Thanksgiving = Medicare and food stamps?
A thought I had either Wednesday or Tuesday afternoon (don't ask, I don't remember which):Granted: the puritan settlers who colonized Massachusetts ("The Pilgrims") were not the first, or the only, Europeans in America, and that our modern nation, while derived from their existence, is not necessarily historically dependent upon their survival. Nonetheless, popular American culture (at least as I learned it growing up in New England) most certainly reveres the memory of said Pilgrims, and in many ways views them as the first Americans.
Today's holiday (at least as culturally taught / remembered) is a commemoration of the Pilgrim's survival in New England, and to the events which made that survival possible: the uncompensated (unless you consider smallpox proper "payback") generosity of the American Indians who fed and taught their new and ill-adapted neighbors.
That having been said, viewed from a certain angle (and there are certainly contradictory angles), and in a very meta way, Thanksgiving is a celebration of the history of the American welfare state.
Discuss, if you so choose.
Today's holiday (at least as culturally taught / remembered) is a commemoration of the Pilgrim's survival in New England, and to the events which made that survival possible: the uncompensated (unless you consider smallpox proper "payback") generosity of the American Indians who fed and taught their new and ill-adapted neighbors.
That having been said, viewed from a certain angle (and there are certainly contradictory angles), and in a very meta way, Thanksgiving is a celebration of the history of the American welfare state.
Discuss, if you so choose.