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Time to Take a Page from the Pilgrims' and Native Americans' Playbook?

11/23/2020

5 Comments

 
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     Yikes!- following the presidential election, half the country is relieved, half is up in arms, many face job losses and food insecurity, and more than 250,000 have died from Covid. Yet we’re supposed to celebrate Thanksgiving? How can we, especially when some argue that the Pilgrim/Native American story isn’t even true? But assuming some of it is, perhaps it’s time to take a page from the playbook of those first Americans.     
     Four hundred years ago nearly half of the Pilgrims died from disease, and their economy was shot. Then they encountered Native Americans, radically different in their beliefs. Each group was a threat to the other. But instead of taking up arms, the two groups exchanged gifts, cut a treaty to not harm each other, then celebrated a Thanksgiving feast. In years to come, the Pilgrims learned how valuable it was to welcome those who differed from them. Natives taught them farming techniques and introduced a fur trade that prospered all of them. How history would have been far better if both groups had kept that attitude.     
     So here we are approaching the end of 2020. On social media and in the streets we’ve encountered people with radically different beliefs who we think threaten us. Perhaps it’s time we put down our arms, cut a treaty to not harm each other, and search for how to work together to prosper.     
     After all, this Thanksgiving season we do have much to be thankful for - we’re alive!
     
     ***     Artwork: Clipart Library.

5 Comments
Daniel Greene
11/23/2020 10:50:47 am

Hi Trish (and Duane)
Honestly, I only occasionally read your blog due to electronic overload. Just read your Thanksgiving message about the Pilgrims and the native Americans, Excellent! Well said. Have a delightful Thanksgiving with whomever is able to join you. Warmly, Dan & Suzanne Greene

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Bev Feiker
11/25/2020 12:26:06 am

You’ve done it again - given us good insights from a historical theme. And yes - being alive is worthy of being thankful for❣️ Blessings! Bev 🥰

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Trish Hermanson
11/25/2020 09:00:56 am

I hope you can get together with your family in some form during this holiday season, Bev. It's an unusual time.

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Dave DeGroot
11/25/2020 01:48:08 am

Good insight, Trish. A few years ago I read a history of those “Pilgrim times” (As I recall it was by Steven Ambrose) which gave Bradford and Massasoit credit for keeping peace during their lifetimes. They had to work hard at it, but generally kept things together. It all fell apart when they died.

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Trish Hermanson
11/25/2020 09:03:32 am

Hi Dave. Thanks for your comment. Steven Ambrose is a good and interesting resource always. I appreciate the photography you post on FB. Excellent!

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