Simple Man Politics

Before I get started I would like to wish all of you a Happy Thanksgiving. Since this is officially Thanksgiving Day and a national holiday as declared by the US congress in 1941 I feel that it is appropriate for me to day a post on Thanksgiving and it’s origins. This will not be an intensely political post, but more of an FYI kind of post. Are you all ready to get started? Okay then lets begin.

The people who celebrated the first Thanksgiving Day feast were called separatists, but we call them pilgrims. They originally fled England for Holland to escape religious persecution and a volatile political environment in the east Midlands of England. In the Netherlands they achieved the freedom to practice their religion without fear from the Church of England or its government. However due to what many of them considered an immoral environment in the Netherlands and idea of losing their cultural identity the group arranged to establish a new colony in North America.

The colonist faced many obstacles in order to start their new colony. They faced problems from Bureaucracy and the investors themselves. They were also challenged by things like sabotage, storms, and sickness. They also had no relationships with the native peoples of the region they were to colonize and worried about the possibility of hostilities. In 1620 they landed at Plymouth Rock and established the second successful English colony in North America. Both the Plymouth and Jamestown colonies became the cornerstone of what is now The United States Of America.

The first winter for the colony was very severe. The colony suffered 47 percent fatalities that winter. Their first harvest in the fall of 1621 was very successful though thanks in large part to the aid and comfort of the indigenous people they had encountered. They chose to celebrate their bountiful harvest with the Indians who had helped them and the feast lasted for three days.

If it were not for the hardships and successes that these people experienced it is very likely that our nation would not exist. Their heirs went on to fight against the French, and later the English to avoid taxation without representation and to throw off the caste system being imposed upon them by the royal family and the ruling class. It seems that our forefathers had developed a streak of independence in the new world.

Now a days Thanksgiving doesn’t mean much more to us than a paid holiday if you work for Uncle Sam or a bank. You can sit around all day watching Macy's Thanksgiving day parade and football on TV. You can also stuff your face with all kinds of good food and then pass out from the exhaustion that occurs from such unhindered consumption. You get to renew old friendships and relearn all the idiosyncrasies of your family members. With any luck you might even get to hear the Arlo Guthrie classic Alice’s Restaurant. Many radio stations will still play it on Thanksgiving.

Whatever you do on Thanksgiving though it is good to remember its history, where those people came from, and why. The sacrifices they made and the hardships that they endured to reach the new world are what makes this day and our nation so special and precious. Thanks to their need to have the freedom to practice their religion without persecution all of this came into being.

So thank god for their strength when you give thanks for all that you have and enjoy today. Have a little tolerance for those who wish to practice their religion and allow me the freedom to practice mine, because freedom of religion is really the core belief behind this great nation we call The United States Of America.

I will not be posting anything before next week, but I will be back on Monday with another one. I wish you all a very happy Thanksgiving and a wonderful weekend. It’s time for me to go get ready for my family and friends, watch some football, and prepare myself for my day of excess, CIAO4NOW!!!!!