Thanksgiving is an interesting holiday. It is not a religious expression. It does not honor any person. It does recognize a “harvest meal” by Colonial Pilgrims. As the History Channel notes: “The holiday continues to be a day for Americans to gather for a day of feasting, football, and family. In other words, a holiday to honor gluttony.”
It is also a breeding ground for myths. As James W. Baker, Senior Historian at Plimoth Plantation, notes:
The reason that we have so many myths associated with Thanksgiving is that it is an invented tradition. It doesn’t originate in any one event. It is based on the New England puritan Thanksgiving, which is a religious Thanksgiving, and the traditional harvest celebrations of England and New England, and maybe other ideas like commemorating the pilgrims. All of these have been gathered together and transformed into something different from the original parts.
Not unusual, we suppose, for a nation founded on a claimed discovery by Christopher Columbus while it was named for Italian Amerigo Vespucci or it may have been the Vikings (the Norsemen, not the football team) who stumbled across this mass in the Atlantic Ocean.
Some think of Turkey Day as the day before “Black Friday,” the day of shopping mayhem for those seeking bargains they probably neither need nor can afford but, of course, must indulge in because it is “tradition.”
Like we said: A time to honor gluttony,
For wife Amy and myself, Thanksgiving ceased to be a day of a family gathering with her relatives or mine. At our age, most of them are gone and some no longer speak to us because we refuse to recognize their insane disgraced, and criminal former president.
For the two of us, we don’t bring Turkey or fixings into our domicile but choose to eat at one of our favorites oriental restaurants in the New River Valley — eateries that we can count on to be open on both Thanksgiving and Christmas.
We do, however, recognize things that we can be thankful for on this Thanksgiving Day. For example:
- A tremendous showing in state tournament play by various Floyd County High School teams, including The State Championship by the Buffaloes Golf Team, Final Four appearance by the Lady Buffaloes Volleyball team, and State Finishes by members of the Cross Country participants.
- The voters of Courthouse District for rejecting a blatant attempt by a Trumpie to unseat Supervisor Jerry Boothe, who listen to the people of his district, not the prattle of vapid extremists. Boothe won easily, which is the way it should be.
- Another big thanks to the voters of the Town of Floyd, who overwhelmingly returned Will Griffin to the mayor’s seat and said “no way” to first-term council member David Whitaker, saying he should sit down and shut up and learn how the town operates before making another attempt to take it over,
- A return to sanity in Washington with the removal of the disgraced, dishonest, and corrupt Donald Trump from the White House.
- A big thanks to President Joe Biden for taking the needed step to release 50 million barrels of crude oil from the national Strategic Reserves.
- And we are thankful for the jury of 11 whites and one African-Americans who found all three of the defendants, including a father and son, guilty of murder of Ahmaud Arbery in Brunswick, Ga., correcting a wrong that allowed the three to walk away without any charges initially but were finally charged 74 days after Arbery was gunned down while jogging. It does not, however, make up for the miscarriage of justice in Kenosha, WI, where Kyle Rittenhouse walked out of the courtroom after acquittal to killing two and seriously wounding a third at a Black Lives Matter protest in that city.
A lot remains that we cannot be thankful for. At least, we have a few.
Happy Thanksgiving, but remember we are also recognizing a time when the Colonials were screwing over the Native Americans. As a descendant of the only Tribe that has never, ever, signed a peace treaty with the thieves called America, I can also be thankful for that refusal to buy into more lies from Washington.