November 21, 2007
The Thanksgiving Of A Grateful Nation—And The Ingratitude Of A Few
Recently I wrote about a bunch of ungrateful people in
Seattle who aren't happy about Thanksgiving. [Thanksgiving–History
From The Enemy’s Point Of View].
The
idea is that we're supposed to feel guilty about the
settling of America by
people from England, because the descendants of the
original inhabitants aren’t happy about it.
The
Seattle Public School Board, and some
irredentist Indians at
Oyate.org say
“Fact: For many Indian people, 'Thanksgiving' is a time
of mourning, of remembering how a gift of generosity was
rewarded by theft of land and seed corn, extermination
of many from disease and gun, and near total destruction
of many more from forced assimilation. As currently
celebrated in this country, 'Thanksgiving' is a bitter
reminder of 500 years of betrayal returned for
friendship.”
But
for the rest of us, it would presumably be a celebration
of victory, right? No one's suggesting that we refrain
from celebrating
VE Day for the sake of
Nazis and Fascists, or refrain from celebrating
VJ Day for the sake of the Japanese Imperialists,
are they?
(Well…in fact, some years ago, a showing of
Tora Tora Tora! was cancelled on
Pearl Harbor Day out of
sensitivity to Japanese-Americans, who were
apparently
not as loyal as they're made out to be.[
Multiculturalism Lives in Infamy, November 13,
2002])
As
for "betrayal returned for friendship" check out
the story of Jamestown told here by Kevin Carter:
Jamestown—America’s First Experiment in "Assimilation"—the
moral of which is that it's
unwise to be unarmed in Indian Country,
wherever that
happens to be.
One
website has this relationship backwards, and compares
America's victory over the Indians to an imaginary Nazi
victory, and likens America's celebration of
Thanksgiving to a celebration of Nazism.
“What
would we say about such a holiday? Would we not question
the distortions woven into such a celebration? Would we
not demand a more accurate historical account? Would we
not, in fact, denounce such a holiday as grotesque?”
[Fowl
Play | Jewcy.com, by Robert Jensen, November 19,
2007]
All
you need to know about this man's sense of history is
that he recommends a book by
notable academic fraud
Ward Churchill. You can see a discussion of this at
the Classical Values blog—Eric
Scheie writes...
“The
thing is - it was not some round up and mass slaughter
of the Indians. There was fighting all the way.
Initiated by both sides. It is why we used to like
giving our
sports teams Indian names. Fierce Warriors. Even
famous American Generals.
William T. Sherman. You can look up what
the T stands for.”
Scheie also makes the same obvious point I did above
“You know ‘the evil
white man destroyed the noble Indians and we therefore
wish to atone for the sins of our ancestors’ types.
“Have I got news for
them.
“The Indians
fought wars with each other all the time for territory.
“The white man was
just a better Indian.”
Oddly
enough,
many American Indians were thankful for the arrival
of the Pilgrims. If you had been battling other Indians
with stone knives and wooden arrows for hundreds of
years, you'd be overjoyed to see potential allies who
had guns, even if they were only
matchlocks. Before European settlers came, the
Indians didn't think of themselves as Indians, they
thought of themselves by their tribal names, like
Wampanoag, Seneca, and Huron. And they were constantly
involved in
battles with the other tribes.
Of
course, the real problem for the Indians was that they
had no resistance to disease, but this isn't the fault
of the settlers. As
Ann Coulter pointed out in
an interview with
David Yeagley, (whose thoughts on Thanksgiving and
Indians can be found
here) this problem predated the discovery of the
Germ Theory of disease by two centuries. The
settlers didn't know any more about germs than the
Indians.
The
other issue with Thanksgiving is what
Gary North calls "the issue of offering public
thanks to the Non-Pluralistic Sovereign Previously Known
as God."
Thanksgiving is meant to thank God for his blessings.
You could look it up. And any hint of thanking God is
anathema in modern America. Probably the
first thing I wrote about Thanksgiving on VDARE.COM, in
2001, said that
“There's a question on
the
Citizenship Test that you (used to) have to take to
become an American citizen.
Who helped the
Pilgrims in America?
“The ‘school
solution’ is Native American Indians. And there’s
some truth in this, since Squanto and Massasoit did help
the Pilgrims. A treaty with the Wampanoag resulted in 50
years of peace between settlers and that tribe, partly
because the Wampanoag wanted someone to protect them
from the Narragansett Indians.
“But the Pilgrims
themselves would have said that ‘God Almighty’ had
helped them. Or possibly ‘God's merciful
Providence.’ (For those of you who missed it, it's
God, G-O-D, that receives Thanksgiving every
November.) They would also have pointed out that for
every Wampanoag who told them what and what not to eat,
there was a Narragansett with a
stone ax and a
firebrand.”
God gets a lot of abuse in the
Public Square these days, at the hands of the
ACLU and various
federal judges. That's why I'm always surprised that
the President is even allowed to date his Thanksgiving
proclamation "in the
year of our Lord two thousand seven," as well as
"of the
Independence of the United States of America the two
hundred and thirty-second."
And
while you know I am not a Bush partisan, he is
the President, and after carefully checking out his 2007
proclamation for any reference to
"the religion of peace", (none) or to
immigration, (none), I'm going to reproduce the
whole thing here, as the sentiments transcend party:
“Americans are a
grateful people, ever mindful of the many ways we have
been blessed. On Thanksgiving Day, we lift our hearts in
gratitude for the freedoms we enjoy, the people we love,
and the gifts of our prosperous land.
“Our country was
founded by men and women who realized their dependence
on God and were humbled by His providence and grace. The
early
explorers and settlers who
arrived in this land gave thanks for God's
protection and for the
extraordinary natural abundance they found. Since
the
first National Day of Thanksgiving was
proclaimed by
President George Washington, Americans have come
together to offer thanks for our many blessings. We
recall the great privilege it is to live in a land where
freedom is the right of every person and where all can
pursue their dreams. We express our deep appreciation
for the sacrifices of the honorable
men and women in uniform who defend liberty. As they
work to advance the cause of freedom, our Nation keeps
these brave individuals and their families in our
thoughts, and we pray for their safe return.
“While Thanksgiving
is a time to gather in a spirit of gratitude with
family, friends, and neighbors, it is also an
opportunity to serve others and to
share our blessings with those in need. By answering
the universal call to love a neighbor as we want to be
loved ourselves, we make our Nation a more hopeful and
caring place.
“This Thanksgiving,
may we reflect upon the past year with gratefulness and
look toward the future with hope. Let us give thanks for
all we have been given and ask God to continue to bless
our families and our Nation.
“NOW, THEREFORE, I,
GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of
America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the
Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby
proclaim Thursday, November 22, 2007, as a National Day
of Thanksgiving. I encourage all Americans to gather
together in their homes and places of worship with
family, friends, and loved ones to reinforce the
ties that bind us and give thanks for the freedoms and
many blessings we enjoy.
“IN WITNESS WHEREOF,
I have hereunto set my hand this fifteenth day of
November, in the year of our Lord two thousand seven,
and of the Independence of the United States of America
the two hundred and thirty-second.
“GEORGE W. BUSH”
In a
year or two, there will be another such proclamation,
still in the "in
the year of our Lord,"
and still in the "Independence of the United States
of America" with another person's signature on it.
That
will be a Thanksgiving!
Happy
Thanksgiving From VDARE.COM. Previous Thanksgiving
Coverage Below:
11/21/01 - Thanksgiving: The National Question Footnote
11/27/02 - Thanksgiving, Crazy Horse, Us
02/08/01 - TODAY'S LETTER: A Reader Comments on
Multi-Cultist Holidays
11/26/03 - Then They Came For Thanksgiving…
11/21/03 - View From Lodi, CA: Hot Chocolate For
Thanksgiving
12/08/03 - War On Holidays Is War on America
11/23/04 - Grace, Gratitude, and God At Thanksgiving
11/19/04 - View From Lodi, CA: Mincemeat For
Thanksgiving!
11/24/04 - The High Road to Turkey: An Indian View of
Thanksgiving
09/25/03 - Pressure On The Pot [Blast from Past! A
1989 Peter Brimelow column from the London Times.]
11/25/04 - The Fulford File: Thanksgiving Roundup
11/23/05 - VDARE.COM Wishes Everybody A Happy
Thanksgiving
11/22/06 - The Fulford File Happy Thanksgiving From
VDARE.com! (While It Lasts)
