Thursday, November 28, 2013

American Thanksgiving: A Holiday Whose Origins Are Rooted In Genocide, Racism and Oppression

Updated: December 11, 2013   9:45 AM

Americans are celebrating Thanksgiving today and on Facebook I noticed several of my friends wishing their American friends a "happy thanksgiving".   It's common for many to send good wishes on a public holiday.  However, if Americans and others knew the true origins of Thanksgiving in the United States then they wouldn't be so quick to send out good wishes on this day.


Unfortunately, the vast majority of Americans have bought into the propaganda that has been fed to them since childhood by schools, the media and politicians about the supposedly benign nature of Thanksgiving.  What they are ignorant to is the fact that the origins of this holiday are drenched in the blood of the first nations people of the U.S.  So by celebrating this day as Americans do they celebrate a history of centuries of genocidal policies which began when the first Europeans settled in the American colonies and which almost led to the extinction of the indigenous peoples in what became the United States.

To get a true understanding of the origins of this holiday and why it shouldn't be celebrated as it is people need to do their research and then decide whether they want to be part of a "celebration" rooted in persecution, mass murder and racial hatred.

For example, few American know that the settlers and the Native Americans who are referred to in the American Thanksgiving myth were in fact not friends.  The peace between them was fragile and the settlers saw the natives as uncivilized and satanic.  That uneasy peace came to a horrific end when one morning in the early dawn hours around the date of Thanksgiving the settlers raided the village of the Pequot tribe and shot, clubbed and burned alive more than 700 native men, women and children.

In later years, other more insidious methods were used to clear the land of the natives including handing out blankets to the natives that were laced with smallpox.  The natives, having no immunity to the smallpox virus, were almost wiped out with death rates of nearly 90%.

The vast majority of Americans may be celebrating this holiday but in native American communities across the U.S. this day is being remembered as a day of mourning for how it initiated the conquest and destruction of America's first peoples.   If Americans continue to “celebrate” this holiday in years to come then they need to be made aware of its history, and acknowledge it publicly.To do otherwise not only perpetuates the propaganda that has been fed to the American people since childhood, but also grossly insults the memory of the millions of Native Americans who died defending their lands against those who sought to wipe out the original inhabitants of America.

Related:

No Thanks for Thanksgiving
"Instead, we should atone for the genocide that was incited -- and condoned -- by the very men we idolize as our 'heroic' founding fathers."

Thanksgiving: The untold genocide of the Native Americans (Video)
The real story behind Thanksgiving is nothing to be thankful about. Watch and find out what really happened in the New World when the pilgrims and natives met in 1620.

Thanksgiving & Columbus Day: America Celebrates Genocide
David E. Stannard, a historian at the University of Hawaii, described the removal of the the indigenous people of the Americas as the "worst human holocaust the world had ever witnessed, roaring across two continents non-stop for four centuries and consuming the lives of countless tens of millions of people.”  These same atrocities are honored by two separate but equally heinous holidays in the United States of America: Columbus Day and Thanksgiving. Why?

The American Thanksgiving: Rejoicing In Genocide And White Supremacy
"No Halloween of the imagination can rival the exterminationist reality that was the genesis, and remains the legacy, of the American Thanksgiving. It is the most loathsome, humanity-insulting day of the year – a pure glorification of racist barbarity."

Happy National Genocide (Thanksgiving) Day!

"Gathered in this place of meeting, they were attacked by mercenaries and English and Dutch. The Indians were ordered from the building and as they came forth were shot down, The rest were burned alive in the building. The very next day the governor declared a Thanksgiving Day. For the next 100 years, every Thanksgiving Day ordained by a Governor was in honor of the bloody victory, thanking God that the battle had been won."


The Truth About Thanksgiving: What They Never Taught You in School

"The colonists were contemptuous of the Indians, who they regarded as uncivilized and satanic heathens, and the fragile early peace between Native Americans and the early settlers would soon unravel in a horrific manner in what is now Mystic Connecticut, where the Pequot tribe was celebrating their own Thanksgiving, the green corn festival. In the predawn hours, settlers -- not the Pilgrims, but a band of Puritans -- descended on their village and shot, clubbed and burned alive over 700 native men, woman and children." 

© F. Khan.  All rights reserved.

Sunday, November 10, 2013

Remembrance Day Is Not About Commemorating War But About Remembering Sacrifice

In World War I, World War II, and the Korean War more than 1.7 million young Canadian soldiers were sent off by Canadian governments to fight to defend freedom and democracy. Many died and many returned physically and mentally wounded with trauma that they lived with for the rest of their lives.


Canadian soldiers have also (literally) stood between warring parties as part of United Nations peacekeeping operations since their first engagement in 1956 following the Suez Crisis.[1] And in the past decade, Canadian governments sent soldiers to fight in Afghanistan to help the citizens of that nation try and build a fledgling democracy. 

Remembrance Day is not a day to commemorate war as some would believe. It is a day to remember those who have been willing to put their lives in harms way to defend the rights and freedoms that Canadians enjoy today and many take for granted. The vast majority of those who join the military don't do so because they want to go to war. They do it because they want to serve this nation in an honourable way. At times that means following the orders of civilian leaders that puts them in harms way. 

So on November 11th, as the country gathers to commemorate Remembrance Day, give a thought to the soldiers of the past century who have done what they have been told by their political masters, who have stood in harms way, who have represented the ideals of Canadian society to the best of their ability, and those who died on the battlefield. Remember them for the society that their effort and sacrifice allowed to be built. And remember them in the future by being prepared to become an involved and active citizen if anyone (politicians, corporations or individuals) undertake efforts that could jeopardize or take away the rights, freedoms and liberties that many have sacrificed their blood to give us. We owe that to them. 

– Fareed Khan 
 
Related:
* Ontario must ban SLAPP suits to protect free speech 


© F. Khan.  All rights reserved.