Thanksgiving: A Day of Mourning

      Since we were kids, we have been taught about the origins of the national holiday, Thanksgiving.  Friends and family get together to eat good food, drink, play football and enjoy themselves.  We are supposedly celebrating the union of the Native Americans and the settlers.  It celebrates a day where the European colonists and the Native Americans got together, shared knowledge and harvested a field.  While this event is widely accepted as historically accurate, many historians have an issue with the overall picture it paints of the events to come.  Most people simply accept that Thanksgiving celebrates peace and happiness, yet for others, Thanksgiving marks the beginning of a genocide.  

     I read a very interesting article that speaks of a group of people that has an unorthodox approach to "celebrating" this national holiday.  While most Americans watch football and stuff themselves with pie and turkey, a group of mostly people with Native American Heritage gather near Plymouth rock to mourn the genocide of their ancestors.  Most Americans don't even consider what they are actually celebrating when they gather on Thanksgiving day, but rather just accept that they are allowed to stop working and enjoy themselves for one day.  

      To me it seems incredibly insensitive celebrate a Thanksgiving without even considering the overall historical background that so drastically contradicts what we are celebrating.  I am not arguing for the abolition of Thanksgiving because we are celebrating a historically accurate day, however I do think that there should be some recognition of the devastating events to come.

Please comment with your opinions.