12.2 Thanksgiving
When I grew up Thanksgiving was a holiday in which we remembered the pilgrims who came to America and celebrated with the Indians. It was a holiday when families got together to be grateful for America and for what they had. Today my son tells me us that he was taught that the pilgrims coming to America led to led to genocide of the American Indians. His teacher said that she was told as a child that Thanksgiving was painted as a happy picture of the pilgrims and the native Americans getting along but now we know better. We hear Gyasi Ross tell us that Thanksgiving is genocide in the MSNBC video below.
There is no question that many of the European settlers mistreated the Native Americans, however the true story of Thanksgiving is a story of friendship between Christian Europeans and Native Americans, it is also the story of people fleeing persecution and finding a better life in America. The book The First Thanksgiving by Linda Hayword is an excellent summary of the story of Thanksgiving for both adults and children even though it was written for children. Elizabeth Jamo reads it aloud in the video below.
Many American schools teach that socialism is better and more fair than capitalism. The story of Thanksgiving teaches us, that that is not the case. John Stossel explains why in the video below.
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