Re-Examining Thanksgiving

[BigLew]

Teachers emphasize the Indians' side

By ANA BEATRIZ CHOLO, Associated Press Writer
Tue Nov 21, 9:49 PM ET

LONG BEACH, Calif. - Teacher Bill Morgan walks into his third-grade class wearing a black Pilgrim hat made of construction paper and begins snatching up pencils, backpacks and glue sticks from his pupils. He tells them the items now belong to him because he "discovered" them. The reaction is exactly what Morgan expects: The kids get angry and want their things back.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061122/ap_on_re_us/teaching_thanksgiving

[Faithless]

My kid did some modified version of the reality/fantasy thing. I think.

There was a scene where someone asks where the Indians were. And someone replies that they died of some disease.

"Oh, okay. What's for dinner?"

[BigLew]

"If you are going to teach, you need to keep it positive," he said. "They can learn about the truths when they grow up. Caring, sharing and giving — that is what was originally intended."

^I love the idiocy of that nay-sayer. I wonder what that parent thinks about WWII holocaust in school text books.

[didu]

buffy season 4, episode 8: pangs

[BigLew]

buffy season 4, episode 8: pangs

I'm sorry I don't follow. Please elaborate.

[didu]

^^ buffy is a tv show. buffy is this blond girl who happens to be the "chosen one", a.k.a. the "slayer" -- a lone girl chosen by the powers that be in each generation to fight the demons, vamps and the forces of darkness.

anyway. buffy has a bunch of friends: willow (young jewish witch, uber smart and liberal), giles (british, wise, old and conservative), xander (young construction worker, ordinary man with no talents).

in the episode i mentioned. one day before thanksgiving, xander's construction happens to dig into a burial ground of a local indian tribe who were wiped out by the european settlers 150 years or so ago, and the construction distrubs and wakes the spirits of the indians who starts killing various white people for revenge and buffy realises that she has to stop them.

willow being the liberal feels strongly sorry about the europeans wiping out the indians and she is totally against thanks giving and killing the indian spirits. giles on the other hand does give a crap about the spirits and the attocities done to the indians and he just wants to kill the spirits. buffy is sort of in the middle, she understands williow's point of view and feels uneasy about killing the indian spirits, but she also cannot sit around letting innocent white people get killed.

matters are simplfied when the indian spirits decide that buffy is of some importance and decide to kill her. buffy tries to reason with them during battle and gets no results. willow joins the battle half way and totally forgets about feeling sorry for the indians and fights for her life viciously.

in the end, buffy and her friends kill all the indian spirits. then they reflect about the change of their individual attitude before and after the fights and realise the hypocrisy and contradition in their original aspectives, then they go on to have a nice thanks giving dinner that buffy prepared.

[rice cracker]

^ I loved that the Indian gave white people (Xander) syphillis as revenge.

[Golden Monkey]

We need a "Turkey-centric" view of Thanksgiving.

Damn turkey holocaust going on and nobody cares! :wink:

Then again I guess the animal rights groups are out there somewhere talking about it.

[Faithless]

"If you are going to teach, you need to keep it positive," he said. "They can learn about the truths when they grow up. Caring, sharing and giving — that is what was originally intended."

^I love the idiocy of that nay-sayer. I wonder what that parent thinks about WWII holocaust in school text books.
Yeah. If they wanted to focus on the caring and sharing and giving, then they should have stayed away from the pilgrim thing and focused on some other story more directly connected.

And "... learn about the truths when they grow up" -- so that they can do like everyone else when they learn the reality -- shake their heads and laugh at their naivete:

"And to think they tricked me into wearing that paper-mache colar thingy."

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v245/chottomatte/pilgrim00.jpg

[robotic]

aww, ye folks across the border :P we got our thanksgiving done quite a while ago!



happy thanksgiving guys!

[Yeahman]

THANKSgiving is about sharing and caring. It was the one time in Native-Euro relations where they actually help one another.

I think talk of the Native American holocaust is more appropriate on Columbus Day. Better yet we should follow South Dakota's lead and rename it "Native American Day."

[Faithless]

If only them pilgrims would have just stuck to that lilttle patch of land. :frown:

[BigLew]

Something interesting I found while poking around.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v148/biglew/1460209680_l.jpg

[Flow to Live]

C'mon we gotta celebrate the "pilgrims" influnces of alcholism, genocide and smallpox on the Native American people.

[hooligan]

http://www.columbiana.org/WebPageGraphics/Homeland-Security.gif

I have nothing worth contributing except this excellent picture.

[Napoleon Chynamite]

Who gave us pumpkin pie? The Pilgrims or the Native Americans. Because I luv pumpkin pie. That's why Thanksgiving is awesome.

[Faithless]

Nonetheless, Thanksgiving may be a better holiday than christmas, especially if the focus is on the act of giving and thinking of those less fortunate.

[Flow to Live]

^^^^especially with the preparation for Black Friday ;).

[tripostrophe]

Ooh, South Dakota did that? Cool! Heh, I like how they keep calling them "Indians," what with the focus of the story and all...