An Open Letter Re Thanksgiving

Reading Thanksgiving items on the internet yesterday brought me to this one:

“Angelina Jolie Hates Thanksgiving, Refuses to Celebrate”

By doing so, she misses a marvelous teaching opportunity. Celebrating the remembrance of the Pilgrim’s harvest thanksgiving has all the aspects of the best America has to offer, then and today.

The Pilgrims left their homes because of persecution. They were not allowed to worship as they saw the Bible telling them. They were treated as second-class citizens in their own country because a secular government was tied to religious beliefs. There was no separation between church and state, so the Pilgrims left their state for a land they had only heard about. Let’s set aside religious applications for a moment and stick to a secular view of this event.

They had no idea what they were going into. Their first crops failed miserably and that first winter took a terrible toll. But some survived. That gives us the rest of the story. Thanks to Native American hospitality, the Wampanoag taught them how to cultivate their land and how to fish. The Wampanoag saved this Pilgrim colony from starvation and they celebrated the following harvest together.

There’s a lot of that today, and that’s what we should be celebrating. Diverse cultures working together, achieving more than they did alone.

Colonization happened all around the world. It does not appear that any native peoples have benefited from such, but we are all here today to determine the directions our nations will take. Do we celebrate the times we worked together and created more than what was there? Or do we look at the examples of the worst mankind has to offer and enjoy only the depression it brings?

We do not overlook those errors made by mankind throughout the ages. We should learn from them and give thanks for what we have learned.

The celebration in 1621 that we recall each year shows us diversity, the melding of two cultures, and the ability to look forward. The years in between held good and bad – let us learn from the good for examples to follow, never forgetting the bad while committing that they will not recur.

Those years have brought us a culture that allows Ms. Jolie the opportunity for a career whose income is beyond comprehension by most of the world. That culture allows for the diversity first displayed in 1621 and allows Ms. Jolie to choose her children from anywhere in the world.

She would do well by them to celebrate this joyous national holiday and to give thanks her children are being raised with opportunities the rest of their birth families never had, may be cannot hope to have.

I pray that the American culture of freedom we and her family enjoy will continue to exist and will continue to improve.

I however, also lend to this celebration that religious faith I sat aside a few graphs earlier. Among the many things for which I offer thanks throughout the year is the freedom to worship the Lord, my God, as many have since He created.

To the end that my glory may sing praise to thee, and not be silent. O LORD my God, I will give thanks unto thee for ever. (Psalms 30:12 KJV)

"The First Thanksgiving", by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris (1863-1930) (Wiki Commons)