I Just Want to Break Bread…I Don’t Need a History Lesson…

Every Thanksgiving I am always reminded by those online about the travesties of Thanksgiving and how we as a people should unsubscribe to the “holiday” and what the country represents. My friend feed is bombarded by the hundreds that feel that “Thanksgiving” is a farce and any African American or Native Americans that subscribes to the holiday are traitors and should be treated as outcasts.

Seriously I just want to break bread, I don’t need a history lesson. Besides, I already know how this country was formulated; I know how many lives were lost building this country, I know about the slaves that were captured and brought here. I know how much was taken for granted. I know all the lies that continue to circulate to keep man enslaved even now. Knowledge is power, however, just how much power can a man exude if he doesn’t even understand what has been shown to him?

It’s great to open a book and read about the history of the nation. However, it’s still hate if one still continues to try to keep the nation divided by forming separate groups of people, each determined to prove they are greater than the next group; then only letting them out long enough to capture a few rays of sunlight and feeding them just enough. Nothing nutritious enough or salient enough to build a strong healthy foundation. Just enough rhetoric to keep them still, so that they think they are satiated, when in fact they are really starving. Starving for knowledge, starving for truth, and starving for love. That’s how cult leaders are able to control their “flock.” They starve them mentally, then turn around and feed them a twisted sick fantasy….over and over and over. After awhile the lies are the gospel truth and the flock grows larger. (I’m not trying to dispel in any way shape or form how America was formed. I’m not renouncing the bloodshed, the trails of tears, the raping and pillaging. I’m just saying enough already.)

Let’s just stop for one moment and think about the concept of Thanksgiving. Basing this loosely on the 3rd to 5th grade lessons for Thanksgiving, the Wampanoag Indians and the first harvest:

The Indians in the classic Thanksgiving story are the Wampanoags, a tribe that has lived for thousands of years in what is today coastal Massachusetts and Rhode Island. The Wampanoags experienced difficult times during the beginning of the 1600s when they were attacked by a warring tribe to the north; they were also devastated by a series of epidemics that killed many of their people – all but one of the Patuxet Wompanoag tribe. Then, in 1620, a ship carrying European settlers landed off the coast of Massachusetts. The people, who would eventually be called Pilgrims, started a settlement at an abandoned Patuxet Wampanoag village. Some native people helped them through their first difficult year (nearly half of the Pilgrims starved to death) teaching them how to grow and gather native food. The two groups signed a treaty of friendship that probably meant very different things to each of them. Because the Wampanoags, like most Native Americans, had no concept of owning land, it was most likely just a sign of goodwill. In European culture, however, a treaty meant the land now belonged to them. The Wampanoags also probably found no harm in signing such a pact with a group of people who seemed so harmless and inept; after all, the white settlers were struggling just to stay alive. When the Pilgrims harvested their first crop, about a year after their arrival, they shared some food with Wampanoags who happened to be visiting. This was the first Thanksgiving. (I borrowed this from: http://www.teachervision.fen.com/native-americans/lesson-plan/3358.html)

Now… if 3rd to 5th grade teachers are censoring how much they teach about the bloodshed that actually took place during the First Thanksgiving to these children, don’t you think we too can put down the bloodshed, the tears and the hatred and share a meal?

I think the main context of Thanksgiving is sharing. Share a meal with someone. Share a bit of your time helping others, especially those in need. Share your heart. Give love and spread joy. Shouldn’t that be more important than sharing stories of bloodshed and carnage?

I’m tired of all the hatred and I am tired of specific hate groups sitting in their private cul-de-sac in the world…smoking weed…completely impervious to the world and its issues…(separatism does not bring the world together….)

I have no problem saying Happy Thanksgiving to others because I am thankful for everything. I don’t just relegate it to that one day on the calendar. I am thankful for every day that I have on this earth. Each day spans a new chapter, and each new chapter creates a new experience.

I am thankful for it all.

(“…..life has so much to show you…you must be ready for the new….” – Earth Wind & Fire – The Changing Times, from the Album, “Raise!“)

One thought on “I Just Want to Break Bread…I Don’t Need a History Lesson…”

korahomes says:

November 26, 2012 at 12:06 pm

I think forgetting the history and ignoring denotes the pain that STILL occurs this day. If you want to share about the history with the Wampanoags, we need to talk about the other history too, otherwise it’s still degrading. It continues to ignore the traditional ways and culture of a people who believe in storytelling as a tradition to tell the whole story, as long as it may be. You can break bread everyday of your life and choose to live it as a lifestyle, you don’t need it as a national holiday. I think the point is that Thanksgiving now, has little to do with that event listed about and taught in school. Wikipedia even has very little mention of it. Many of these people groups would just be happy if it was dropped from explanation, and history was told correctly, instead of from a white colonial Eurocentric perspective as it always has. It is a painful reminder that little has changed, that voices are still ignored, and that cultural han is still greatly plaguing the people.