Re: [gardeners] Thanksgiving thoughts.

Allen and Judy Merten (gardeners@globalgarden.com)
Thu, 15 Oct 1998 23:30:53 -0500 

Hi Barbara,
    Excellent!! What passes for history particularly in middle school is as
revisionist as the worst of the Bolsheviks. My son in middle school was required
to write an essay about the massacre of Texan prisoners of war at Goliad, Tx by
Mexican troops soon after the fall of the Alamo. He was instructed to not use
the words; massacre, murder, slaughter, or killing. This massacre of
approximately 350 men took place on Palm Sunday. I asked his teacher if she
thought the Mexican troops had taken the prisoners for and Easter Egg hunt.
    A group of Mexican/Hispanic student associations has protested until the
University of Texas at Austin(state capitol) no longer celebrates or hosts any
event concerning Texas Independence Day. However the same groups have demanded
and received assistance in celebrating Cinco de Mayo or 5th of May, and Fiestas
Patrias or Festival of Patriots in Sept., both of which commemorate events that
took place in another nation, Mexico.
    This weakness on the part of the officials at the University of Texas is
despicable and dishonorable to those who lost their lives or fought for liberty
for Texas. Why we should honor another countries patriots and dishonor our own
because of the demands from the same group is beyond me.
    Allen
    Bastrop Co.,Tx

Barbara J. Davis wrote:

> >
> > I've been wanting to switch Thanksgivings (I
> > >know, this sounds crazy) for a while & maybe I could celebrate yours <g>.
> > >I love the idea of giving thanks for what we have, but I hate the idea of
> > >doing it as a celebration for our invading America, stealing Native
> > >American land & killing off & evicting the people.  I know, technically
> > >it was that they made it through the first year, but I have NA friends &
> > >a co-worker whose eyes I now see our Thanksgiving through and I don't
> > >feel very proud of my country's past.  It must be hard for people whose
> > >countries have been taken over to have to live through "celebrations" of
> > >their losses...  So anyway, if Canada celebrates Thanksgiving for some
> > >other thing maybe I'd adopt that.
> > >Happy Thanksgiving to the Canadians.
> > >--That bleeding heart in zone 4 boonies :)
> > >
> > >
> > >
>
> This has been going on so long that I've lost track of who wrote the
> above.  Our Thanksgiving isn't a celebration of what's indicated.  It's
> a day of thanks for what we have.
>
> If bleeding heart would read some history, back to the beginning
> when people first migrated to this land from Asia and took what they
> needed for survival, perhaps she would realize that all has never
> been peaches and cream with mankind.  Tribes fought tribes over
> territory, religion, power, you-name-it.   There is recent evidence
> that some tribes practiced cannabalism and human sacrifice.
>
> My suggestion is read actual history, not the convoluted history that
> is today used by so many groups to make points based on false
> data.  Mankind evolves just as nations do.