Thanksgiving – the true meaning?
November 20th, 2009
The student newspaper at Western Illinois University has a great editorial by the paper’s board on the truth about Thanksgiving: Remember what the true meaning of Thanksgiving is next week
I’m only excerpting a bit of it here so if you want to read the entire editorial go to this link.
“Thanksgiving is upon us once again, and students in grade schools across the country will be learning about the “original Thanksgiving,” where the Pilgrims and Native Americans came together for a great feast. . . .
They will be led to assume the story had a happy ending, which is nothing close to the truth. The Pilgrims, who were oppressed in their native country, became the oppressors. They became power hungry and self-righteous, pushing the Native Americans off their land, giving them diseases and committing a long list of other crimes against them, such as raping, murdering and pillaging their settlements.
And though we learn the truth later in life, we still “celebrate” the “original feast” between the Pilgrims and Native Americans. We connect with family and friends, and we gorge ourselves on food, forgetting the past. . . .”

