I'm trying to wrap my head around the concept of Thanksgiving. I have always had problems with the holiday but my personal hang-ups with Thanksgiving have increased due to the fact that so many Americans are approaching this holiday with more illusion than ever before.

::::::::

Thanksgiving Day, a function which originated in New England two or three centuries ago when those people recognized that they really had something to be thankful for -- annually, not oftener -- if they had succeeded in exterminating their neighbors, the Indians, during the previous twelve months instead of getting exterminated by their neighbors, the Indians. Thanksgiving Day became a habit, for the reason that in the course of time, as the years drifted on, it was perceived that the exterminating had ceased to be mutual and was all on the white man's side, consequently on the Lord's side; hence it was proper to thank the Lord for it and extend the usual annual compliments. –Mark Twain

"Considering that virtually none of the standard fare surrounding Thanksgiving contains an ounce of authenticity, historical accuracy, or cross-cultural perception, why is it so apparently ingrained? Is it necessary to the American psyche to perpetually exploit and debase its victims in order to justify its history?" -Michael Dorris

I celebrated Thanksgiving in an old-fashioned way. I invited everyone in my neighborhood to my house, we had an enormous feast, and then I killed them and took their land. –Jon Stewart

I’m trying to wrap my head around the concept of Thanksgiving.

This season it’s particularly difficult. My piece of writing last year shows that it’s not the first time I have been struggling with the American holiday of Thanksgiving. But, this year my personal hang-ups with the holiday have increased due to the increase in illusions among Americans.

Take this letter to the editor published in the USA Today on Wednesday, November 26, 2008 for example:

 

Election brings relief

Anne Brewer - Prairie Village, Kan.

Until Barack Obama was elected and I cried tears of relief, I did not realize the level of subliminal anxiety I had been enduring.

Would the Iraq war ever end? Would the environment be nurtured instead of destroyed for future generations? Would the embarrassment I felt as an American because of U.S. policies be replaced with pride?

Thankful is the best way to describe the emotion I felt when Obama was chosen as our 44th president.

It is trite to describe the lifted burden as a weight that was removed from my shoulders. But that is exactly how I felt.

Hope is a powerful emotion, and it was reinstilled in me with the election of Obama. I will give mighty thanks this Thanksgiving because my prayers have been answered.

USA Today asked readers to share their thoughts about Thanksgiving and this is what Ms. Brewer had to say. I do not think Ms. Brewer is the only American who wrote a letter like this for Thanksgiving. Many Americans are thinking like this but there are just a few problems.

Americans like Ms. Brewer actually think Barack Obama will end the Iraq War, start nurturing and stop destroying the environment, and make it possible for Americans to be prideful instead of embarrassed again.

The third item is possible. Obama seems intent on restoring our image and so America may indeed get a facelift---a Botox injection before his presidency is over. But, as for the wars and the environment, one must ask Americans like Ms. Brewer, what non-corporate military industrial complex non-neoconservative-versus-neoliberal world do you live in and would you mind helping Americans who do not live in this reality get to that reality so we can all live a better life?

I mean, if there is a nirvana, shouldn’t we all get to go?

Here’s another one:

Rob Loiterman - Long Valley, N.J.

Let's give thanks to our nation's Founders. They gave us a miraculous democracy and freedom to non-violently change our leadership when we want to change course. And, after a difficult and agonizing national election, let's give thanks for our coming together to celebrate the joy of liberty as one people, one nation and with a tear of happiness.

I am thankful for American resilience. America will always find the right path, even if it first has gone astray. We have chosen a president who offers hope and vision, while America decided skin color and name matter little. I am thankful we recognized we must help Main Street in a time of need.

I give thanks to our serivcemembers and their families who care enough to sacrifice their lives for our country. Pray a moment for these unsung heroes who are living with pain while receiving far too little recognition. We must remember those who are not home for Thanksgiving.

Let’s face it. Americans love their illusions: the illusion of freedom, the illusion of liberty, the illusion of justice, the illusion that there is a God and He has all the answers, and the illusion of holidays such as Thanksgiving. All could be incorporated under one giant umbrella: the illusion of American history. When you mix these illusions with American exceptionalism, it’s no wonder the world is often bothered by America and the Americans who occupy the nation of America.

What many of us learn in our textbooks at school or just from our American day-to-day life about Thanksgiving is similar to this excerpt from a textbook used in schools called The American Tradition.

 

After some exploring, the Pilgrims chose the land around Plymouth Harbor for their settlement. Unfortunately, they had arrived in December and were not prepared for the New England Winter. However, they were aided by friendly Indians, who gave them food and showed them how to grow corn. When warm weather came, the colonists planted, fished, hunted, and prepared themselves for the next winter. After harvesting their first crop, they and their Indian friends celebrated the first Thanksgiving.

This excerpt is highlighted in James Loewen’s book Lies My Teacher Told Me. Loewen’s book spends a chapter attempting to diffuse the Thanksgiving illusions many Americans harbor. As a teacher, Loewen’s book is influenced greatly by his students whom often have no idea about the realities of American history.

Loewen explains that English separatists (for delusional people, this means Pilgrims) saw their lives as part of a divinely inspired morality play and found it easy to infer that God was on their side. Part of the Europeans’ landing in America involved the transportation of disease like the plague and smallpox. When disease spread to Native Americans, John Winthrop, governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony called the plague “miraculous.”

Loewen highlights the fact that in 1634 Winthrop wrote to a friend in England and said, “But for the natives in these parts, God hath so pursued them, as for 300 miles space the greatest part of them are swept away by the smallpox which still continues among them. So as God hath thereby cleared our title to this place, those who remain in these parts, being in all not 50, have put themselves under our protection.”

Loewen punctuates the quote by writing, “God, the Original Real Estate Agent!”

Essentially, the whole origin of Thanksgiving (the historical point of reference) is based on the fact that Puritans thought God “chose” a bunch of white dudes, white dudes who left Europe in search of religious freedom, to be occupiers of the land.

As Loewen explains, natives inferred that their god had abandoned them in much the same way that Europeans thought God had abandoned them when the Black Death was ravaging Europe. Cherokee, “lost confidence in their god and the priests destroyed the sacred objects of the tribe. None had access to germ theory of disease. Native healers could supply no cure; medicines and herbs offered no relief. Religion provided no explanation. That of the whites did. Like the Europeans three centuries before them, many American Indians surrendered to alcohol, converted to Christianity, or simply killed themselves.”

The majority of the chapter can be read for free on Google and I encourage people to read it. Loewen dedicates a full chapter to detailing the “truth about Thanksgiving.”

Now, that’s the origin of Thanksgiving. But, why do we have a holiday?

As History.com explains, the holiday wouldn’t exist if the author of “Mary Had a Little Lamb”, Sara Josepha Hale. Hale believed that America needed an annual holiday for all Americans to collectively give thanks. She remembered that Puritans used to do this---they used to periodically observe Thanksgiving days of prayer following beautiful harvests.

Hale, the first female magazine editor, published impassioned essays petitioning for a national day of thanks and also wrote letters to the president. When the nation became divided by civil war, Hale’s appeals finally paid off and Lincoln finally established Thanksgiving.

Since then, the holiday has become more of a sham than it was when it was first established.

We no longer have harvests to be thankful for. Americans, for the most part, don’t eat food on Thanksgiving. They eat manufactured and processed food which is food-like but not actually food. (Some Americans may eat organic food; organic food is artificially treated and injected with antibiotics or pharmaceuticals and is still artificial or manufactured.)

We no longer thank God for choosing us over the Native Americans. We now are embroiled in a battle of good versus evil with Islamic extremists and so our attention has shifted. We now thank God for victories in the “war on terror.”

Thanksgiving is now a holiday that involves NFL football, a Macy’s parade, the pardoning of turkeys by the president, and a day off of work for family and friends.

The day off of work for family and friends is always worthwhile, but isn’t it a shame that we have to come together around such a farcical holiday?

Then again, I don’t know what I would replace Thanksgiving with. There isn’t much fodder out there for the creation of new holidays that would be free of fantasy.

And as I said, this year it’s especially worse because the illusions of Thanksgiving have been compounded by the election of Barack Obama.

The USA Today Editorial Board wrote this:

“Unemployment is rising, 401(k)s are shrinking and the global economy is sinking. Hardly an obvious time to be thankful. Or is it? Not to be too Pollyannaish about the current state of affairs, but America does remain the most prosperous country on earth, with a standard of living that's the envy of most of the planet's 6.7 billion people. There is plenty to be grateful for, and not just the basic joys-without-a-price-tag such as time spent with family and walks in the countryside. Here are half a dozen reasons to be thankful, despite — and, in some cases, because of — perilous economic times…”

 

Oh, great. America, the greatest nation on Earth! All this is predicated on the idea that the predicament we are in wasn’t preventable and that we Americans didn’t see this coming. But, many did years ago. Those in power didn’t care.

So, the USA Today Editorial Board thinks it should tell me and other Americans why we should pipe down and just eat our turkey and one of those reasons involve the election of Barack Obama.

I will let you look at the six they provide. One in particular deserves to be put under the microscope:

1. Optimism still reigns

Despite all the gloomy news, the U.S. remains an optimistic nation. Hopefulness and being American go hand in hand. Even now, surveys confirm that the times haven't altered that basic disposition. Almost two-thirds — 65% — think the country will be better off in four years, according to a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll shortly after Election Day. As that time frame suggests, much of the optimism is driven by the fact that President-elect Barack Obama is about to take charge.

Change is always a tonic. The election campaign was long and bitter, but the clear-cut result confirmed the strength of democracy. It also achieved Martin Luther King's dream that African Americans could one day be judged by the content of their character, not the color of their skin. Nearly 70% of Americans say they have a favorable opinion of Obama, and more than three-quarters believe he will improve U.S. standing abroad. Millions of people are expected to attend his inauguration on Jan. 20.

All presidents fail in some ways, and Obama will undoubtedly falter at times, as well. Future historians may judge George W. Bush more kindly than today's dismal approval ratings suggest. But for now, at least, it seems fortuitous timing for a change at the top.

First, an African American, not African Americans triumphed. If an African American chose to run in 2012, there would still be litmus tests for him or her to pass. And, Barack Obama didn’t choose to take up any African American issues during his campaign so he is not the first black president per se but rather the first president of the United States who you might have seen featured in an episode of “The Cosby Show.”

Barack Obama did nothing to challenge the white power structure. So, if any African American would choose to run for president and do that (like someone who may have consulted the history of Jesse Jackson), that African American would probably not triumph like Obama did.

Second, what is this change? This idea of change is not based in reality and that is proven by the USA Today’s utilization of the phrase, “Change is always a tonic.” Essentially, Americans have been drugged.

Third, Bush is a failure. More than that, he is a war criminal who should be prosecuted. Whether he failed or not is not up for history books to decide. The last thing we want is history book writers writing the history of Dubya because we all know what they've done to the history of Thanksgiving.

Already this Thanksgiving has brought about more than enough farce.

Sarah Palin conducted a news conference in front of what I believe was a turkey shredder and was perfectly okay with choosing to have turkey slaughtering going on in the same frame as her serious, straight-faced press conference.

Bush pardoned a turkey and all I could think of was that instead of our government deciding which turkey to pardon, the turkeys should have gotten together to decide which Bush Administration official to pardon.

In closing, let’s see if we can’t revamp this holiday and start to make the true origins of Thanksgiving a part of discussions at the dinner table. It may seem awkward at first to talk about Native Americans being killed off by disease while cutting the Thanksgiving turkey, but after a few years of Thanksgiving, attempts to bring up the subject will get easier.

We owe it to them and their remaining ancestors to be reasonable people and stop pretending this holiday is something it's not.

I have no doubts in my mind that you will succeed if you try to discuss the true history of Thanksgiving. You'll speak up and the family will immediately get what you are trying to do: ruin a perfectly good American holiday. Shame on you!

Well, at least it will be better than trying to ruin a perfectly good election. I mean, how dare I ruin a historic election by grumbling on about it?

I really do have a lot to be thankful for. And I owe a lot of thanks to OpEdNews and all the other people who I have met just by being a writer and publisher here at OpEdNews.

Many doors would be closed right now had I not been, for the most part, universally accepted and integrated into the OpEdNews community.

So, happy Thanksgiving.

Authors Bio:
Kevin Gosztola is managing editor of Shadowproof Press. He also produces and co-hosts the weekly podcast, "Unauthorized Disclosure." He was an editor for OpEdNews.com