The real meaning of our Thanksgiving

© 2007 Michael Swickard, Ph.D.

We are confronted with controversy about Thanksgiving. Growing up in the 1950s I thought Thanksgiving was a simple celebration of our gratitude. And it was celebrated that way in my house. But there are people among us who wish to change the true meaning of Thanksgiving into something political and sinister. I am tired of this politically correct crap.

No one holds a gun to your head at Thanksgiving and says, “Have more Turkey with dressing.” You do not have to celebrate, just as you can celebrate Christmas or Hanukah as you choose.

Celebrations that give thanks are pretty high on my list. I have much for which to give thanks. Maybe you do not. Again, celebrate if you want. No one is making you celebrate.

If there is a desire for a theme, it is that the celebration is tied to the worldwide tradition of harvest festivals. Anyone who farms knows that giving thanks is a big part of farming. But what makes Thanksgiving so American is it is also tied by our leaders to our troubled times.

General George Washington proclaimed from the Revolutionary War battlefield on Dec. 17, 1777, “Tomorrow being the day set apart by the Honorable Congress for public Thanksgiving and Praise; and duty calling us devoutly to express our grateful acknowledgements to God for the manifold blessings he has granted us…”

The first presidential proclamation issued by Washington Oct. 3, 1789, “…recommend to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God…”

President Abraham Lincoln Oct. 3, 1863 proclaimed, “… I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens…”

On December 26, 1941 Congress passed a law fixing Thanksgiving on the fourth Thursday in November. All four above examples show what a nation does in the face of trying times. It gives thanks to God for our blessings.

Thanksgiving is not about Americans Indians; it is about how we, as a people, have dealt with adversity. To this day there have always been adversities that threatened our very existence.

Shake off our addition to the race card

Some people postulate Thanksgiving should not be celebrated; rather, it should be a day of mourning for what native people lost over the centuries. I do not agree, since successive bands of indigenous people before written history have uprooted other peoples. The indigenous conquerors were then conquered by Europeans. It is the nature of people during all time to conquer and then be conquered. We did not make the rules; we just played more effectively.

It is true the pilgrims set sail for America without regard to the immigration laws of the new land. They did not know exactly where they were going. Little did they realize they were going to a place where plague wiped out thousands of people. They settled amid a war among the Indians where leaders were kidnapped and others killed.

These Indians did not have an immigration policy because it had no real meaning to their lives. To apply our standards to their lives is wrong. However, we can note that most politicians in Washington do not want to apply immigration laws right now, so what is the difference? Our ancestors came and persevered, without complying with any laws of immigration. Only later did we make laws of immigration that we now selectively enforce.

Our tradition speaks to a festival where Indians gathered with the first settlers for a celebration. The Indians were not celebrating the coming of the Pilgrims; they were celebrating the bounty of the harvest. They were celebrating just being alive in a hard time.

We have revisionist historians who want us to feel bad about what the Spanish did to the Indians of New Mexico. Sorry, my feel-bad is tied entirely to my own actions. You can feel bad all you want. You can flay yourself about what the Romans or the Protestants of Ireland did to injure other people. I will take credit and blame for my own actions. I have treated everyone with respect; I can do no more or less to change history because history cannot be changed.

This Thanksgiving, like all others in my life, I spent some of the time hugging myself with delight for the bounty I have. I spent time thinking of my relatives who have preceded me in death and being thankful for their actions to help me live a better life.

You can drop a twenty in an envelope and mail it to the nearest Indian reservation, if it will make you feel better. I would recommend that you elect leaders who erase a difference between the peoples of our county. If we could shake off our addiction to the race card, that would be the greatest Thanksgiving.

Swickard is a weekly columnist for this site. You can reach him at michael@swickard.com.