Thanksgiving 2012

 

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Thanksgiving 2012

Thanksgiving is a controversial holiday. To some, it's a time of reflection and joy. To others, it's a time of mourning. It represents a time in America that's unique. Thanksgiving celebrations have been happening by different cultures, religions, and peoples all over the world for thousands of years. Harvest festivals predate the pilgrims by millenia (likely since the dawn of human agriculture). So, universally, a real thanksgiving celebration is a human celebration. Now, during this day and this time of the year, it is right to execute charity and help those who are less fortunate than us. Now, during this day, we should acknowledge the genocide of Native Americans as evil. As Americans, we should apologize & atone to what happened to the indigenous people indeed. Families come to work together and eat food. I will admit that I ate specialized food during Thanksgiving like turkey, stuffing, collard greens, apple pie, sweet potato pie, sweet potatoes (I love sweet potatoes), bread rolls, greens, cranberries, yams, peaches, and tons of other pieces of food. Many of us Americans during this time of the year become very full when we finish our feasts. When it's feast for us, it's going to be A FEAST. Relatives, friends, and loved ones today to have reminisces about life, humor, fun, and common camaraderie with each other. Many families come to celebrate what they are thankful for indeed. Even if you reject Thanksgiving for moral or political reasons, you should at least find time in the year to be thankful of your blessings given unto you by the Creator. Many people during Thanksgiving and other times of the year are legitimately sending food to those who are hunger (or need assistance). That's great and any human beings that sends almsgiving to human beings for the purpose of assisting a human being ought to be greatly respected. There is nothing wrong with praising God in private or openly out of a sincere motivation. Thanksgiving in America describes the history of the Native Americans, Pilgrims, and other concepts. The Pilgrims were right to advocate the freedom of religion.  The Pilgrims promoted the separation of church and state. They were religiously persecuted by the Romish-Episocpacy in England. They traveled into Holland for 11-12 years (from ca. 1608-1620). Many President like George Washington made Thanksgiving a one time holiday celebration. President Abraham Lincoln made Thanksgiving a national holiday in 1863 in the midst of the Civil War. Thanksgiving was made in the fourth Thursday of November every year by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1939 and this policy was approved by Congress in 1941. The freedom to believe in what you want is one inspiring cornerstone of American thinking. Many people of every color shed blood and died throughout human history for the sake of us to have the right to believe in what religion we want (or to have no belief at all). Religious freedom is a breadrock principle of human rights. Individuals like Malcolm X, Dr. Martin Luther King, John F. Kennedy, Thomas Helwys, Roger Williams, and William Tyndale advocated the great concept of religious freedom. For record, I believe in God. The Pilgrims migrated into America as a means to promote their own livelihood and to escape some of the theocratic actions of the Anglican Church. The Pilgrims weren't perfect though. They were wrong in some of them advancing the wrongheaded oppression against Native Americans in the region of New England. The modern Thanksgiving holiday in America came from the 1621 celebration at Plymouth Plantation. There was where the Plymouth settlers ate with the Native Americans after a successful growing season. The Pilgrims were almost starving to death until the Native Americans aided them in growing crops and learning the lay of the land. Squanto (or a man who was a Pawtuxet Native American) taught the Pilgrims on how to catch eel and grow corn. He or Squanto knew how to speak English via his travels in England. Squanto resided with the Wampanoag tribe. Even the Wampanoag leader Massasoit donated food stores to the fledging colony during the first winter when supplies brought from England were insufficient. The Pilgrims owed a huge debt of gratitude to the Native Americans. The Pilgrims celebrated at Plymouth for three days after their first harvest, in 1621. Seventeenth century accounts do not identify this as a Thanksgiving observance, rather it followed the harvest. In the fall of 1621, the harvest feast among the European colonists and the Native Americans were peacefull. There was celebration spanning three days. King Massasoit was with ninety of his men. There was wild foul, venison, ducks, geese, turkeys, and other food ate between the Native Americans & the Pilgrims. Two colonists gave personal accounts of the 1621 feast in Plymouth, Massachusetts. There have been thanksgiving ceremonies in the four corners of the Earth among thousands of years. In 1578, Frobisher Bay was the site of the first Thanksgiving on Anglo-American soil. In other words, Martin Frobisher held a thanksgiving feast following a safe return from his unsuccessful search for the Northwest Passage (which evolved into the Canadian Thanksgiving holiday).


There are only two contemporary accounts of the 1621 Thanksgiving: First is Edward Winslow's account, which he wrote in a letter dated December 12, 1621. The complete letter was first published in 1622 showing the following information:

"Our corn [i.e. wheat] did prove well, and God be praised, we had a good increase of Indian corn, and our barley indifferent good, but our peas not worth the gathering, for we feared they were too late sown. They came up very well, and blossomed, but the sun parched them in the blossom. Our harvest being gotten in, our governor sent four men on fowling, that so we might after a special manner rejoice together after we had gathered the fruit of our labors. They four in one day killed as much fowl as, with a little help beside, served the company almost a week. At which time, amongst other recreations, we exercised our arms, many of the Indians coming amongst us, and among the rest their greatest king Massasoit, with some ninety men, whom for three days we entertained and feasted, and they went out and killed five deer, which they brought to the plantation and bestowed on our governor, and upon the captain and others. And although it be not always so plentiful as it was at this time with us, yet by the goodness of God, we are so far from want that we often wish you partakers of our plenty."

The second description was written about twenty years after the fact by William Bradford in his History Of Plymouth Plantation. Bradford's History was rediscovered in 1854 after having been taken by British looters during the Revolutionary War. Its discovery prompted a greater American interest in the history of the Pilgrims.  It is also in this account that the Thanksgiving turkey tradition is founded. On March 22, 1621, the Pilgrims of Plymouth Colony signed a peace treaty with Massasoit of the Wampanoags. Massasoit was humane and honest, never violated his word, and constantly endeavored to imbue his people with a love of peace. Good relations between the Massachusetts colonists and the Wampanoag lasted nearly a century after the frist Thansgiving celebration. Many religions have thanksgiving special ceremonies. So, I do celebrate thanksgiving as a means to be thankful for who I am (and the struggles of humanity) not as a means to glamorize the evil, unjust oppression against Native Americans (and the land theft of the Americas by terrorists basically). I will continue to be thankful of my blessings in my life indeed. Just because poor people will be among us, doesn't mean we shouldn't fight against poverty. We have the great right to fight against poverty in season and out of season. Also, from a moral and social standpoint, economic fairness is superior to promoting an austerity agenda, which will harm the citizenry. I look forward for the glory of the coming of the Lord, but the Lord gives us a brain to help our neighbors out via public and private means. Therefore scapegoating, discrimination, persecution, etc. collectively of any people is an affront to all people. If a person is deprived of basic human freedoms, you don't have a truly free society. It is just a matter of all people having the right to possess human rights and human dignity. All men are created equal and I  will treat my neighbor as myself. These concepts are as old as the Scriptures and as clear as the American Constitution. The world is changing and near theocratic rhetoric mixed with reactionary propaganda has been rejected by the vast majority of the American people.

The Struggle Continues
 

Now, the reactionaries want secession including Alex Jones. When, people experienced Jim Crow and Vietnam, they didn't call for secession. When, the Federal Reserve came about in 1913, they didn't clamor for secession. They didn't call for secession when the Iraq War was instituted either ninety years after the FED was formulated. When even the War on Drugs and huge violations to our civil liberties (of the 1960's) transpired, there was no intrepid call for secession either by them. When a centrist Black American President comes along (with imperfections of course, but he isn't a Communist), then they whine and yell. They accuse minorities and other people of wanting free stuff (which is a lie), but they whine and yell when Romney isn't President. Yes, Alex Jones has publicly said that he wanted Mitt Romney to win the 2012 election with his disagreements of him. He's nothing more than a closet Republican trying to act populist as a means to appeal to people. That is why when you find out his true policies, Alex Jones says nothing on labor rights, nothing on a true war on poverty, nothing on economic inequality, nothing on immigrant rights, and definitely nothing on the system of white supremacy. Unilateral secession is blatantly illegal, but I will say if the reactionaries want to leave; let them leave. They or the reactionaries don't respect America truly anyway. They don't like true social, cultural diversity that is found in the real United States of America. They don't respect election results that don't go their way. Many of them are prone to use racist, anti-woman, anti-poor, pro-theocratic, and anti-immigrant invectives. They want to believe in an archaic system where economic neo-feudalism (or the failed system of trickled down economics), not economic populism is the order of the day. Joseph Blocher, an assistant professor at the School of Law, said states have no legal basis for seceding. In the 1869 case Texas v. White, the Supreme Court ruled unilateral secession unconstitutional. Alex Jones supports the John Birch Society, which has ties to reactionary groups. One founder of the JBS was Revilo P. Oliver and he founded the white nationalist Neo-Nazi organization called the National Alliance (this group named Hitler the greatest man of our era, which is sick). The JBS is known for slandering JFK and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. back decades ago. The JBS opposed the Civil Rights Movement including legitimate Civil Rights legislation. The John Birch Society praised apartheid and campaigned for the then segregationist George Wallace in his Presidential campaign run. The reactionaries talk about individual rights. There is nothing wrong with exposing the new world order agenda, but using reactionary rhetoric as a means to do so isn't my thing. I do believe in individual rights, but what I don't agree with is the exploitation of the individual as a means to destroy the social safety net. The social safety net is one part (of our many items) that built up this nation. It took public funds to end the Great Depression, to construct our interstate highways, and to proceed to end Jim Crow apartheid inside of the scope of the American landscape. These great historical, monumentus occurences represent the essence of efficient government not the archaic philosophy of "no federal government at all costs." The government should promote the general welfare not to suppress it. That means that human rights comes from God not from the state. That means that not even the state should have unconditional powers to do whatever it wants. There is a limitation on state power and the power of corporations as well. Corporations aren't people.

Peter Schiff is one of the most extreme members of the Austrian economic movement. He blatantly endorses austerity and the agenda of the1 percent by his own words. He's a big shill. He blames the people and the government for our economic crisis instead of the international banking oligarchy (which has caused boons and busts including predatory capitalism for centuries in the globe). Schiff ignores the fact that corporate corruption ought to be exposed, the Laffer Curve has been discredited, and the right spending can help our economy greatly. He blamed the Great Depression solely on the government, which is a lie. The Great Depression was created by the policies from the big banks and their manipulation of economic currency (including deflation of assets, speculation, the crash of stocks, etc.). Peter Schiff promotes the gold standard policy when he's on the payroll of numerous gold related companies. Peter seems to omit that in a complex society, you need reasonable regulations, strong protections of human liberties, and legitimate government interventions to prevent anarchy, greed, fraud, etc. The Koch brothers promote Schiff's ideologies. Peter Schiff is an extremist that wants huge cuts to our social safety net and he wants even tax increases on middle income earners. Massive tax increases to the middle class will surely cause a very strong economic recession instead of a financial recovery. This person even wants to have cuts to Social Security (that has no massive bearing on the deficit) and Medicare. This shows to me that his economic philosophy is a recipe for disaster. Yes, Infowars.com supports this extremist too. Deflation kills economic growth since the cutting of the value of products is wrong. When you have old school reactionaries like Schiff (and Alex Jones, who promotes unilateral secession, which is a neo-Confederate doctrine. I reject the agenda of neo-Confederates since they oppose labor rights, they support austerity, they definitely hate immigrant rights, and they believe in the fairy tale of American exceptionalism) claiming to be like revolutionaries (when they are not), then you know that we have a problem here. The big picture is that we need a fiscal policy that can sustain full employment, increase sufficient aggregate demand in the economy relative to its real productive capacity, and to reduce economic inequality. We know that neoliberalism facilitates economic inequality. That is why investments and tax increases on the super-rich can increase revenues (along with other policies). Peter Schiff made the ignorant comment that people who voted against Mitt Romney are idiots. Peter is obviously dead wrong. This puppet Peter Schiff ignores the fact that progressive policies after WWII radically increased our standard of living for decades. People like Peter Schiff use fear mongering about financial issues. We should never promote that mindset. Didn't Alex Jones say that Mitt Romney would be elected the 45th President of America? LOL. I assume that he his prediction is proven wrong. Alex Jones is wrong to assume that the President wants to ban all guns. You can disagree with the President's views on guns via reasonable arguments, but he didn't explicitly say that he wants to ban guns from all citizens in America. Jones is proven wrong just like his predictions about Y2K. You can't blame the government for everything and be an accurate thinker. The issue is that we need efficient government, fairness, and equality not fear mongering. Englebert Stockhammer's book on economics proves that austerity didn't work in Europe to cause economic growth. Greece has been declining in its GDP including its wages as a product of austerity policies. We should advance truth, liberty, hope, and moving forward with our lives instead.

 

Not everything is bad in the world either. One piece of good news is that an appeals panel struck down Michigan's ban on affirmative action in college admissions. "We will immediately be asking the University of Michigan to reinstate" affirmative action programs, said George Washington, lead attorney for Detroit-based By Any Means Necessary. "There has been a one-third to 50 percent drop" in minority admissions since the ban took effect, he said. This can influence the Supreme Court to preserve affirmative action in their 2013 decision on affirmative (as it relates to the University of Texas' policies). Four activists were acquitted of all charges but disorderly conduct charges. These protested at a Queens, New York City police precinct last year. Stop Stop-and-Frisk organizer Carl Dix said that the prosecutors wanted to convict them for one year in jail. Charges are still pending against nine other people in Brooklyn (that demonstrated). Dix said that he wants to fight against the police abuse of power since there is still a huge police brutality problem in the USA. According to the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, more than 140 African Americans have been murdered by the police and other via their authority cloak since 2012. The struggle still continues for liberation and justice among humanity.

These reactionaries cry about welfare when most people on it aren't people of color in the USA at all. Welfare can be good for those that need it. I have some disagreements with the President, but I don't express irrational hatred of the President though. Irrational hatred is silly, immature, and not how a real person should act at all. I don't agree with the President on foreign policy and civil liberty matters, but I have no issues with the following policies: the stimulus package, the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, The Claims Resolution Act of 2010 (that gave billions of dollars to African American farmers and Native Americans farmers who were cheated out of loans), and the legitimate parts of the Affordable Care Act. I believe in self-defense and the Second Amendment. On the other hand, I will not use my belief in private gun ownership as an excuse to promote war mongering, discrimination, a lax attitude toward gun violence in our communities, and intolerance at all. When the tough gets going, I don't whine or scapegoat people. I fight the system constructively. I speak out. I write and I help humanity without demagogic rhetoric. The neo-Confederates may hate us, but in the end, we will win. The truth will always rise above the gray coats of this modern era. We beat them in 1865 and in 1965. We defeated them in the streets of Montgomery, Alabama and in other locations of America to grant real rights to human beings irrespective of their background or creed. We will continue to beat them ideologically. I thank God that the Confederates lost the Civil War. I thank Almighty God that the truth will prevail, diversity is beautiful, and the dream continues to live on forever and ever. American diversity is beautiful, rich, colorful, and wonderful. Diversity is great.

By Timothy