Why I Fast At Thanksgiving- A Day of Mourning

[T.Ruth2power]

The nation needs it's stories, it's mythologies in order to brainwash the people giving them a point of identity whilst continuing to fleece these unwitting participants. An essential tale in the American mythology is the story of Thanksgiving. Even the name is inappropriate, were it probably titled it might likely be called ThanksTaking.

As a personal refutation of this false story, that glorifies genocide and mischaracterizes the factual historical event in just about every way possible, I choose to fast on this inglorious holiday. I fast not only out of respect for those who were colonized but also as a symbolic gesture. While the historical fabrication of Thanksgiving is scarcely on people's minds as they stuff their bodies to the gills and tune in to the latest Sports Attraction at the Coliseum, it has largely become a day that symbolizes American corpulence. So with this in mind I opt to make a symbolic gesture and fast. In this small way I refuse to perpetuate the mythology of this day and reject the gluttony that has become the American Way of Life.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

Here is the truth:

The reason they talk about the pilgrims and not an earlier English-speaking colony, Jamestown, is that in Jamestown the circumstances were way too ugly to hold up as an effective national myth. For example, the white settlers in Jamestown turned to cannibalism to survive. Not a very nice story to tell the kids in school. The pilgrims did not find an empty land any more than Columbus "discovered" anything. Every inch of this land is Indian land. The pilgrims (who did not even call themselves pilgrims) did not come here seeking religious freedom; they already had that in Holland. They came here as part of a commercial venture. They introduced sexism, racism, anti-lesbian and gay bigotry, jails, and the class system to these shores. One of the very first things they did when they arrived on Cape Cod -- before they even made it to Plymouth -- was to rob Wampanoag graves at Corn Hill and steal as much of the Indians' winter provisions as they were able to carry. They were no better than any other group of Europeans when it came to their treatment of the Indigenous peoples here. And no, they did not even land at that sacred shrine down the hill called Plymouth Rock, a monument to racism and oppression which we are proud to say we buried in 1995.



The first official "Day of Thanksgiving" was proclaimed in 1637 by Governor Winthrop. He did so to celebrate the safe return of men from Massachusetts who had gone to Mystic, Connecticut to participate in the massacre of over 700 Pequot women, children, and men.



The Puritans focused on religious piety and devotion to the Word. Because of their strong religious beliefs, the Puritans established a government that was very much interwoven with their religion. Only church members were allowed to vote, creating a society absolutely controlled by Puritan leaders. In this society, civil obedience was synonymous with duty with God.

About the only true thing in the whole mythology is that these pitiful European strangers would not have survived their first several years in "New England" were it not for the aid of Wampanoag people. What Native people got in return for this help was genocide, theft of our lands, and never-ending repression.



http://www.uaine.org/

What does anyone have to be thankful for in the genocide of the Indians that this "holyday" commemorates? As we sit with our families on Thanksgiving, taking the opportunity to get out of work or off the streets and be in a warm place with people we love, we realize that none of the things we have to be thankful for have anything at all to do with the Pilgrims or the official (sanitized) version of American history, and everything to do with the alternative, anarcho-communist lives the Indian peoples led before they were massacred by the colonists in the name of Christianity, privatization of property and the lust for gold and slave labor.

Yes, I am an American. But I am an American in revolt. I am revolted by the holiday known as Thanksgiving.

I look forward to a future where I will have children with America, and ... they will be the new Indians.