ThanksTaking

[Guest guest]

This day is set aside to pay reverence for what we have. But to truly

know what to give

thanks for we have to know from whence it came. Be educated on

history and herstory.

We all know a little of the native peoples of this land and the

Pilgrim colonists.

Yet the day of Thanksgiving was originally of wholly native

tradition.

The Wampanoag, the original pilgrim hosts were the first to have

strawberry festivals to give thanks.

They were the first to give praise and thanksgiving to the Great

Spirit when the green corn harvest arrived.

When the Natives saved the lives of the starving pilgrims, they sat

down to a table of wholly native

foods that were not found in the Old World. They took food from the

so called heathens and their

heathen god(s) and took native traditions. Happy ThanksTaking!

The original Wampanoag nation that hosted the Pilgrim feast were a

few decades later almost

wholly wiped out by the colonists. Happy ThanksTaking!

The thief never truly knows the value of what is taken!

So, we need to take back our consciousness and educate.

Change is not found in politics -- true change is to change

consciousness of it's citizenship !

Real education -- Real American history !

The consciousness of taking has sprouted seeds of hatred, poverty &

division.

And Democracy does have a dark side, when it is ruled by an

uneducated mob along with corporate greed.

The German citizens said after the horrors of WWII that they were

just going along with democracy!

Do we just want to go along through the continual raping & pillaging

of this world & it's environment??

All this may sound harsh but when we have oil and or dried blood on

our hands, don't we need

to get a brush and scrub it off??

And we don't have to continually accept the gov'ts version of how to

& what to celebrate. We now

celebrate rampant consumerism the day after ThanksTaking. How about

creating your own holiday

and/or traditions to go along with... Instead of ThanksTaking -- De-

colonize your mind!

How about World Peace Day, or Indigenous Education Day or Malcolm X

or whatever moves you and

whatever tradition you want to start. Instead of just shoving a dead

turkey down your throat -- think! educate! act!

Some would say why do you want to take my family holiday and attach a

negative tone?

Nobody is saying you still can't give thanks with family and fill

your tummy.

But give an educated thanks!

Don't succumb to the " white " washing of history; such as the current

tread of saying that the whites showed the Indians how to farm...

don't believe the hype!

And remember that this holiday already has negative/sad tones of

remembrance for the Native peoples; just

as with Columbus day! Respect that & decolonize your mind!!

 

Peace out

Denice

 

p.s. Of course, the Giving can be put back in the holiday; such as

with donating time & money to the

Salvation Army to feed local homeless in your area Flex your

thankfulness & givingness!