THE ELEPHANT IN THE LIBRARY
TWO
THANKSGIVING
This post series is going to be based on topic opinions that would get me dragged and dog-piled by uninformed virtue-signaling Social Justice Warriors, typing away in their suburban Pottery Barn she-caves and teenage pink unicorn bedrooms, on social media. As I always tell my Facebook friends who had never been active on Twitter... be an activist not a SJW. Social Justice Warriors have become a meme unto themselves.
(three things you might not know)
Three or four years ago there was a video circulating about the need to cancel Thanksgiving as a federal holiday because it was celebrating Native American genocide and oppression. It then went on to confusedly say the Pilgrims purposely gave the Nauset tribe of the Wampanoag Nation a blanket contaminated with smallpox which "proved" the Pilgrims had a secret agenda other than religious freedom: as in stealing land for profit. There seem to be even more of these videos out there this year.
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Well, as usual, the SJW video makers are either uneducated about this subject, or are making up "alternative facts" to make their plea to cancel Thanksgiving be taken more seriously.
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It was British Army commanders who gave two smallpox-contaminated blankets and a handkerchief to Shawnee and Lenape peoples in 1763-64 in Western Pennsylvania at Fort Pitts, not the Pilgrims in 1621. In fact, the original Pilgrims had good rapport with the Wampanoag; which is well documented on both sides.
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However, does any of this relate to our Thanksgiving holiday in the first place? No...
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Did you know that Abraham Lincoln's nine Thanksgiving Proclamations, including his final 118 Thanksgiving Day Proclamation in 1864, had nothing to do with the Pilgrims? Religious organizations added the Pilgrim "Thanksgiving" story and imagery later on.
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The final line of his 1883 proclamation, which set the last Thursday of November as the observance date were, "Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union."
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Lincoln was inspired by George Washington's one time Thanksgiving observance on Thursday November 26, 1789. Washington’s vision of a day dedicated to Thanksgiving was sparked because of the Revolutionary War. The day, in essence, was a way to come together with family and friends to appreciate the simplicities of life during troubled times. Again, the observance had nothing to do with Pilgrims.
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It was never meant to be a celebration of the Pilgrims' first harvest feast. The Pilgrims feast was not called "Thanksgiving" and was most likely celebrated sometime in late September, or in early October. It was just a continuation of a tradition they had experienced in Europe. In most agricultural societies it has been common throughout history to hold feasts and ceremonies during the time of the harvest.
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Instead of cancelling Thanksgiving...
let's center around its original intent: a way to lift morale during difficult times, a family day of togetherness and being thankful for unity (which I think most of us do anyway).
Abraham Lincoln officially sets the last Thursday of November as the national observance of Thanksgiving on October 17, 1863
As an end to the Civil War was in sight, Lincoln's 1864 proclamation was his ninth and last, as he was assassinated on April 15, 1865.
Proclamation 118—Thanksgiving Day, 1864
October 20, 1864
By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation
It has pleased Almighty God to prolong our national life another year, defending us with His guardian care against unfriendly designs from abroad and vouchsafing to us in His mercy many and signal victories over the enemy, who is of our own household. It has also pleased our Heavenly Father to favor as well our citizens in their homes as our soldiers in their camps and our sailors on the rivers and seas with unusual health. He has largely augmented our free population by emancipation and by immigration, while He has opened to us new sources of wealth and has crowned the labor of our workingmen in every department of industry with abundant rewards. Moreover, He has been pleased to animate and inspire our minds and hearts with fortitude, courage, and resolution sufficient for the great trial of civil war into which we have been brought by our adherence as a nation to the cause of freedom and humanity, and to afford to us reasonable hopes of an ultimate and happy deliverance from all our dangers and afflictions:
Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, do hereby appoint and set apart the last Thursday in November next as a day which I desire to be observed by all my fellow-citizens, wherever they may then be, as a day of thanksgiving and praise to Almighty God, the beneficent Creator and Ruler of the Universe. And I do further recommend to my fellow-citizens aforesaid that on that occasion they do reverently humble themselves in the dust and from thence offer up penitent and fervent prayers and supplications to the Great Disposer of Events for a return of the inestimable blessings of peace, union, and harmony throughout the land which it has pleased Him to assign as a dwelling place for ourselves and for our posterity throughout all generations.
ONE HUNDREAD YEARS AGO
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The date for the US Thanksgiving holiday remained on the last Thursday of November, until in 1939 the last Thursday fell on the last day of the month. President Franklin D. Roosevelt then issued a Presidential Proclamation moving Thanksgiving to the second to last Thursday of November. He was afraid the shorter Christmas shopping season would hinder the country's economic recovery from The Great Depression. Sixteen states refused to adopt the new date, so for two years there were two different observances.
This pushed Congress to set a fixed-date for the holiday. On October 6, 1941 the House passed a joint resolution declaring the last Thursday in November to be the legal Thanksgiving Day. However, the Senate amended the resolution, establishing the observance as the fourth Thursday, which would take into account those years when November has five Thursdays. The House agreed to the amendment, and President Roosevelt signed the resolution on December 26, 1941, establishing the fourth Thursday in November as the Federal Thanksgiving Day.
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The next time you see a "cancel Thanksgiving" post on social media, let them know the federal holiday has nothing to do with Pilgrims.
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Am I trying to lessen the history of suffering the Native Americans have endured since the Colonists arrived, or the way they have been treated by some state governments? Of course not, but you don't correct faulty history by creating faulty history on the other side. Let the solid truths stand for themselves.
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I think Thanksgiving is good for the country because even if you are looking at it from a religious viewpoint it's nondenominational and it has evolved to be a secular holiday. Everyone can celebrate together. It's about thankfulness, gratitude, family, and love for your fellow man. Things we all need. It's also the biggest holiday for giving to charities.
Now you would think this would be the end to the cancel conversation, but I see now there are posts and videos about the "dark secret" of Lincoln's "bloody" Thanksgiving Proclamation. I'm not going to bother to look to see how they've twisted this one.
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