Thanksgiving: A dinner of distortion
Thanksgiving: a time to give thanks, be with family, eat to capacity and watch football. Some would call it the “all-American” day. We are taught from a young age that Thanksgiving is this magical day when the Pilgrims and the Indians stopped their fighting and shared a peaceful meal. But we all know that's a load of crap. Yeah, this is a great story to tell kids, and though it’s probably wise to leave out the part of Pilgrims burning down villages, stealing land and killing off thousands, I think it’s time to ditch this narrative and just enjoy the holiday.I know what you're probably thinking right about now. You just want to enjoy your stuffing and family time and not have to worry about political correctness on a wonderful four-day weekend. Honestly, I’m with you. Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. But, Americans have been ignoring problems for way too long. The treatment of Native Americans has been downright atrocious and at some point it has to stop. The fact that Americans still think it’s OK to wear traditional Native American headdresses to music festivals and to have a football team named the Redskins should be evidence enough that American Indian culture just isn’t respected in this country. We owe it to Native Americans to swallow our pride and own up to the mistakes that caused the destruction of much of a previously strong culture. How hard is it to admit that we messed up? There is absolutely no reason to celebrate a fictitious story about ancestors who, in reality, did a lot of awful things. It’s not like we have a problem with changing the history of the holiday seen as we have made it all about eating turkey. For those that don't know, the Pilgrims didn’t sit down and have some turkey and gravy. I know we love to hold ever so tightly to our history in this country but sometimes you have to make some changes.Now I’m not saying get rid of Thanksgiving; I just want to stop the basically made-up history behind it. We live in a country where we are very fortunate and there are so many things to be thankful for. For example, instead of having Veteran’s Day on the 11th, that could be Thanksgiving. When kids ask why we celebrate Thanksgiving, the answer would be not only to be thankful for what we have but to the people who protect our country. And we could apply this to any other day. Memorial Day, Christmas, and Halloween could all be days to give thanks for different things. Really the meaning of Thanksgiving can be changed to anything; it just can't stay as a construed story of extreme oppression. As long as I can sit around with people I love, watch football and give thanks, I’m good. Isn’t that what Thanksgiving is all about?