By SJ Otto
Each year I write something about the traditional
holiday Thanksgiving. It is a holiday based on miss-information and it is truly
politically incorrect. The real story behind this holiday is not as cheerful as
most people make it. However, people across the country, including me, will
travel to a relative’s house for a traditional turkey dinner. It’s unlikely
this holiday will just go away. But the one thing we can do is to let people
know that this was not the happy story it was supposed to be. The Native
American Indians helped the pilgrims survive their first winter and year in the
American continent. Their reward was to be massacred and moved off the land they
lived in for thousands of years. The genocide of the Native American Indians
and the theft of their land and cultures is one of the greatest crimes
committed by white people and their capitalist system. When people try to claim
that socialism has caused more deaths and suffering than any other ideology, we
need to point out that capitalism killed millions of people, during the US
Indian wars.
So for the rest of the story:
Thanksgiving claims
to have its roots in Plymouth Rock in the 17th century. But that event has
little to do with the holiday we celebrate today. Native American Indians and
white settlers from Europe came together to celebrate a difficult
year, where the settlers
were helped by the Native Americans, who helped them
grow corn and other new world vegetables. There was three days of feasting on
native plants and animals, such as fish and deer, corn and pumpkins. There were
also games played. It was a real big bash. From that event until the 20th century,
people found various reasons to get together and celebrate a kind of “end of
the harvest” celebration.
The holiday we celebrate today was officially
established in 1941. A “Thanksgiving” celebration has taken place from various
days of the years and inspired by various events, such as the end of the Civil
War. This took place off and on throughout US history,
until the official holiday was declared, by Congress and
the President, in 1941. The traditional fixings and food menu,
such as turkey, came from a women’s magazine in the 1850s. Thanksgiving is a
holiday dominated by Christianity, even though it is legally a secular holiday.
Being Christian isn’t necessary to this celebration, but most Christians see it
as a time to “give thanks to God.” While it is a nice day to get together with
friends and family, it is ironic that we celebrate an event in which white
settlers from Europe came together to feast and party with Native
American Indians. For most of our history after that this country fought at
least two Indian wars and Native American Indians didn’t enjoy all of the
benefits of being American citizens until the early 20th century, when they
were finally declared to be US citizens.
For a truly ghoulish look at the Thanksgiving holiday
see: “American Thanksgiving: A Pure Glorification of Racist Barbarity” –from Humans are
Free.
There are some groups of people who find it barbaric
to celebrate a holiday by killing a bird and eating it. Some people are
vegetarians and don’t take part in eating a dead bird. Some religions oppose
eating and killing dead animals.
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