Originally posted by googlefudge
Thanksgiving... Isn't that where Americans binge on turkeys a month too early to celebrate wiping out Native Americans?


Anyhow, I hope you enjoy yours.

Any excuse to have fun family time is a good excuse... I think...

Not exactly. As someone already stated, it is primarily a chance to look back over the past year and give thanks for our blessings.

As for Native Americans, you're singing to the choir. I'm one-eighth Cheyenne, a Native American tribe allied with the Lakota Sioux.

Originally posted by googlefudge
Well It should be noted that (and tone on the internets is always hard) that
my op was more mild ribbing than serious.

However I would view it as ironic that a civilisation should hold an annual
celebration of having received help from a peoples they nearly exterminated.

And if it is to have a meaning other than being an excuse to get together ...[text shortened]... g ticket items in the history of the USA are Slavery, and the persecution
of Native Americans.

"And they have this history. Everyone has history they can be ashamed of, and the big ticket items in the history of the USA are Slavery, and the persecution of Native Americans."

While you're on the "holier than thou" British soapbox let me remind you that the institution of slavery was established in North America and other places within the British Empire long before the USA existed. It was your government that allowed this institution to establish itself and take root here that subsequently required the bloodshed of tens of thousands of Americans to abolish. Not to mention that your empire also failed to abolish it until the 19th century outside of the USA. 1833 to be exact, well except for the additional 10 year grace period given to the East India Company of course. Good for you for getting rid of the institution your empire created 20 years before and with less bloodshed than your former colony.

And while we're on the subject of treatment of indigenous people should we discuss the treatment of Aborigines in Australia?

Yes your right we all have history we can be ashamed of. Seems like your "big ticket" items are the same as ours.

Originally posted by KellyJay
Amazing something as simple as wishing people a good day of thanks still
has us going at each other. ;(
Kelly

November 28, 2013 "Today is Thanksgiving Day. Although the Thanksgiving festivities celebrated by the Pilgrims and a tribe of Wampanoag Indians happened in 1621, it wasn't until 1789 that the newly sworn-in President George Washington declared, in his first presidential proclamation, a day of national "thanksgiving and prayer" for that November.

The holiday fell out of custom, though, and by the mid 1800s only a handful of states officially celebrated Thanksgiving, on a date of their choice. It was the editor of a women's magazine, Sarah Josepha Hale, a widow and the author of the poem "Mary Had a Little Lamb," who campaigned for a return of the holiday. For 36 years, she wrote articles about the Plymouth colonists in her magazine, trying to revive interest in the subject, and editorials suggesting a national holiday. Hale wrote to four presidents about her idea — Taylor, Fillmore, Pierce, and Buchanan — before her fifth letter got notice. In 1863, exactly 74 years after Washington had made his proclamation, President Lincoln issued his own, asking that citizens "in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise." He requested prayers especially for those widowed and orphaned by the ongoing Civil War, as well as gratitude for "fruitful fields," enlarging borders of settlements, abundant mines, and a burgeoning population." http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/index.php?date=2013/11/28

Originally posted by KellyJay
Amazing something as simple as wishing people a good day of thanks still
has us going at each other. ;(
Kelly

No good deed goes unpunished!

Originally posted by robbie carrobie
Actually i would like a debate on whether celebrating thanksgiving really is morally reprehensible

Now, now, it's a holiday and we all know how the Watchtower feels about celebrating anything.

As for myself, I always like Thanksgiving because it was a day set aside just to be thankful. There is no Santa Clause, no Easter Bunny, no ridiculous side show that hijacks the meaning of a particular holiday. And then stores started opening on Thanksgiving for the Christmas rush to buy, buy, buy!!

I watched a lady on the news say that she felt bad because she was not spending time with her children on Thanksgiving, but then rationalized it all away by saying she was doing it all for them. LOL.

Originally posted by Ullr
"And they have this history. Everyone has history they can be ashamed of, and the big ticket items in the history of the USA are Slavery, and the persecution of Native Americans."

While you're on the "holier than thou" British soapbox let me remind you that the institution of slavery was established in North America and other places within the British Empire ...[text shortened]... all have history we can be ashamed of. Seems like your "big ticket" items are the same as ours.

great one you are back! have you brought the Meade of poetry?

Originally posted by robbie carrobie
great one you are back! have you brought the Meade of poetry?

Haha!! I never really left Robbie. Just read along quietly for the most part. No mead of poetry will be forthcoming from me. I'm just a beer brewer. A disciple of Aegir if you will.