Like so many things, its original intent and its current interpretation are out of whack. Just like America. I went to hear Eugene Jarecki speak about his new book, The American Way of War: Guided Missiles, Misguided Men an a Republic in Peril and he explained the sea change that occurred in 1947 with the great expansion of the Executive branch of the government. It was supposed to be balanced with each branch counterbalancing the other. The Executive branch's fiscal and fundamental obesity epidemic is just one example of the misinterpretations.
I used to think that chicken was a protein but now that they are penned and caged they have become a fat, increasing that content threefold from lack of exercise and movement... sound like anyone you know... any ideas you know? The original idea was thanking God for the bountiful feast at the end of the harvest... or according to my fourth grade textbook, Thanksgiving was supposed to have been when The Pilgrims were saved by the Native Americans, that they had raped and pillaged, and that after being taught to plant corn -- maize -- the Pilgrims were so thankful that they invited the Indians to a supper... Bullshit.
We now know the truth about the Pilgrims and the Native Americans and instead we have turned this into an excuse to gather as families and eat until we are sick. Nice... No Native Americans or Iraqis, Iranians, or, in most white people's cases, African Americans. And certainly no French people present at the feast of reconciliation and gratitude. No, Just Uncle Frank who hates the fact that his brother carves the non-Palin-pardoned turkey poorly ( I betcha it was the one that still quaked in the background as she prattled on ) and that Aunt Alice thinks it is always "too dry" which she slurs during her fifth glass of boxed wine.
Real thanks and giving is from truth. Hard, ugly, painful truth, about ourselves and our families and our nation. So on this Thanksgiving let's try to count our blessings and not our calories, blessings not balance sheets, blessings not division, blessings not bombs.
Thanks to Barack Obama for his courage, for our children that they will get a chance to see real change occur, as Bette and Mae said, "Fasten you seat belts, it's going to be a bumpy night ( few years )."
Blessings for our path-cutters... a favorite quote from one of those Greek Genius', "Civilization flourishes when great men plant trees under the shade of which they will never stand."
Blessings for the brave who first said "No, I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore!" and put their lives and limbs on the line for us and the brave men, women and children who continue to fight for the right to fight for the right...
So this Thanksgiving let's fight for the right to disagree, to discourse, to dissemble the things that don't work and plant seeds of change whithin ourselves, our families, our communities, our Nation and our World, that they will bloom and grow and yield new truths that we will all hold... that are and should always be self-evident... That all men, women, children, of every race, creed, color, religion, sexual orientation, are created equal.
Equal for all.
Please God!
Lets Pray for Peace in our times.
God bless America...
words have different meanings than you think!
I thank god that we´re are not all equal.
My people once walked all in equality, well, no, they marched in equality. Helding up their right arm in equality. I don´t like equaltiy. It just doesn´t work. Neither with marching nor with building a wall around a country.
I just think the magic thing is RESPECTING and ACCEPTING INequality.
Happy Thanksgiving.!
Please say hello to Chris for me.
I just did my first Huffington Post Blog:
CEO to Self: “What Do I Do at Work today? I Dunno?
We do! Imagine!
You can Cut and Paste to go directly to my Blog link:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeff-dowd/ceo-to-self-what-do-i-do_b_146414.html
It is also archived for sure at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeff-dowd/
Thanks for all you do,
Jeff
The Dude Abides
www.jeffdowd.com
jeffdowd@aol.com
Much if not all of the injustice you speak of throughout our history came about from discrimination and oppression. Animal exploitation utilizes the unjust "might makes right" doctrine that allows one group to dominate another group without ever acknowledging the wrongful aspects involved. Racism, sexism, child exploitation, anti-Semitism and homophobia all employed the same prejudicial hype that because one group can hold power over another it somehow justifies the oppression and brutality involved.
Non humans are the subjects of horrible abuse brought about from this same way of thinking. Maybe this Thanksgiving thoughtful humans can reflect on our past history of violence and prejudice and truly begin to bring about CHANGE by allowing the same steps that brought us our new President to continue walking forward to include the animals of the world in our moral community. There are many reasons (human health, global warming, water pollution, grain shortages) to stop eating animals but ending the violence and ushering in a new era of compassion is real change and easy to do.
Go Vegan and nobody gets hurt.
The people in Santa Barbara who escaped with just the clothes on their backs in the Tea fire, are
grateful to be alive, and to have such a great community.
"We give thanks for our food, and remember the hungry."
Unfortunately, it is all too often the case that the counting of blessings has far more to do with self-elevation and the stroking of one’s ego than it has to with genuine gratitude in one’s communion with God. Surely our gratitude and thankfulness to God should not be measured relative to our distance from the suffering of others—sufferings, I would add, in which individually or collectively we may even have had a hand. The power of your Thanksgiving blessing Jamie is in the power of its vision of inclusiveness.
with a sense of entitlement - often over others - spiritually this is very far from the
truth or God. Thank you.
The meaning of Thanksgiving is lost in time.
Some want to use Thanksgiving as a way to remind people how EVIL the WHITE Europeans were when they traveled to the New World.
Others want to use Thanksgiving as a day to remind others that turkeys are alive and should be protected. (As if vegetation is NOT alive. Plants are born DEAD and therefore; fine for consumption.)
Thanksgiving is a day to celebrate being able to survive. To “make it” for another year.
Hundreds of explorers died when they first arrived here in America. Half of the colony of Jamestown starved to death. So, being able to eat a bird and have some corn was a bright spot in the lives of these explorers..!!
Besides, Thanksgiving is one of the only paid holidays many of us working stiffs get. Just except the freaking day.
Eat a turkey, or a tofu burger. Watch football or watch “Christmas with the Kranks.” (Great movie, by the way.)
Have fun with the day and don’t worry so much about it..!!