? Let’s applaud their willingness to serve.

I prepared a few remarks, and promise not to speak at length. Tonight’s topic indicates that we are building our future on the foundations of the past.

I take my texts from the speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr.

The function of education … is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. … Intelligence plus character – that is the goal of true education. [MLK "The Purpose of Education," 1948]

I think I’ve learned the value of an education, especially as the world continues to change. It’s one thing to learn how to use a computer; it’s a completely different thing to learn how to think, to ask questions, and to constantly learn. During my brief life I’ve found the computer a constant challenge, but one I was able to tackle. But learning how to evaluate the information I receive, how to question authority – even in myself – and how to be ethically honest has been more demanding.

Sometimes we forget what the purpose of an education really is. It isn’t to get a job. Few of us will work for only one employer in our lifetimes. It isn’t to be employable, either. Many of the skills needed on the job aren’t the ones the educational system taught us. Those skills – being prompt, being responsible, being reliable, taking pride in what we are doing – those skills we learn in life.

But a good education teaches us those things – in the classroom or out of it – that allow us to think intensively and critically. We learn that we are always ignorant, and always striving to know more and be more.

Rarely do we find people who willingly engage in hard, solid thinking. There is an almost universal quest for easy answers and half-baked solutions. Nothing pains some people more than having to think. [MLK "Strength to Love," 1963]

Education – the kind that leads to hard, solid thinking – isn’t something we are handed. We need to work at it, acquire it from our teachers, and recognize that “teacher” includes parent, pastor, neighbor and friend. If we get our vision of the world handed to us, if we never learn to question the quality of information we receive, then others control our thoughts and actions.

Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity. [MLK "Strength to Love," 1963]

It’s that willingness to be sincere in our ignorance and intentional in our stupidity – and we are all stupid from time to time – that allows others to control our thoughts and our actions. Each piece of wisdom we are given must be questioned, tested, and folded into our own world view. That’s because wisdom cannot be given – it must be earned. And our failure to become wise encourages us all to make decisions based on our ignorance and our biases.

Human salvation lies in the hands of the creatively maladjusted. The hope of a secure and livable world lies with disciplined nonconformists who are dedicated to justice, peace and brotherhood. [MLK "Strength to Love," 1963]

We each face a lot of pressure to conform. Our keynote speaker tonight demonstrated in his youth the value of resisting conformity. That value – that nothing would change unless our world vision was challenged – often goes unconsidered or underappreciated.

Tonight there are folks all across our nation, sleeping out in parks and public spaces because they are protesting. They are protesting an economic system that is failing them – and us. The Occupy movement should make us all rethink our vision of America – our vision that hard work is rewarded, that each generation will be better off than the one before, that progress is defined as better technology.

I suspect that everyone in this room is part of the 99%.

According to The Economist, the data showing the difference between the top 1% and the rest of us is dramatic and feeds into two existing prejudices:

First, that a system that works well for the very richest has delivered returns on labor that are disappointing for everyone else. Second, that the people at the top have made out like bandits over the past few decades, and that now everyone else must pick up the bill. Of course it is a little more complicated than that. But this downturn ought to test the normally warm feelings in America of the 99% towards the 1%. [The Economist, Oct. 26, 2011 "The 99 Percent"]

Is it testing your warm feelings?

Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, “What are you doing for others?” [MLK "Conquering Self-Centeredness," 1957]

Finally, I need to remind us all that, if we are the 99%, there are still others who are the bottom 1%.

While the top 1% has seen its income grow significantly in the last 20 years, and the rest of us have seen our incomes stagnate year over year, the bottom 1% has seen an actual decrease.

As we approach the traditional giving season, please think of those who are forced to live without – and of those on the streets, reminding us of our duty to each other.

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Monday's weekly ritual of turning to the next page of "Birds of America" revealed the female turkey page for Thanksgiving week. A pure coincidence. Really. (Photo by the writer.)

Earlier this fall, the University of Michigan Record published an article on the dedication of the new Audubon Room, which was created on the ground floor of Hatcher Library as a venue for displaying items from the UM library special collections.

That room takes its name from the first book of any kind – special or otherwise – acquired by UM in 1838: “Birds of America,” illustrated by John James Audubon.

In that UM Record article, written by Kevin Brown, one line that captured The Chronicle’s attention was this: “[Peggy] Daub said fingerprints and grime along the edges of an opening page of the book, depicting a turkey, were not removed to celebrate the attention the book has drawn over the years.”

But October seemed early to try for a Thanksgiving connection. And so we shelved the idea of writing about the Audubon Room. But then, earlier this week through The Chronicle’s back-channel connections at UM library, we heard about a strange coincidence that had put turkeys back in the library news. It was the kind of coincidence that made us put on our investigative journalist hats – was it really a coincidence, or was it a special collections conspiracy?

The Monday Page-Turning Ritual

On the phone, Peggy Daub, who’s director of the UM Special Collections Library, confirmed what we’d heard: Every Monday morning since the Audubon Room had been dedicated, the special collections staff had been turning the book  “Birds of America” to the next page.

The poults in Audubon's "Birds of America"

And Monday of Thanksgiving week, the page that had come up was the one depicting the female turkey with her poults. [The first page of the book, which had not been cleaned, was a male turkey.]

When we pressed Daub to confirm that yes, really, that was just the next page to be turned, that it wasn’t arranged just for Thanksgiving, Daub checked with the staff member who actually turned the pages. Yes. Daub did allow that for Veteran’s Day a page had been displayed out of sequence, but that the natural sequence of pages has resumed after that holiday.

Asked whether the page-turning task required white gloves or similar precautions, Daub suggested that there was a “white glove myth.” In fact, she said, gloves tend to detract from manual dexterity needed to do the page turning. So staff just use clean hands for turning pages.

Other Display Items: Galileo’s Letter

The Harlan Hatcher Graduate Library is closed Nov. 26-27 for Thanksgiving, but has Thanksgiving weekend hours from 1-5 p.m. So readers who want to see the turkey page before it’s turned on Monday will have a chance to have a look at it.

Some of the other items currently on display in the Audubon Room include a letter written by Galileo with diagrams of bright objects – the document was written in August of 1609, so it’s just over 400 years old.

This is not a manuscript depicting how Bo Schembechler drew up the x's and o's for the "end around" play. It's a closeup of the letter written by Galileo in 1609, which is currently on display in the Audubon Room.

You'll be out of luck if your Thanksgiving Day plans included dining at the Fleetwood – it will be closed for the holiday.

Last year, The Chronicle asked readers to give us their best bets for places to eat out on Thanksgiving Day, given that most restaurants would be closed. We recently checked in with those restaurants to make sure they’d be open this year too, and have added a few to the list.

We’ve also listed several restaurants that we thought might be open on Thanksgiving – but, it turns out, aren’t. Finally, we’ve included some of the spots that will be serving free meals on Thanksgiving Day to people in need.

All of this, after the jump.

What’s Open?

Editor’s note: This is by no means a comprehensive list. Know of other places that will be open? Please add that information in a comment.

Gandy Dancer: Open from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., serving from its regular dinner menu. Also offering a turkey dinner special for $24.95 or a roasted duck dinner for $25.99. Address: 401 Depot St., Ann Arbor. Phone: 734-769-0592‎.

Haab’s: Open 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., serving from its regular dinner menu and offering a turkey dinner special for $15.95. Address: 18 W Michigan Ave., Ypsilanti. Phone: 734-483-8200.

Lord Fox: Open noon to 7 p.m., serving a traditional turkey dinner for $24 as well as items from their regular dinner menu. Address: 5400 Plymouth, Ann Arbor. Phone: 734-662-1647.

Raja Rani: Open 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. for lunch, and 5-9:30 p.m. for dinner. Address: 400 S. Division St., Ann Arbor. Phone: 734-995-1545.

Weber’s: The main restaurant will be open from noon to 9 p.m., serving a limited menu, including a turkey dinner special. The banquet room will be open from noon to 6 p.m. for parties with four or more adults, bringing a whole turkey to each table for $18.95 per person. Address: 3050 Jackson Ave., Ann Arbor. Phone: 734-769-2500.

Free Meals

Cottage Inn: Serving from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Address: 512 E. William St., Ann Arbor. Phone: 734-663-3379.

Holy Trinity Church: Serving from 11 a.m. until they run out of food. Address: 511 W. Forest Ave., Ypsilanti. Phone: 734-482-1400

New Testament Church: Serving from noon until 1 p.m. Address: 1230 W. Michigan Ave. Ypsilanti. Phone: 734-485-3456

What’s Closed?

It’s a good bet that most restaurants will be closed, so call ahead if you’re not sure. Here’s a few that we’ve already checked.

None of the Ann Arbor restaurants owned by Main Street Ventures will be open. Those include the Chop House, Carson’s American Bistro, Gratzi, Real Seafood, Palio, La Dolce Vita.

The “houses” will also be closed – Knight’s Steakhouse and Zingerman’s Roadhouse.

And the 24-hour Fleetwood Diner will be closed at least 24 hours on Thanksgiving – at this point, they aren’t planning to reopen until 8 a.m. the following day.

The readers at Chowhound.com provide some ‘usual suspects’ suggestions, but as of Nov. 19, Betty said she’s starting fresh with the search. Part of that effort included contacting The Chronicle with her query. She adds parenthetically: “Other cities list such things on their CVB sites or in the paper.”

Oh, boy. Betty knows how to get Ann Arbor’s competitive juices flowing – like butter basting on a big ol’ turkey in the oven. It’s time for Ann Arbor area restaurants and Chronicle readers to get on the (drum)stick and list out places that’ll be open for Thanksgiving dinner this year. Comments are open.

First reader to point out that Ann Arbor has been ranked as one of the best U.S. cities for Thanksgiving dinner gets a mashed potato pie in the face.