While I love a good meal as much as the next American, I also am very cognizant of what this day actually commemorates. Thanksgiving is a holiday version of a Confederate statue. The nonsense taught to children about why we celebrate on this day needs to be re-evaulated. I feel that the real history – the fact that the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe and other tribes welcomed the Pilgrims and settlers only to be brutally raped and murdered in the years that followed by hundreds of years of massacres and injustices against the Native American tribes that continue to this day – needs to be taught.
I am not saying that the nation should not practice a Day Of Thanksgiving, Lord knows most Americans have much that we can be thankful for when we look at the strife in other parts of the world. However, the Indians Pilgrim thing needs to be squashed. This year, after 7 years with President Obama recognizing that this was actually a day to celebrate the Native Americans, who assisted the Pilgrims; the Racist Wingnut-In-Chief returned to advancing the white supremacist version of historical events in his Thanksgiving’s Day proclamation.
Trump even managed to give a clarion call to his white supremacist base by mentioning The Mayor of Plymouth and Governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony, William Bradford, a mass murderer who was responsible for the brutal massacre of over 400 women, men and children of the Pequot Tribe. Of the massacre, Bradford is quoted as saying, “Those that escaped the fire were slain with the sword; some hewed to pieces, others run through with their rapiers, so that they were quickly dispatched and very few escaped. It was conceived they thus destroyed about 400 at this time. It was a fearful sight to see them thus frying in the fire…horrible was the stink and scent thereof, but the victory seemed a sweet sacrifice, and they gave the prayers thereof to God, who had wrought so wonderfully for them.” In addition, this monstrous psycho stated, “From that day forth shall be a day of celebration and thanks giving for subduing the Pequots for the next 100 years, every Thanksgiving Day, ordained by a Governor, was in honor of the bloody victory, thanking God that the battle had been won.”
Have a Happy Thanksgiving. But re-educate and re-think this day, as well. Make it about giving thanks, not celebrating a false narrative about your history and celebrating the holocausts of our Native American brothers and sisters.
