Uneven History

Uneven History

Just thinking Thanksgiving another time this year.

Thanksgiving is a great American Holiday.  We think of those rugged pioneers, sailing across the ocean in the Tiny Mayflower to the New World.  We read of the immense problems of the first year, almost half died in the first year.  Their houses were barely wooden shacks.  If we put people into houses like that now, we would be arrested.  Food was a problem, clothes wore out - it was a cruel story that we like to reflect upon.  And yet, they kept their faith and made friends with some of the Indians and even had a celebration dinner (which was quite a bit different from what most of us recently had on Thanksgiving,

But history can be fickle.  The Jamestown Colony was founded in 1607, thirteen years before the Plymouth Rock landing.  Yes, the weather was probably better in Jamestown (especially in the winter), but, this colony doesn’t receive the same recognition.

Let alone the first North American colony from European settlers at Saint Augustine Florida in 1565 - fifty-five years before the Pilgrims settled in Massachusetts.  

And, so white Europeans came to North America.  The rest of the early history shows, unfortunately, the normal movement of people.  The Native Americans (aka “Indians”) were shoved off their lands, got infected by white man’s diseases.  Eventually, with the ‘manifest destiny’ concept that white Americans of European descent ‘deserved’ to have the whole United States.  We used (and abused) Black Slaves, we moved Native Americans to reservations.  Where was Jefferson’s words “... that All Men are Created Equal” listened too?  Not even to Jefferson, who had slaves on his property.  

Mankind’s history has been too much about hating other groups.  The Hebrews, that were freed from Egypt by Moses, were told to kill all the inhabitants of the land of Canaan.  

Yes, we have killed others that are different than us, and that “we” in pretty much all mankind.  In the Middle East we have Sunni against Shia; and most of the Islamic governments against Israel,  Even in this past year, Americans have built walls to keep people out.  The famed “Melting Pot” maybe isn’t melting as much as it once was.  

I fall back on Jefferson’s words “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”  Are only white men allowed these rights?  It took many years to free slaves, to let women vote, and maybe even now to recognize that some people are just different - maybe in intelligence, maybe in sexual preference, maybe in the color of their skin, or (heaven forbid) in our beliefs in God.  

I admit to being pretty ignorant and maybe a Pollyanna, seeing the good in people, even when there isn’t much good to see.  The murder on death row is still a human, although he or she may have acted like an animal in the past.  

And, in my final thoughts to Thanksgiving - we can all give thanks - even when there isn’t much to be thankful about.  In thirty years, more or less, I will be gone from this planet.  Will it be a better place because of me?  That has to be one of my goals in my senior years.

I hope you have enjoyed your Thanksgiving, however, you celebrated - maybe even with shopping on Black Friday.

Hugs!!

Karen