Chains

After posting “Thanks, but No Thanks,” I had an exchange with a Reader that provoked me to elaborate on my view of the holiday. The Reader said:

Myself and many others do it (celebrate the Thanksgiving Holiday) out of tradition....

And In regard to the 17^th century massacre:

The fault lies with the soulless people who did it way back then.

True --- to a point.

I understand that most folks mean well -- or at least mean no harm by participating the the official Thanksgiving festivities.

But perpetuating the myth behind it -- "myth" is a polite word for "lie" -- is harmful.

And it’s harmful to everyone.

When you "inherit the family business," you take on the company’s debts as well as the company’s assets.

You get that million bucks that's in the bank, but you're also obliged to pay what the business owes to its creditors.

You can't just say "Well, it wasn't me, personally, who made that deal so I don't have to honor it."

Benefits and obligations.

They go together.

Like liberty and responsibility.

Most Americans are perfectly happy to enjoy their liberty (or whatever's left of it) even though they themselves, personally, have done nothing, individually, to earn it. Liberty was theirs by accident of birth.

That liberty was bought and paid for a long time ago, by others.

And paid for in blood.

Nevertheless, Americans yet unborn at that time, are content to live on the fruits of others' sacrifices. They didn’t, personally, fight Redcoats or Nazis, they didn’t, personally march in civil rights protests. But they accept the benefit of it, for free, as if they were entitled to it, with no sense of moral obligation, or apparent appreciation.

(By “appreciation” I’m not talking about flying the flag, or putting a yellow “support the troops” ribbon on your car. I mean savoring the gift, taking good care of it and passing it on or sharing it with others.)

However, when it comes to paying the debts of their predecessors, it seems most Americans don't want to be held responsible, because they, personally, never shot an Indian, or owned a slave.

They want the benefits without the obligations.

All the taste, none of the calories.

You know, if I were to steal your car and give it to my son as a birthday gift, it doesn't rightfully belong to him even though he isn't, personally, the one who stole it.

And he can't say "Yes, I know it was stolen, but I didn't steal it so it's ok for me to keep it and it's mine now."

The law usually calls that “receiving stolen property,” and most places that’s a felony.

I think returning the car to the rightful owner, or the owner's heirs, is a moral imperative.

A debt of honor.

All of us in America today are guilty of receiving stolen property.

If we had any honor, we’d feel it a moral imperative to make amends.

The Reader also said:

I can have black friends and Jewish friends (.... spend Christmas Eve with us) and not carry the past into each holiday.

“Not carry the past into each holiday?

Sure you do.

That’s what holidays are for.

If you’re a Christian, Christmas isn’t a day to celebrate garish decorations and conspicuous consumption – it’s about carrying the past (the birth of Christ) into the present.

If you’re a Patriot, the 4^th of July isn’t a day to celebrate beer-drinking, sunburn and noisy fireworks displays. It’s about carrying the past (the defiant courage to rebel against your lawful king) into the present.

The trouble with the past is that, whether you like it or not, whether you intend it or not, whether you know it or not, the past creates the present and thereby determines the future – unless you do something about it.

That's why we study history, right?

To avoid making the same mistakes over and over?

The lives that were wrongly taken long ago – I cannot restore.

But being aware of it allows me, I hope, to immediately recognize that murderous pattern when it comes around again. And maybe if I recognize it early enough, and blow the whistle, maybe I can stop it.

Compare, for example the rhetoric of the Indian Wars with that of the Vietnam War and now, the War on Iraq. I’d be willing to bet my last shot of tequila that if I scrambled some of these statements around, you’d never be able to guess which one came from which war.

What that reveals is that the kind of thinking, the kind of world view, the kind of belief system, that brought death and destruction to so many innocent people in the past, is precisely the same kind of thinking, the same world view, and the same belief system, that brings death and destruction to so many innocent people today.

I7th century Puritans wanted the land and resources that belonged to the native inhabitants and considered themselves ordained by God to take it, even if it meant killing a whole lot of innocent Indians, including women and children, to get it.

In the 19th century, the Americans wanted the gold in the Black Hills grasslands for grazing cattle instead of bison, and so considered it their "manifest destiny" to go in and take it, even if it meant killing a whole lot of innocent Indians, including women and children, to get it.

Today, the Americans want the oil in the middle east and consider it their "right" to go in and take it, even if it means killing a lot of innocent Iraquis or Afghanis including, women and children, to get it.

As the French say, "La plus que change, la plus le meme chose."

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

You see, ff you don't deal with the entire Truth of your past, then your entire Present is a fabrication.

And If you want a future that's different from your past, you’ve got to step up, take responsibility for it, and make amends wherever you can.

Redemption, whether for an individual human being or for a nation, begins with telling the truth, no matter how bitter, sad, painful or repugnant that truth might be.

If you’re incapable of admitting you’ve got a problem, you’ll never be able to find a solution to the problem.

Because you won't go looking.

And that means you will go on making the same mistakes, over and over, you will go on spreading hurt and harm, both to yourself and to innocent others, unless and until somebody or something stops you..

Now, that, I think, would be my idea of Hell.

sj