Thanksgiving

Recently, I read some websites about the very first Thanksgiving. I admit, I am not an expert on that subject in any way. I did find various facts pretty interesting. They mention that there were 53 surviving Pilgrims, along with some 90 Indians, and the feast went on for about three days. Ooh...my tummy gets bloated after three hours at the dinner table.

I was thinking about the Indians. They were Wampanoag living in their native New England lands. The arrival of the Europeans on those native lands had left entire villages decimated with European diseases of which the Wampanoag and other indigenous tribes had no immunity. The Wampanoag
 formed alliances with the English settlers in a alliance against other Indian tribes like the Narragansett.


The Pilgrims were English settlers who had migrated to Holland. The King of England had granted them papers to settle in Virginia, but they had landed and settled in New England instead. The alliance with the Wampanoag during these crucial settlement years helped the Pilgrims to gain a foothold in the new world. Later, after the leaders of the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag had passed on, the next generations found that European values and native values were a tough mix. Eventually war broke out between the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag. The Wampanoag were destroyed in these wars, although there are still descendants of this tribe living in New England today.

To this day the North American continent stands like a beacon to peoples of the world. They see the natural riches of our country. They see our freedoms and our democracy. They see opportunities to lift their families out of poverty and into respectability. They saw those things back then, as undocumented Pilgrims. And they see those opportunities now, as illegal aliens or whatever other term we choose to use for them.

I know that I have so much to be thankful for, at this time of year I do think about all that. I'm grateful for family, blessings, food on my table, and a roof over my head. I'm thankful for this great country that I live in, and the foresight of our founders for hammering out the charter for our freedoms. I'm grateful for the soldiers who have fought for our freedoms over the years, and for those soldiers fighting for us today. I know that I have a lot to be thankful for, and I guess I just don't hold a lot of rancor for those that want the same blessings and freedoms as those I enjoy.

For Another Viewpoint on this same topic, click here.