No Thanks to Thanksgiving

One indication of moral progress in the United States would be the replacement of Thanksgiving Day and its self-indulgent family feasting with a National Day of Atonement accompanied by a self-reflective collective fasting.

In fact, indigenous people have offered such a model; since 1970 they have marked the fourth Thursday of November as a Day of Mourning in a spiritual/political ceremony on Coles Hill overlooking Plymouth Rock, Massachusetts, one of the early sites of the European invasion of the Americas.

Not only is the thought of such a change in this white-supremacist holiday impossible to imagine, but the very mention of the idea sends most Americans into apoplectic fits -- which speaks volumes about our historical hypocrisy and its relation to the contemporary politics of empire in the United States.

.......

http://www.alternet.org/story/28584/

Doesn't sound American to me.

we have. We don't honor the original pilgrims and whatever sins they may have committed. Me, I give thanks, eat lots of turkey, watch some football, and take a nap (if I can)

I have my enormous family around me, dogs barking, cat yowling, kids shrieking and running in the house (NO RUNNING in the HOUSE, and they do it anyway!), a ball of confusion, and I feel damned lucky.

I figure we do enough "atoning" the rest of the year...hell, we've all been in goddamned Purgatory since the 00 'sElection.'

around for, and was a couple of hundred years before I was born. I can understand the desire and the need to change now, but no apologies from me. Not unless you got a way to send me back in time.

I understand discrimination, I understand poverty, and I understand losing everthing you ever had, and I understand homelessness. Have experienced them all.

when all of that crap went down, too.

I'm giving thanks this year that the bulk of my family is NOT GOP!!! We have one idiot, who is wavering as his child approaches draft age....!!!

i do enough atoneing during the year!

My ancestors killed Indians at Plymouth; they owned slaves all over the south; one ggg uncle was a leader of a Mormon massacre (he was a convert); and a DNA analysis of most males of one Scotch family name shows a whole lot of Norgewian DNA, so I'm obviously descended from rapists and pillagers, too. And I personally once threw a beer bottle out a car window intstead of looking for a trash can.

If I have to atone for all that I'm screwed, so I just enjoy MY life and MY family and MY backyard.

Thanksgiving isn't pilgrims to me. I never think about them and never have. I live in FL. The only time I even see Pilgrims is on a hokey little Publix TV commercial.

Thanksgiving is a harvest festival. Oh, I know we probably stole it from the Pagans, who appear to have cornered the market early on when it comes to holidays. But harvest is a universal concept (unless you are partial to hunting and gathering) and I celebrate it because I am happy I have enough to eat. And that I have a family.

I wonder what the author eats on Thanksgiving? I'm guessing bread and water while wearing sackcloth and ashes. Good for him if it helps with that atonement issue of his. Different strokes.

I do give her grief over that.

My ancestors were trotting in bogs and slogging up and down mountain slopes in southern Italy when the genocide took place.

if we look hard enough. After all, 'tis the season for atonement! You don't want to miss out on all the fun! Have you considered the ancient Romans? You just know THEY were up to no good.

I don't advocate the transformation of the Thanksgiving holiday into a day of fasting and atonement, but if you get past that suggestion and read the entire article youll find some very accurate and pertinent observations on historical mythology and how this perpetuates the sins of empire.

When you stop and think of the native Americans who helped the Pilgrims survive that first winter, and the subsequent genocide that befell them, the historical foundation of Thanksgiving takes on meaning beyond overeating, football games, spending time with relatives, and expressing gratitude for our bounty.

By all means we should be grateful, but let's not forget at whose expense we reaped the bounty of this continent or that this now small minority continues to suffer mostly out of sight and mind.

Taking a few moments to remember the history and the continuing plight of native Americans during this holiday in which they played a major role is not much to ask. Making their plight part of our political agenda would be even better.

My grandparents were born in Eurpoe, by I now consider myself an American and as such I share in the benefits, responsibilities, and history of my country. I don't feel guilt, but I recognize duty.

P.S. to jeffrey_X
"We didn't land on Plymouth Rock, Plymouth Rock landed on us"

to the Native American College Fund along with our giving thanks on Thanksgiving Day. Remember what the Native Americans say when asked what they called America before the Europeans came - "ours".