It is always important for a people to remember their story. It provides insight into who they are, why they do what they do, and where they might be headed. This morning, as I sit in my pajamas watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, surrounded by the newspaper adds for holiday sales and the food waiting in the kitchen to be cooked… I thought it would be a good idea to look back at our Thanksgiving story.
When we last saw our Pilgrim Heroes, they had just crossed the mighty Atlantic in search of “the new world” (or, as the natives who were already living here called it, “home”). They had every intention of sailing further south to warmer waters and milder winters. But there was a problem: They were out of beer. That’s right… beer. One journal written from the boat described the reasons they were stopping:
“Our vittles are low, especially the beer.”
So they pulled over near what is now Cape Cod, and it didn’t take long to realize they might not have what it takes to survive. Religious freedom is good and all, but if you can’t find food it doesn’t really matter your faith. By this point our Pilgrim Heroes had encountered the Indians, but out of fear and ignorance they didn’t ask for help. Instead, when the locals weren’t looking, the Pilgrims stole the corn reserves the Indians had stored up for the winter. And as if that weren’t enough, they looted and desecrated the local’s tombs in search of items buried with the dead which might help in their search for a better life in a new world.
It did not take long before the Indians came after the new immigrants in order to defend what was theirs. But our heroes had a secret weapon: the gun. After shooting at, chasing off and defeating the Indians for getting in the way of their right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, our Pilgrim Heroes thanked God for giving them such a sure victory over their enemies, and then moved on to Plymouth Rock.
And a foreign policy was born.
Today, beyond parade costumes and busy kitchens, we continue to reenact the Pilgrim’s story. We still follow their “foreign policy of freedom” in the Middle East. And we remember what these “first immigrants” taught us about how immigration can destroy the local population, and so have begun to set up laws to make sure history doesn’t repeat itself.
It is good for a people to know their story. It provides insight into who they are, why they do what they do, and where they might be headed. On this day which we have set aside to give thanks - as we eat more food than the poor will ever know, and then shop and spend money we don’t have on things we don’t need - let us pause and remember our first defenders of freedom and officers of homeland security: Our Pilgrim Heroes.
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5 comments:
best one yet
cynicism is the product of a defeated wit.
We all know how unbiased NPR is.
There is also one fatal flaw in your assesment. Indians didn't represent a threat to the world, only each other. The militant factions in the Middle East are indeed a world threat.
And so because the natives weren't globally mobilized they didn't matter? the fact that the new settlers completely ovetrthrew a continent doesn't seem like a major injustice? although I'm as unlearned and biased as your mother...
I enjoyed this post and had thought similar things during thanksgiving... Thanks.
Pitiful.
Why do you hate America so much?
Understand this, we are a work in progress. We led the free world and fought a Civil War to END slavery.
What other nation was able to accomplish such a feat less than a hundred years after it's birth?
What can be said of the Muslim nations who sold the slaves and continue to enslave millions even as we speak?
A suggestion...when you gather with your family at Thanksgiving next, trot out that bit of trivia as you bless the meal. I doubt you'd be welcomed back.
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