I've been thinking about how interesting a holiday like Thanksgiving is. I grew up having very mixed appreciation for this American bred celebration! My family didn't always celebrate it because my mom is from Iran (so she doesn't necessarily have any connection to our celebration of pilgrims/native Americans), and my dad was generally apathetic about these things. So, early on I started to realize there's not necessarily importance in holidays.
_
I'm fascinated by the process that we go through as children, first learning that this country was "discovered", then that the Pilgrims show up and the Native Americans lovingly share their means of agriculture and survival. Then we go on to realize...wait if there are "natives" that means that this country wasn't really discovered at all! Then finally we find out in middle school or high school that in fact the Pilgrims came and cheated these people out of their home and their land!.
_
So I began to think about the fact as far as I can see that as a society built on immigration, we have settled here without really laying a positive foundation for our stay here. None of our national holidays are particularly genuine (with the exception of those that celebrate the attempts at unity - i.e. Martin Luther King day, etc).
_
I'm thinking that it would be highly beneficial as a body of people, to start to address this and maybe over time find a way to step back and find new ways to appreciate ourselves as a community. Because I think that as a country we have the ability to be an example of broader unity - BECAUSE we're a country built on immigrated people!
_
..anyhow...
just a rant...some thoughts...