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Consider this: Islamic fundamentalists want to create their own state, governed by strict religious doctrine, and America is doing everything it can to stop them, even though America itself was created by Christian fundamentalists trying to do the very same thing.
Nothing illustrates this better than the so-called "first" Thanksgiving at Plymouth Rock on December 13, 1621. The Pilgrims who attended this event were an extremist sect of the Puritans, Christian fundamentalists who were trying to overthrow the government back in England, and set up a religious state. The Pilgrims decided it would be easier to overthrow the natives in the New World, and sailed for America.
Ironically, they were so ill prepared they would never have survived their first winter if it hadn't been for the assistance of the natives in procuring food, and proper shelter. The very natives they were planning to overthrow. And the natives were not invited to that "first" Thanksgiving to be thanked, as is generally assumed, but to be plied with food and drink until they could be convinced to give up large portions of their land to the Pilgrims, in which they could build their new religious state.
The Pilgrim women did not take part in the meal. Although native men and women ate side by side, strict Pilgrim doctrine made the women eat separately, after the men had finished.
And any hope that the natives might be thrown even a small bone of gratitude was brutally dashed by the chilling words contained in the sermon delivered on that day by Pilgrim "Mather the Elder." Instead of thanking the natives, he thanked God for the plague of smallpox that was killing the natives by the scores. He praised God for destroying "chiefly young men and children, the very seeds of increase, thus clearing the forests to make way for a better growth..." the "better growth", of course, referring to himself and his fellow Pilgrims. So much for the first Thanksgiving.
But it wasn't the first Thanksgiving anyway. It wasn't even close. The first recorded Thanksgiving in what is now the United States was in Virginia in 1607. The first Thanksgiving in North America was organised by Martin Frobisher in 1578 in Newfoundland. Before that the native Americans had been celebrating feasts of thanksgiving for centuries, if not longer. Celebrations that included special songs of thanksgiving. The truth is that Thanksgiving has been celebrated by virtually all cultures on Earth, a long time before a white man ever stepped foot on Plymouth Rock.
The traditional European symbol of Thanksgiving was a curved goat's horn, overflowing with the fruits of the harvest, known as the cornucopia, or horn of plenty.
So forget about the Pilgrims, and Plymouth Rock. Celebrate Thanksgiving with friends and family the way it's been celebrated since the beginning of time: in the season of harvest, giving thanks for the sustenance of life, and the occasional pleasures that come our way. If you're having trouble finding things to be thankful for, here are some suggestions:
Be thankful for the Moon, commercial free programming, and ice-cream. Be thankful you don't live in Iraq. Be thankful for sex, and music. Be thankful you weren't born as a small slimy reptile, blinking in the dark, underneath a rock somewhere. Be thankful for sunsets, and sunrises, and thick french toast, with real butter and maple syrup and just a touch of cinnamon...
As for the Turkey, although there were turkeys consumed at Plymouth Rock, the reason the bird became so entrenched as the traditional Thanksgiving fare was due largely to the efforts of one of America's founding fathers, Benjamin Franklin, who campaigned for many years to make the bird his country's national symbol, as he explains in his own quaint and eloquent way in a famous letter to his daughter, reprinted below.
"For my own part I wish the Bald Eagle had not been chosen the Representative of our Country. He is a Bird of bad moral Character. He does not get his Living honestly. You may have seen him perched on some dead Tree near the River, where, too lazy to fish for himself, he watches the Labour of the Fishing Hawk; and when that diligent Bird has at length taken a Fish, and is bearing it to his Nest for the Support of his Mate and young Ones, the Bald Eagle pursues him and takes it from him.
"With all this Injustice, he is never in good Case but like those among Men who live by Sharping & Robbing he is generally poor and often very lousy. Besides he is a rank Coward: The little King Bird not bigger than a Sparrow attacks him boldly and drives him out of the District. He is therefore by no means a proper Emblem for the brave and honest Cincinnati of America who have driven all the King birds from our Country....
"I am on this account not displeased that the Figure is not known as a Bald Eagle, but looks more like a Turkey. For the Truth the Turkey is in Comparison a much more respectable Bird, and withal a true original Native of America... He is besides, though a little vain & silly, a Bird of Courage, and would not hesitate to attack a Grenadier of the British Guards who should presume to invade his Farm Yard with a red Coat on."
--Benjamin Franklin, in a letter to his daughter - 1784
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