Thanksgiving is a travesty

It recently has been reported that Angelina Jolie doesn't celebrate Thanksgiving.  Given, it is the Daily Mail, so who knows the truth of what they're reporting.  While the story itself is unsurprising to me, as is the general idiocy of the whole events, what does surprise me is the logic behind the idea.  Thanksgiving is celebrating the genocide of Native Americans?  Really?  I don't think I've met a single Native that is insulted by Thanksgiving, being a Native myself, I certainly don't care.  I think Ms. Jolie is getting her history a little bit muddled.

Thanksgiving is traditionally celebrated as the feast of making it through the first winter.  Here are the Puritans, new settlers in the Americas, who have no clue about the local agriculture, etc.  They're cold, they're starving, they're completely unprepared - here come the Native Americans to help them through the winter.  Corn was introduced, wild turkeys were eaten, people had a better idea of what was going on.  It was a time of peace, a time of celebration, and a time of plenty compared to the 'we're so hungry we need to resort to cannabalism 'that the Puritans were previously facing.  Genocide?  It doesn't factor into Thanksgiving exactly.

If Angelina Jolie wishes to take offense to a holiday - or anyone, really, I think Columbus Day is far more appropriate.  Christopher Columbus' tale is a far more harrowing one than the Puritans.  If you read through any of the source documents, the Native American population was already decimated by the time that the Puritans arrive.  Imagine coming upon a lot of ghost settlements - that was pretty much what the Puritans were finding.  Columbus worked the Native populations of Haiti to extinction in a a search for gold, he spread syhpilis, he killed a lot of people.

The Puritans?  Not really so much.