This 18th century illustration of the first Thanksgiving didn't depict reality, many Native Americans say.
.
Current Event #11: The Pros and Cons of Thanksgiving
Due: Friday, November 23rd, 2012
Thanksgiving: A time of reflecting on all of the events and times one has encountered during the course of the year(s). It is a time when most of the world finds the time to gather with their loved ones and enjoy the company of one another. Thanksgiving day marks a period where the traditional holiday meal consists of a full course meal, including a carved turkey, a host of baked sweets, etc. We often find other activities coinciding as a result of this holiday, such as the BLACK FRIDAY (Day after Thanksgiving) retail sales and putting up Christmas decorations, to name a few. However, what does this day mean for some who don't quite have this same perspective, namely Native Americans. From a historical point of you, let's take a look back in hindsight, to read and define the origin of this revered national holiday.
What you will do:
You will visit the following link: http://inamerica.blogs.cnn.com/2011/11/24/thanksgiving-is-some-native-americans-day-of-mourning/?hpt=us_bn1 , this will take you to the CNN article entitled: Thanksgiving is some Native Americans' "Day of Mourning". You are assigned to read this article to gather varying opinions surrounding the celebration of Thanksgiving. Upon reading the selection, I want you to begin formulating your own personal pros and cons about this celebrated day and discuss each in specific detail as you write your first paragraph(s). Provide examples of how you and your family celebrated Thanksgiving, and also a few family traditions performed.
Within the next 2-3 paragraphs, discuss how this article may or may not have changed the way you look at the way we celebrate this holiday. Express your thoughts/opinions based on the individuals mentioned in the article as to whether you feel Native Americans were wronged. Also provide a position in regards to the European settlers exploring new lands in America to create colonies. Let's examine the origin of the day set aside to give thanks to the yearly harvests of our hard labor!
Paige Haskins
ReplyDeletePeriod 7
November 19, 2012
For most people Thanksgiving is a time of being grateful for what you have and what you're able to have because of your family. It's a time to be with family and friends and eat big meals. One of the best things about Thanksgivings is the original traditions such as the turkey and the other signature foods. Many people beleive that Thanksgiving is one of the best holidays because there isn't any big gift buyings or focus on one person, but its a holiday were everyone is apart of the holiday. Personally, my family does the traditional things. The family, the football, and the turkey. Every year is kind of the same but its different from all the other holidays whicih makes it special. Most families probably do the same. Some may travel to be with family but the concept is the same. A time of thanks with friends and family.
The Native Americans however view this holiday as a sad point in their history. Many loved ones were lost as the Europeens came in and took over their homes. They were excited to see the new land waiting to be colonized and the Native Americans couldn’t do anything to stop them because of the weapons the posessed.I think that it would makes sense for the living native americans to honor their ancestors for what they did so that they could have what they have now. They had to give up everything to these people because they were more powerful. The native americans should and do honor their ancestors by their ancestors tradations, whatever they might be.
The article made me realize that for some people this holiday isnt the happiest of days. I thought that everyone would be gathered with family and eatting and it would a joyful occation. I didn’t know that the Native Americans saw this as a time of sadness. When I think of Thanksgiving, I think of fun times with friends, not mourning over the deaths of ancestors. However, it seems that the honoring of ancestors on this day is a tradition and tradidtions are meant to be kept and that’s what these people should be doing on Thanksgiving.
Julianna Turner
ReplyDeleteNovember 19, 2012
2nd
For majority of people, Thanksgiving is a peaceful holiday viewed as a time where we should be thankful for what we have. Usually people visit their family members, and enjoy a full meal with them. Thanksgiving is a time to relax, and take a break from our rapid daily routines. It is a stress free period where all you have to worry about is not burning the turkey. Adults take some time off of work to spend time with their children and siblings, while kids get a break off of school to enjoy the time they have with their families. Many people also participate in arts and crafts, or lists of what you are thankful for.
But what many people do not realize is many years ago, this was a disastrous time for Native Americans. The Europeans were very excited to find new lands. It means more power, more resources, more riches, and a chance to expand their rule. But along with the Europeans came selfishness, ruthlessness, and a feeling of superiority. They introduced new weapons, new foods, new clothes, and new diseases. On Thanksgiving day many years ago, the Native Americans showed us indirectly how to set up a permanent settlement. They gave us seeds and showed us how to farm, they showed us the land and how they survive. In turn, we reward them by taking their land and ideas, claiming them as our own and treating them as lesser beings because we did not respect or believe in their customs. Many Native Americans lost their lives throughout this low point in history, and yet people today still look forward to Thanksgiving and view it as an accomplishment of ancient Americans to settle in America.
I think that many people still think Thanksgiving is a happy day because today we focus more on what we are thankful for. We should be thankful for all that the Native Americans did for us, and we should value their sacrifices. We should never forget their bravery or kindness. And we should realize the sorrow of this holiday as well as the joy.
Sam Bauers
ReplyDelete11/19/12
Waters 2nd
Thanksgiving is a great time in America. Its a holliday where you get to see your family for days on end and get a break from your daily life. Its a period of relaxation and because its a national holliday almost everyone takes the day off. For me personally it is a great time because it gives me time to see my family when I normally dont get to. All of my siblings are either working or in school, so Thanksgiving is one of the only days where we all get it off and get to spend time with one another.What is there not to love about Thanksgiving? You get to pig out and spend it with the ones you love and care most about in the world.
When I think of Thanksgiving I only think about all the good things. Pilgrims feasting on the new land of America. Happiness and relief that they are safe in their new land. But, I never think about all the negative things. Native Americans lands were being invaded by the pilgrims at this time. They welcomed us and taught us many things about farming and how to live on this new land. What did they get in return. They got kicked out of their own land most of them even being killed or exiled. They were not treated well and the pilgrims should not have been so selfish and greedy. They wanted everything, and left nothing for the Native Americans. No one remembers these dark times of our history. To me it seems that sometimes they try to hide it. However, I dont think that Thanksgiving should be thought as a day were we remember how badly we treated others. It should be remembered as a day were everyone is thankfull for everthing they have no matter how much or how little.
Claire Kern, PD 7
ReplyDeleteThanksgiving is a holiday in which families and friends gather together to spend time with each other, eat, and be thankful for everything great in their lives. It’s a time to relax, and enjoy each other’s company at a stress free time. Parents get to take time off work and spend time with their children, while enjoying a great meal. In my family, we always gather around the table and give thanks for all the amazing things in our lives, and then we dig into the turkey, mashed potatoes and all the other traditional foods. My brother and I always love to find the wish bone in the turkey and split it in half then make wish. Thanksgiving is special holiday to me because everyone gets to be together whether we’re preparing dinner or spending time outside!
Before I read this article, I never really looked deep enough into how everyone thought of this holiday; I just had my opinions and assumed everyone had the same opinion I do. But that’s in fact not true at all. People like the Native Americans have no reason to celebrate this day. The Europeans came into their world, took their land, and changed everything for them, not in a good way. I think the Native Americans were wronged. They already had a system going for them, a way of life, and then these random people came and took everything from them. The worst part, was that the Native Americans couldn't do anything to stop these people who had way more power than them.
Now, I've always believed that it is good and prosperous to explore new places, and I know that the Europeans probably didn't think about how they were harming the Native Americans. But, the fact is that they did harm them in many ways, and they should have been more careful not to do so. If the Europeans hadn't come to America though, none of us would even exist. So what happened, happened and I’m glad that the Native Americans still honor their ancestors because they did not deserve to get pushed around by the Europeans.
Carly LeMoine
ReplyDeletePeriod 5
In my mind there are a lot more pros the cons to thanksgiving. The only con I have is that Native Americans suffered through this time. Its great that people are starting to have all day celebrations just to thank them for all they have done. There are definitely more pros. One is its at time when you get to spend time with people you love. Another pro is people start to appreciate what they have. My family gets together every other year on thanksgiving, but even on the years we don’t, people still come over. When I’m with my family every one brings different recipes for thing to eat but there is always a turkey. Including my brothers and I there are nine grandchildren and two different kids get to break the wish bone each year. Every family has a way of celebrating whether is to be happy or sad.
This article does change my view of thanksgiving, but I will still continue to celebrate like I do every year. Now I will be thankful for another thing. Even thought the Native Americans suffered they still survived. And if they hadn’t done that then many people I know today wouldn’t be here. They definitely helped America and gave us another good reason to be thankful with what we have. They also gave people a reason to come together and celebrate all the hard work that they did, and then relies that it paid off.
I don’t think I would be able to go to an all day event like some of the people in the article did. It was cool to here about thought and it’s amazing that there are so many people that go to them. I like the idea of having one thanksgiving with young generations and than another with past generations. The part I don’t understand about that though is where the present generation fits in. it was brave of the Europeans to come to America but they could have been nicer to the Native Americans. They also would have learned faster if they had let the Natives help them instead of going out and attacking them.
Danielle Reviere
ReplyDelete5th
Thanksgiving is one of the few holidays that does not involve buying gifts or involve a religion, which is why in my opinion it is one of the best holidays. Some of the traditions my family has are we all go up to my grandmother’s house and we have a late lunch with all the typical foods served around thanksgiving. The only other tradition we have is that everyone, the people that can cook, cooks a dish. Our family does not really watch football on thanksgiving; we mostly just prepare all the food together.
I do think that the Native Americans were wronged. They we just trying to help, but what did the pilgrims do? They drove them out of their lands, they killed them, and they brought over diseases. I think that the settlers were right to keep exploring the land and colonize it, but I do not think they should have driven out the Native Americans and treated them that badly. This article did not change the way I look at this holiday. I think that at the time when it was first celebrated it was a festival of thanks, so I think we should celebrate it that way.
Blake Johnson
ReplyDelete2nd period
11/19/12
Thanksgiving is traditionally a time for family and eating. There are many good things about Thanksgiving like the time you get to spend with family or the time off from school. There is also good food and sports on TV. My family does some of the more traditional traditions like eating, turkey, spending time with family, watching football, and decorating for Christmas. The holiday is meant to be a stressful time devoted to family. As I learned in the article it is not that way for everyone.
This article changed the way I thought about the holiday, because I hadn’t thought of Thanksgiving being a sad time for anyone. As I learned though the Native Americans of past were wronged by the European settlers. The settlers came into the already occupied North American lands and took them from the Native Americans and destroyed their ways of life. These settlers altered the way of history for Native Americans. I think that it could have been handled in a better way by the settlers in dealing with the Native Americans. I think that it was important that the settlers came to North America though, because without them life as we know it may be very different. My thoughts are that the settlers exploration of the land was important to the development of North America and the world, but they shouldn’t have not have affected the Native Americans in the way they did.
Francisco Coch
ReplyDelete7
I think that the overall message for thanksgiving (being thankful for what you have and those around you) is obviously a good one. However, I do recognize the fact that early European settlers also treated the Native Americans with cruelty. Although I mean no disrespect, I think these people are taking the meaning of this holiday out of context a little bit, and I don’t fully see how the neglecting of a people can correlate to being thankful for what you have. I think that the overall meaning of thanksgiving has been demoralized as well in recent years, and major corporations are turning it into a commercial opportunity with Black Friday after it.
I don’t think that this article really changed my opinion on the matter, but I also do think that America should acknowledge the wrongdoings of others against Native Americans, and recognize their struggles. I believe what the colonizers did was very wrong, and should have instead found a way to live in tolerance of the indigenous peoples, much like Christopher Columbus and the Spanish conquest of South America, as many people were also slaughtered and neglected as well.
Gabi Brenman
ReplyDeletePeriod 7
I have always been told that Thanksgiving is when the pilgrims and Native Americans finally started to get along. I never thought to look at Thanksgiving as a day of mourning for Native Americans. I understand how Thanksgiving could bring up unhappy memories and associations. Many Native Americans were killed by these pilgrims. If my ancestors were killed around the time of a holiday, I would be mourning too. Colonization caused the death of lots of Native Americans. After learning the feelings of Native Americans regarding Thanksgiving, I have mixed feelings. I like spending a day each year to be thankful for all that one has.
Thanksgiving in the USA is often looked at as a time to remember the pilgrims eating a grand meal with Native Americans. People are focusing on very different aspects of Thanksgiving.
I realize that the pilgrims treated the Native Americans very poorly, even cruelly. At my house we focus on being grateful for what you have. In my family, Thanksgiving is definitely important. We work together to make an extravagant meal. My family and I often share Thanksgiving with close friends and family. After hard work preparing the meal, we sit down around the table. We will say grace and go around the table saying what we are thankful for. We usually eat our big meal at around two or three in the afternoon.
Abby Kameny
ReplyDelete5th period
11/19/2012
For many citizens, Thanksgiving is a holiday to give thanks. There are several traditions that Americans have to celebrate Thanksgiving; mostly involving food. Although it is one of the few holidays that does not involve exchanging presents, food is a major part of its celebration. Our family in particular follows the traditional customs to celebrate Thanksgiving, such as eating turkey, cranberry sauce, rolls, and other foods. Another popular tradition on Thanksgiving is to visit relatives, which I believe is one of the best ways to celebrate this holiday. Families all over the United States of America gather with family members and eat a big meal to honor the pilgrims that discovered our country.
Although most of America thinks of Thanksgiving as a fun, celebratory way to give thanks, Native Americans do not. Long ago, their ancestors arrived in our country hoping to create new civilizations- however, they were wrong. When the Americans came, they destroyed the homes of the Native Americans, and most of them did not survive. Consequently, today Native Americans consider Thanksgiving not as a happy holiday to give thanks but a day of mourning.
I never realized that Native Americans are still hurt by the horrible destruction of their tribes and community when America was discovered. While I do feel glad that the United States was founded long ago, I do feel sympathy for the Native Americans. This changed my opinion of Thanksgiving- to us, it is a holiday to thank our settlers for founding America- but for the Native Americans, it is a sad day of mourning for their ancestors that got killed by our ancestors. I remember being in elementary school and learning about Thanksgiving, and my teacher just explained it with a big grin on his face. I doubt he would be grinning if he found out how much Native Americans still suffer to this day. Overall, I learned a lot from this article. I hope people learn how much the Native Americans suffered, but I still will enjoy celebrating Thanksgiving for a different reason- not because hundreds of Native Americans were killed, but because a great country was discovered.
simon dunson
ReplyDelete7th period
I knew the native americans were not treated very well once the european settlers arrived. I was not under the impression that native americans attended the european settlers thanksgiving. I think mourning on thanksgiving is a complete overreaction. This is something that happened like 400 years ago and without those settlers coming we would not exist so we should be thankful for the european settlers coming here.
I am not going to think differently because there are some debbie downers that want to come up with a reason to be unhappy on thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is a time of great food and for thanking the european settlers for coming here and creating such a successful country.
Veronica Kim
ReplyDelete1st period
11/19/2012
Honestly, for me, Thanksgiving is two things. 1) It is a time for me to eat as much as I want and not get called out for it, and 2) it is a time for me to eat as much as I want and then sleep for twelve hours afterwards. Yes, I do give thanks and everything, but really, be honest with me here. Who really sits down to their (delicious, yummy-smelling) mashed potatoes and gravy and turkey and goes, "I am thankful for this-and-this-and-this and not just the fact that I can eat all this right after I say so?" Honestly.
We actually discussed this in social studies last year, about how the Native Americans perceived Thanksgiving. We had an entire student-led discussion on it, and one of the questions posed was "How do you think Native American children learn about Thanksgiving?", which really led us to think deeper into the issue. After all, I'm sure they don't cut out little turkeys and write "I am thankful for..." across the bottoms of them. Native Americans did suffer from disease and conflict thanks to everything that the Europeans brought over to America; I won't deny it. And they definitely should not have to be thankful for that.
This brings up something else - European colonization might have, yes, brought on the U.S. we know today, but at what cost? They shoved Native Americans onto reservations (it wasn't called the Trail of Tears for nothing, folks) and they invaded the lands, brought strange people and strange cultures into it - and cared nothing for what the Native Americans thought. Nowadays, this would probably be called bullying. And really, the Europeans simply just bullied people they thought were inferior, pushed them away as if they were worth nothing. So yes, I can see exactly why Thanksgiving is a day of mourning for some Native Americans. I agree, too, because that's just what it should be.
Robert Fernald
ReplyDelete1st period Honors World History
My pros of Thanksgiving are that it is a time to eat good food and spend time with your family. At Thanksgiving I help prepare the meal with the rest of my family and then sit down with my relatives and family to have a good time. I really don’t see any cons in Thanksgiving. To me, Thanksgiving is just a time to get together with my family and have a good time. My family has a few Thanksgiving traditions; first we always cook a turkey, cranberry sauce, stuffing and mashed potatoes. Also my dad likes to watch football and we always talk to our relatives who are eating with us.
When I think about Thanksgiving, I only look at the good things but I do acknowledge that the Native Americans were wronged and that for them Thanksgiving was a day of sorrow. This article did not change my view of Thanksgiving because for me, Thanksgiving will always be a day to eat good food and spend time with my family. No matter what side of history I look at it does not influence me, I don’t celebrate Thanksgiving because of the Pilgrims or the Native Americans; I celebrate it because of my family.
Jessi Szymczak
ReplyDelete2nd period
11/19/12
Thanksgiving has been one of the major holidays in the U.S. for a long time. It is a time where family and friends get together to spend time with each other and for most of us Americans...eat! My family does pretty traditional things. We normally all try to meet at one of my aunt's houses and any family members that can from my mom's side of the family do. We all hang out for most of the day and eat a lot for lunch. The only really traditional meal that me and my family eat at Thanksgiving is turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing and types of casseroles that I don't really eat.
Most people don't know the story behind what Thanksgiving is really about, they normally think about it as a time where family gets together to enjoy each other's company and have really good food. Which is basically how it is celebrated here in America today, plus giving thanks for what we have and are thankful for. That is how it is celebrated for my Thanksgiving and the majority of Thanksgivings that I know about. After reading the article about the background on Thanksgiving, my views were shifted a little bit. I had heard and learned about this story before this and had some knowledge about the story. I think that Native Americans should think about this time as not as happy for them because of how the Europeans treated them at that time. I am part Native American but do not follow majorly any Native American traditions.
I feel bad for the Native Americans because they lost a lot of lives and suffered through a lot of heartache. They faced a lot of disease, starvation, and misunderstandings about their way of life. So I think that along with all of the food, the gathering of family, being thankful for different things we should also think about the Native Americans and their great loss. It was very important for the settlers to find the new land however they should not have taken away so much of what the Native Americans had already been calling home.
I love Thanksgiving. Mainly for the reason that I get to eat as much food as I want with out being judged, but also because it is a great time to spend with family and it just makes me so happy. It makes me SO grateful for the life I get to live. It makes me feel priveleged and it's just a great holiday to celebrate in my family.
ReplyDeleteIt really made me realize that I should be more grateful, and maybe I shouldn't take advantage of that life I live. It's hard to believe that people could've been treated that badly, but it also makes me a little more grateful.
Nathan Guskiewicz
ReplyDeletePeriod 5
Every year for Thanksgiving my whole Dads side of the family goes up to my Dads parents house in Latrobe, PA. I like it because I get to see all of my Dad’s family and all of my cousins. But sometimes my cousins can get annoying. We have a lot of traditions, one of them is we always run the “Turkey Trot” which is a 5k on Thanksgiving day. Also we always play a lot of pick-up football because they live right next to a big field. We have out Thanksgiving dinner at night unlike a lot of family’s. We eat turkey, ham, stuffing, bread, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, and lots of different pies.
Reading this definitely changed the way I look at Thanksgiving. The Native Americans probably see this as a sad day in their history, because of the Europeans coming and taking their land. I think that more people should see Thanksgiving in the eyes of Native Americans and remember what was taken from them and how they couldn’t do anything to stop it. I think that what the Europeans did was wrong, how would you like it if someone came and took your house and everything away? I always thought of Thanksgiving as a time of happiness and getting together with family. But I see how the Native Americans can see it as a time of remembering their ancestors.
Avery Acierno
ReplyDelete11/19/12
Period 5
For most people, Thanksgiving is a great time of family, reflection, and thanks. It is a time to get together with others and realize how fortunate you are. To me Thanksgiving is a fun time of thanks, family, and happiness. Every Thanksgiving we travel to South Carolina and celebrate the holiday at my aunt’s lake house with my mom’s side of the family. We eat, talk, play and watch football, and share thanks with each other. It is a time I look forward to. There are many benefits to Thanksgiving. You get to give thanks, eat, relax, and celebrate with family. However there are a few downsides. It is made into a shopping frenzy with Black Friday, and the story is insulting to Native Americans.
After reading the article my views on the holiday were impacted a little, but not by a ton. I think the holiday is a great one overall. However, I do think it is a little unfair to Native Americans. I don’t think it’s right that they are made out to be needy and mooching of the Native Americans, and the peace agreement is completely wrong. The Native Americans were persecuted once the Pilgrims settled and set up a country. Their land was taken, they were killed, and forced to leave their homelands. Most Pilgrims were not nice to Native Americans.
I think it was wrong what the European settlers did to the Native American. I realize that they established our great country, but I’m not proud of their treatment of the Natives. I think that it was fine for European explorers to come and settle in the new lands. However, they should not have committed the terrible acts they did against the Native Americans. While I still think Thanksgiving is great, I understand Native American resentment toward it.
Emma Baldwin
ReplyDeletePeriod 7
11.19.12
Thanksgiving is generally a happy holiday for most Americans. It is arguably unique in its quality to be an American holiday and yet not been grossly commercialized or overly exclusive. Parents receive time off from work (and children, from school) and families and friends gather together to spend time with one another. Thanksgiving is well-needed piece day of rest that lets people catch up on their sleep and social lives. I am lucky enough to have most of my extended family live within a fifteen-minute drive, so my Thanksgiving usually consists of spending the day at my grandmother’s house watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade followed by hours on end of The Weather Channel. When we finally eat, my siblings and I (but, notably, not our toddler cousins) get to sit alone at the kids’ table with brightly colored Sesame Street plastic placemats. We then settle down to our traditional Thanksgiving meal, which is followed by everyone squeezing around the main table to eat my grandmother’s chocolate pecan bourbon pie.
This article, while of course important, did not change my perspective of this holiday. Of course Native Americans were wronged; that should be pretty obvious from the onslaught of diseases that they faced as well as failed treaties that resulted in them having their land stolen. In practical life, though, the peace between Native Americans and Pilgrims does not often come up on Thanksgiving Day: in my experience, the “Thanksgiving Story” is used either as a seasonal explanation or activity for young children or as an excuse for stores to mass-produce giant scarecrows, cornucopias, and turkeys, for decorating. The problem I have with this article is that it does not address the real problems Native Americans face today. It makes more sense for Native Americans to have to deal with skyrocketing suicide and alcoholism rates than to confront people seated around their table on Thanksgiving. It would be more productive to make a point in protesting the Trail of Tears than to try to change people’s positive associations with Thanksgiving. I am not saying that Native Americans should not recognize Thanksgiving as a day of mourning: they have every right to feel that way. I just do not think that this is a productive or helpful way to address this problem.
Should Europeans settlers have explored new lands in America to create colonies? Not if that had to come at the cost of Native Americans’ freedom and rights. Of course, while that is what happened, it is not necessarily the way that it had to happen. Since most Native American tribes were nomadic in nature, it is unlikely that they took up permanent residence over the entire continent, rendering it uninhabitable. The real problem with Native American-settler relations is in failed treaties, for which there is unfortunately no national holiday. Ultimately, there is nothing we can do about the past; we can only come to terms with it.
Emily Molina
ReplyDeletePeriod 2
I find the meaning of Thanksgiving to be obviously stated. It is in the name: giving thanks. The deeper meaning is what each individual perceives as something worthy of their graditude and how they show their gratefulness. Thanksgiving is celebrating what you have been given in life and and expressing how much it means to you. The most common way to do that in this day and age is to have a feast. I see the feast as a symbol for the many needs of a person that have been filled, all showing themselves in one large, colorful meal. This is a wonderful thing to do because the work to prepare the meal is like that hardships and labor that everyone has done in the last year to continue on. The end product, the meal, is the reward. The graditude, happiness, and feeling of accomplishment are just some of the fruits of everyone's labor. I do not see much of a downside to celebrating Thanksgiving, other than the large amount of waste it produces.
I think that is is a wonderful thing for the individuals mentioned in the article that they were able to trace their roots back to Native Americans. Then they were able to become a part of the NA community and celebrate as they would. I think that the NA's are fortunate that they were not completely wiped out along the east coast due to settlers from Europe. I find it so wrong that the original people of this land were just pushed away, abandoned, sickened, and killed all because the Europeans wanted the area. Maybe some form of an agreement to "share the land" could have been organized, but with people who can hardly communicate, that is unlikely. It is all well and good for the Europeans to pursue creating colonies in America, but it was a bit rash of them to completely overrun the NA's and take everything.
The true meanning of thanks giving is to reflect on the fortunes life gives you from simple thing like having a good day and the more overlooked things that we take for granted like food education comfort freinds ect. the feast its self is very enjoyable and is a great time to see family. but i do fell bad for the native american who see meening in the orragin and how it is a tragity as apposed to just following everyone else
ReplyDeleteThe artical didnt change my opinion on thanksgiving i think that its great that the Natives are celebrating their own version of the holiday and i approve of it as long as they dont make any attempts to ban or interphere with thanksgiving. for the actual events ill just say what others may have benn to afraid to. if the euoropens did not kill the natives then america could not have been founded. i dont think that is was humane but it would have benn very difficult to try and mix the cultures into one socity as euorpeon and native american cultures were very differnt and do to the technical superiority and dessies the native americans still couldent of had a good fate. over all a tragic backround but the true holiday inst really about the history its the happy felling that the colinist hadd and the fellings of the family and fun that surround thanks giving
Anna Castellano
ReplyDeletePeriod 5
The definition of Thanksgiving is exactly how it sounds. It is a time for reflecting and giving thanks to everything that you have. On Thanksgiving people gather with their families and enjoy a big meal usually including turkey and other holiday foods. I celebrate Thanksgiving by visiting with my extended family. The kids (my cousins, my siblings and I), always spend the day together outside while the adults are in the kitchen preparing the delicious meal. On our menu every year you will find foods like turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, sweet potato pie, stuffing, cranberry sauce, and my favorite, pumpkin pie!
After reading this article my opinions on the way I viewed Thanksgiving were impacted a little, but not by much. I never knew the real background story of Thanksgiving. I never knew that so many Native Americans died because of territorial conflict, starvation, and diseases. I feel as though Native Americans were wronged because of the deaths caused by the Europeans.
The Europeans might look at it as if they were only trying to develop this country to its full potential. When coming to America they didn't really believe that America was home to anyone and that it was up for grabs. Colonization has gone on for centuries; this was just an extension of this action.
Jackson Cabell
ReplyDelete7th Period
I love Thanksgiving. I think it's a great time to spend time with your loved ones and to eat and get super fat and chubby like my brother does...anyways it's a great time. Our family always hosts our cousins at our house where we cook a great big ol' feast including: turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, and the greatest pies you will ever ever ever eat. Me and my brother always have an annual football game with our friends at the high school field.
Reading this article changed my way of thinking about Thanksgiving and made me realize that it could be seen as a time of sadness. It's terrible that the Native American's land was taken by the Europeans. Most Native Americans could see this holiday as a time of sadness. The Europeans probably see this as the same type of holiday as I do. It's probably a time of celebration for getting more land and they had the idea of helping the country prosper. They probably didn't mean to hurt the Native Americans feelings as much as they did.
My family celebrates Thanksgiving the same way each year. We begin by driving to grandmothers house in Virginia. Once there we eat, eat and eat some more.
ReplyDeleteThanksgiving is clearly a two sided holiday. It both remembers the beginning of American colonization and the beginning of the end for many Native Americans. I’m sure that on the day that the original feast took place both sides were happy. The Natives didn’t yet know that they would be extinguished by disease and conflicts brought by the pilgrims. This day is certainly good for the settlers because it tells of a day that was key in the development of North American civilization as we know it today. For Native Americans this is a day of mourning due to the extreme amount of death involved with this colonization of America.
I think that Thanksgiving is a great holiday, because it is a time in which people gather with their family and celebrate. Another good thing about Thanksgiving, is the great food that is prepared specially for this holiday. This year during Thanksgiving, my family is heading up to Holland, Michigan to meet with our extended family. It is going to be a great time, as there will be over 100 people at Thanksgiving. During Thanksgiving, we are all going to share a big meal with lots of turkey, and pie.
ReplyDeleteThe article for this week’s current event did not change my mind about Thanksgiving. No matter what actually happened during the original Thanksgiving, it doesn’t really matter. Thanksgiving is not celebrating the pilgrims, it is more of just a celebration of family.
I agree with the fact that the Native Americans were wronged, it was there land. However, we should be moving forward from that not continuing to look back upon it. If we continue to argue over this, then we will never fully achieve our true potential as a country.
As a pilgrim settling in one of Europe’s colonies, it would be easy to push the Native Americans out of their land. As a pilgrim, it would have been very scary living in the ‘New World’, and they would want the Natives to be as far as possible from them. I think that the European’s were just not used to having to work with other cultures, as they isolated themselves throughout the middle ages. Because of the sudden entrance into the Native Americans territory, they did not have time to get used to one another, and instead established bad relations.
Thanksgiving is one of the great American holidays, and brings great times to lots of families. One good thing about Thanksgiving is the sense of family it brings. I don't know anyone that doesn't have family come over, or go see family for Thanksgiving. Also it lets us take a time to rest and and think about all the things that we can be thankful for. This doesn't even include the great food, and football that occurs.
ReplyDeleteThe article that you gave us to read to read for the current event this week doesn't really change my mind about Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving isn't a time to celebrate the Pilgrims, it's just a holiday that is following up on a period that the Pilgrims had. I would even say that Thanksgiving is even more about just celebrating America than the Pilgrims.
I do agree that the Native Americans were abused by the settlers, because it was their land and had been for many years. However that happened in the past and we are no longer British settlers in Massachusetts.
As a Pilgrim settling in a one of England's colonies it would be pretty easy to just takeover a Native's land. I wouldn't have been used to having very many other cultures around me because of all the persecution that was occurring in Europe at that time. If someone was less advanced than me, and I wanted land I wouldn't have found anything wrong with it.
Avery Scope-Crafts
ReplyDeletePeriod 1
Personally, I love Thanksgiving. It's the time of the year where most of my family comes together to eat and talk. In the past, my mom, dad, brother, and I have gone to New York to be with my mom's side of the family. This year, my grandparents are comming over and we are celebrating the holliday at our house.
Before I read this article, I thought there was nothing bad about Thanksgiving. It is always a great time of year. Now, my opinion has changed. The article mad me feel bad for the Native Americans. What happened to them doesn't seem right to me.
Thanksgiving should still be celebrated as a holliday. But, we should stop to think about what happened to the Native Americans at the same time. European colonization was the right move, so for this issue I am on their side. At the same time, the pilgrims could've handled the situation better.
i like Thanksgiving because my famlily is always together and it helps me remember that i'm lucky to have all the things i have. The article made me realize that what people say about Thanksgiving isn't all true. The Native Americans had to suffer and society makes it seem like everything was great on both sides.
ReplyDeleteKurt Gee
ReplyDeletePd 7
11/20/12
I think that Thanksgiving is a great holiday, because it is a time in which people gather with their family and celebrate. Another good thing about Thanksgiving, is the great food that is prepared specially for this holiday. This year during Thanksgiving, my family is heading up to Holland, Michigan to meet with our extended family. It is going to be a great time, as there will be over 100 people at Thanksgiving. During Thanksgiving, we are all going to share a big meal with lots of turkey, and pie.
The article for this week’s current event did not change my mind about Thanksgiving. No matter what actually happened during the original Thanksgiving, it doesn’t really matter. Thanksgiving is not celebrating the pilgrims, it is more of just a celebration of family.
Francis Wemmenhove
ReplyDeletePeriod 2
Thanksgiving is a time of giving thanks, like the name suggests. My family does not really celebrate Thanksgiving, unlike a lot of families in America. We do not celebrate Thanksgiving because we are Dutch, and the Dutch do not celebrate Thanksgiving. We do eat some of the common Thanksgiving foods, but the reason for that is more that those foods are on sale. Therefore, since we do not celebrate Thanksgiving, we do not have any family traditions either. To us it is just a normal weekend, except for the fact that it is a five day weekend instead of a two day weekend.
Before, reading the article I did not know much about the origin of Thanksgiving. Now, I understand that for the Native Americans this was a time of suffering. The Europeans came to their land and took it over, and changed a lot of things. However, the Native Americans could not do anything to stop them. This was because the Europeans were much more powerful than them. To most Americans, Thanksgiving is a fun and happy day. However, to the Native Americans this day is a day of mourning and honoring their ancestors. This article has definitely helped me understand the origin of Thanksgiving better.
Jacob Engel
ReplyDelete7th
11/20/12
I think that Thanksgiving is a good holiday, and I enjoy it a lot. My family doesn't really spend much time thanking, because we just the holiday as an excuse for a family reunion. After all, the event that we are celebrating was 400 years ago, and half of my family is atheist and it is hard to not thank without thanking god in this case so we don't really thank. We just play basketball and soccer and eat lots of food. Also, I like Thanksgiving because you only get one day when you can eat the amount and variety of food. As usual, we are going to DC.
The article doesn't really change my mind about thanksgiving, because I don't think it is about giving thanks anymore, and I already knew about how the event that we celebrate led to the Native American's dimise. I also think that the people who have native american ancestors should drop the subject, and not mourn, because it happened 400 years ago.
Katherine Yang
ReplyDelete11/20/2012
5th Period
1) My family celebrates Thanksgiving by sharing it with others. For as long as I can remember, we have co-hosted a Thanksgiving party with the other head professor in my dad’s group at Duke University. We have switched off houses every other year. We always handle making the ham and half of the dishes and desserts, while the other family handles the turkey and other food. All the people in the chemistry group are invited, and many bring their families and a dish or two.
2)My view of Thanksgiving has not changed that much; last year in Social Studies we learned about the plague that swept across America, killing many Native Americans who did not have immunity because they had never been suspected to it before. The Thanksgiving we know today is not right, as it does not recognize that the Europeans were the odd ones out in America.
I recently saw a comic about current immigration policies regarding illegal immigrants. IT showed Obama with the words “New law” illegal immigrants and their descendants will leave this country”, and then a cartoon of a Native American Indian chief saying “Good, where are you leaving?” It is quite true that Europeans and their descendants, many Americans today, have damaged the American landscape. Though the land has been scared, the people and culture have changed, been torn, and has twisted and turned in new, amazing ways.
I think that Thanksgiving is a holiday with many pros and cons. You can eat as much as you want. You can also get free food at homeless shelters. It is an all American holiday. But it makes you get fat. It also celebrates a holiday we shared with a people t hat we later exterminated, which isnt that nice.
ReplyDeleteOh, I knew how cruel this holiday was. Not only did we exterminate that people, but we also CELEBRATE an occasion we had with that people a few years before the extermination. I don't think that the subject should be dropped either. Do you drop WWII? Do you drop 9/11?
Whether it occurred yesterday or 400 years ago doesn't matter, as infinite unborn descendents of those people were killed. The only difference is that the Islamic terrorists don't celebrate 9/11, we don't celebrate WWII. Instead, we have the nerve to celebrate Thanksgiving.
Joy Stouffer
ReplyDelete7th period
I don’t think that there are many cons about Thanksgiving. It is a holiday where everyone expresses how grateful they are for certain things in life. Despite the holiday’s origin, this how I view it. One of the reasons that I love Thanksgiving is because I get to see all of my cousins. For most people, the holiday is a time see family, eat, show appreciation for the many things we have to be thankful for.
The article did not change the way I view Thanksgiving. I believe it was wrong that the Native Americans weren’t treated fairly, but that is not what the holiday is about. The holiday is about celebrating the first harvest the pilgrims had in America. On Thanksgiving, everyone should give thanks for living in a free country and everything else they are grateful for.
Shamim Zarei
ReplyDelete2nd period
I love Thanksgiving because I visit my family and they always have wonderful food. My family always invites relatives over and we always have a good time together. My relatives also bring food so it makes Thanksgiving one of my favorite holidays. We don't really eat turkey though, mostly ham and chicken. Thanksgiving is what brings my family together, not just my parents and my siblings. The cons of Thanksgiving is all the animals that were killed to fill up our stomachs.
After reading this article, my views on Thanksgiving weren't changed. I think everyone should be able to celebrate Thanksgiving and have fun spending time with others. I know the Native Americans were abused, but that was back then, things have changed and that's why every one should be able to celebrate Thanksgiving.
I think that the article has changed the way I look at Thanksgiving. I used to see Thanksgiving as celebrating the Pilgrims and Native Americans working together. I saw this as a happy time where everyone came together to eat and have fun. Now after reading the article, I realize that it is as if Native Americans are supposed to be grateful towards the people that kicked them out of their homes. I do believe that the Native Americans were wronged. The Pilgrims had no right to invade and take over land that did not belong to them.
ReplyDeleteI do not believe it was right for the European settlers to come in, invade, and hurt the Native Americans. They should have been able to live coexisting together. The Pilgrims did not have to kick out the Native Americans and drive them out of their homes. They could have lived with them and adapted to their ways. They could have continued to work together. That would not stop the Native Americans from getting European diseases, but they would work together with the Pilgrims to overcome these diseases. The European settlers should have came to America peacefully.
If the European settlers never came to the Americas, then it may have taken a longer time to discover America. This would slow America’s advancement and the Native Americans would probably still be negatively affected. I celebrate Thanksgiving with my family, and I have never thought of Thanksgiving in this way. This article opened my eyes to a new way of thinking about Thanksgiving. I think Thanksgiving is a good tradition, but it also has a bad connotation for Native Americans
Kelly Zhang
Delete2nd Period
Hanna Siekierski
ReplyDelete1st Period
November 21, 2012
On Thanksgiving, most people think about how they are grateful for what they have and how appreciative they are to have a loving and supportive family. It's a time for uniting with family and friends to celebrate an important holiday. Of all the things that occur on Thanksgiving, one of the best is the long-time traditions such as having a turkey, but also the new foods that individual families have adopted. Of all of the holidays, Thanksgiving is believed to be one of the best. This is because there isn't any big gift buyings or dressing up, but it is a holiday which everyone can gather for. In my family, we usually do the traditional things of gathering with family, the football, and the turkey. Every year though, there is usually something different, which seperates it from other holidays. Most families probably do the same. Some may travel to be with family, or have family come to them. It is a time of thanks.
For the Native Americans this holiday is viewed as a sad point in their history. Many of their loved ones were killed or enslaved as the Europeans came in and took over their land. The Europeans though this event to be exciting since they had discoverd this new land waiting to be colonized. What they didn't expect though was for there to already be inhabitants there. The Native Americans couldn’t do anything though, to stop them because of the weapons the posessed, and the disease that the Europeans brought. It would make sense for the Native Americans today to honor their ancestors for what they did, so that they could possess what they have today. They had to give up everything to the Europeans, because they were more powerful and reckless. If they don't already, Native Americans should honor their ancestors through their traditions.
The article made me realize that this holiday isn't the happiest of days for some people. Originally I thought that everyone would take this holiday to be gathered together with family and eating, and Thanksgiving would a joyful occation. I didn’t stop and realize that the Native Americans would view this holiday as a time of sadness. When I think of Thanksgiving, it usually involves fun times with my family or friends, not mourning over the deaths of my ancestors. However, the honoring of ancestors on this day is a tradition for the Native Americans and traditions are meant to be kept, so that is what they should be doing on Thanksgiving.
I think that the overall message for thanksgiving (being thankful for what you have and those around you) is obviously a good one. However, I do recognize the fact that early European settlers also treated the Native Americans with cruelty. I think these people are taking the meaning of this holiday out of context a little bit, and I don’t fully see how the neglecting of a people can correlate to being thankful for what you have. I think that the overall meaning of thanksgiving has been demoralized as well in recent years, and major corporations are turning it into a commercial opportunity with Black Friday after it.
ReplyDeleteI don’t think that this article really changed my opinion on the matter, but I also do think that Americans preffer to take the good parts out of a sad story to make themselves feel better. for example, more kids think that easter is about the easter bunny than about jesus coming back to life. I believe what the colonizers did was very wrong, and should have instead found a way to live in tolerance of the indigenous peoples, much like Christopher Columbus and the Spanish conquest of South America, as many people were also slaughtered and neglected as well.
Lily Elnaccash
ReplyDeleteWorld History 7
For my mom and I, Thanksgiving is generally a day when we stay at my aunt's house or our house (depending on the year) for 8+ hours and have a huge dinner. If we don't get together, it's because her family or ours are on a trip. This year, my mom and I are at Black Mountain, so we will be having Thanksgiving dinner at a restaurant. Some of the pros are that people see their families and spend a day reflecting on the things that they are grateful for. However, one of the cons is that it is so commercial. Stores offer such bargains on Black Friday that people make shopping part of their Thanksgiving weekend. Some stores (Walmart, Kmart, Whole Foods, Starbucks, and more) are opening a day early, which I feel detracts from the holiday.
I understand why some Native Americans do not think that Thanksgiving should be a celebration. The first Thanksgiving may have been a happy day, but we all know what the interaction between the Native Americans and the settlers led to. The European settlers massacred them and drove them out of their own land. However, I think that the holiday has lost its meaning for many people. We learn about the settlers and Native Americans at school, but when we sit down at the table, we are thinking about food and family.
While I don't think the holiday itself disrespects Native Americans, I do think that the depiction of it can be off. The image used at the top of the article and the top of this page is strange, because it depicts the pilgrims (in relatively fancy clothes) giving food to the Native Americans. The generosity of the Native Americans in teaching the pilgrims how to grow their crops was the reason that the pilgrims survived. The picture shows the pilgrims preparing the food and feeding the Native Americans, but this does not make sense. After all, the pilgrims had never before seen American crops such as zucchini and pumpkin. The turkey, the food most associated with the holiday, is native to the Americas.
Thanksgiving is a holiday with a lot of history, and much of that history is an uncomfortable sidenote. What should be recognized, however, is that Thanksgiving is a day to be with friends and family, together and sharing. In this way, the holiday should be a great tradition, without reference to its unpleasant roots. Thanksgiving should be remembered as a day for family, and food, and being happy with all.
ReplyDeleteThis article definitely changed my views on the history of Thanksgiving. I can understand why the Native Americans would look back on this day on sadness. We ourselves shouldn't be celebrating the accomplishments of the pilgrims-taking over the Native American land and consigning them to reservations. Our systematic conquering should not be the face of this holiday.
Instead, we should remember this day as a day of good faith and family. It should not be connected to its roots; instead, it should simply be a day to eat good food and connect with friends and family. Regardless of what happened in the past, we should be celebrating the present.
Thanksgiving is a holiday to just be thankful about what you have, but what we are thankful for came from taking it from other people, namely the native Americans.
ReplyDeleteSome good things about thanksgiving are that it's a holiday that you spend with your family to grow closer to one another and love each other more. It's also a good thing that this holiday lets you be thankful for what you have so you don't take it for granted.
Some negative things about thanksgiving are that this holiday came to be by taking things away from the native Americans. Although this article has made some valid points on thanksgiving, my opinion has not changed very much. No matter what happened at the first thanksgiving, right now it is a wonderful holiday.
Isabelle Alzona
ReplyDeletePeriod 5
Thanksgiving isn't supposed to be a day of mourning. it might be for some people, but for most it's a day of being with one another. It might be a day of loss for some tribes and everyone deserves to mourn. But the tribes that survived should celebrate the fact that they are here and together. Thanksgiving is a day meant for being with your loved ones and being thankful for what you have. It's a day where you eat turkey together and gorge yourself with stuffing. It's a day where you tell stories and make conversation with people you haven't seen in a year. It's a day that represents love and kindness. There are no cons to a day of thanks.
This article opened my eyes to some of the pain people might be feeling. Although I feel you shouldn't mourn on Thanksgiving, I would understand if someone did. Without reading this article I wouldn't have realized that people did have bad feelings about this day of thanks. I haven't changed my thoughts on what Thanksgiving is about and what it should mean, but I do understand other people's feelings.
Albert Yam
ReplyDeletePeriod 2
11/22/12
For most people Thanksgiving is a time of being grateful for what you have and what you're able to have because of your family. It's a time to be with family and friends and eat big meals. One of the best things about Thanksgivings is the original traditions such as the turkey and the other signature foods. Many people beleive that Thanksgiving is one of the best holidays because there isn't any big gift buyings or focus on one person, but its a holiday were everyone is apart of the holiday. Personally, my family does the traditional things. The family, the football, and the turkey. Every year is kind of the same but its different from all the other holidays whicih makes it special. Most families probably do the same. Some may travel to be with family but the concept is the same. A time of thanks with friends and family.
When I think about Thanksgiving, I look at the good things but I do acknowledge that the Native Americans were wronged and that for them Thanksgiving was a day of sorrow. This article did not change my view of Thanksgiving because for me, Thanksgiving will always be a day to eat good food and spend time with my family. No matter what side of history I look at it does not influence me, I don’t celebrate Thanksgiving because of the Pilgrims or the Native Americans; I celebrate it because of my family.
We should remember this day as a day of good faith and family. It should not be connected to its roots; instead, it should simply be a day to eat good food and connect with friends and family. Regardless of what happened in the past, we should be celebrating the present.
Connor Korfas
ReplyDelete1st period
Honors World History
For me this article has totally tainted the way I feel and view Thanksgiving. For me Thanksgiving is coming together with the whole family and acknowledging our blessing and being thankful for one another. I never thought about how this day marks the beginning of a huge conflict for our Native American population. In elementary school I always remember watching the cartoon movies of the First Thanksgiving. In the movies everyone is smiling and working together. I never thought much more about it. I always thought this was the reality. Now I guess it’s easier to believe than the truth. I feel really bad that a day I am celebrating and enjoying myself is a day others feel so negatively about.
This has totally changed the way I view the holiday. I am well aware of the hardships the native american people have gone through. These hardships have mostly been caused by our nation's growth in North America. But then again without these events that took place we wouldn't live in the same conditions we live today. So while this day brought hardships for the Native Americans it also marks the start of our Nation today. Without a doubt I will view Thanksgiving differently, the thought of the Native Americans will constantly be in the back of my mind.
Rebecca Harless
ReplyDeletePeriod 5
November 22, 2012
The pros and cons of Thanksgiving. Well, for pros, there’s food, a lot of food. There are tons of sweets, and calorie-stuffed things, and eating as much as possible without feeling guilty. A corollary con is that eating so much can cause someone to gain weight. Another con is that there is so much food left over that sometimes, even after a week of leftovers, the leftovers of the leftovers get thrown away. Then there’s the pro of having family come over, listening to stories and having a good time. Except when the hosts are stressed about the food, or about family, and then visitations become cons. The Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade, which I’ve probably only watched five minutes of in my life, is a pro, because they have really awesome balloons, and the marchers are all dressed up. A con is that, like today was there, it can also be very cold. My favorite pro of Thanksgiving is that thanks are actually said, or thought, for what we have. Throughout the rest of the year, I feel as though other people and I, as humans, take what we have for granted.
We celebrated Thanksgiving by eating ham, semi-watery mashed potatoes, salad, and a pumpkin pie my grandfather, who came down from the Northeast, and I made the day before. My step-father loves to put up Christmas decorations, but we kind of talked him out of it for today. We do not watch the parade, and two-thirds of family don’t like turkey.
This article did change the way I view Thanksgiving. I think the Native Americans were wronged in so many ways by the European settlers. I think all of the people in the article had a smart view of Thanksgiving. Even though the history of the Native Americans and Europeans has been rough, they, and the author, focused more on today’s discrimination and problems. I think that Native Americans are still put to the side today. I do, though, also like the individuals’ in the article beliefs of being thankful for what they have today. Now, I feel more thankful for what the Native Americans of the past did.
My position on the Europeans “exploring” America to create colonies is not very nice. People say that “Oh, we owe Christopher Columbus and the Pilgrims for settling America,” and I guess we do. But, with the information from the article and my own feelings, I hate the way the Native Americans were treated. The settlers came in like they already owned everything, bringing disease, and killing a lot of people.
Thanksgiving is the time of year where we all come together and celebrate a good year, friendship, and other things that are important to us. For example, my family always gets together with my mom's parents and we spend a few days together. We look forward to these visits, and we always have fun. These are all great thing to pass on to future generations. However, during thanksgiving, we unwittingly tell quite a few falsehoods. We tell children that at the first thanksgiving, everything was great and the native Americans had great relationships with the white people. This wasn't true. The whites had lied and cheated and stolen from the native Americans. They sided with one tribe in order to gain support, and through that turned tribes against one another. The native Americans also were not the complacent servants that our storybooks have made them out to be.
ReplyDeleteThis article has reinforced some things about how I view this article. I approve of Thanksgiving. It is a great way to spend time with your family. However, this article has reinforced my opinion that we need to teach the true history of thanksgiving. I already knew that the romanticized image of thanksgiving was not true. We need to teach people what really happened. I feel as if not remembering the native American's suffering is disrespectful.
My view on Europeans setting up colonies is unchanged. It is fine that europe set up colonies, they just should have been more respectful and sensitive to preexisting cultures. After all, a lot of us have European blood. Without colonies, we might not be here.
Current Event 11
ReplyDeleteShomya Mitra, Honors World History, 5th Period
I think the pros of Thanksgiving are very numerous. Thanksgiving is a time to give thanks and appreciate how fortunate we are. Nowadays, in our world of consumerism, I think it is very important to pause and think about how many blessings we have. Also, Thanksgiving is a holiday for family fellowship and union. This holiday is probably the most family-oriented holiday there is, and I can’t imagine a family that wouldn’t take the time to sit down together and be with each other. But there are some cons to Thanksgiving.
As in the article, the Native Americans didn’t benefit at all from what it represents. The Europeans taking over North America affected the Native Americans greatly, all negative. The Europeans spread disease among the natives, and they also took their land. So, although Thanksgiving is a great holiday for most, the holiday represents bad events to some.
For Thanksgiving, my family celebrates by sitting down and having a nice traditional dinner. Usually, we go to Florida and have Thanksgiving with my grandparents, but this year we weren’t able to go due to some conflicting appointments. After reading the article, my view of Thanksgiving has definitely changed. The Native Americans were treated badly by the Europeans, and I think this is not disputable. The Europeans definitely were the worst thing that happened to the Native Americans, so I think that Thanksgiving should be celebrated with a little bit of sadness towards the events that took place in regards to the natives. The settlers were in their rights to come settle in America, but when they discovered there were people living in the places they wanted to live, the settlers should have considered the natives’ rights.
Hope Davison
ReplyDelete1st Period
Thanksgiving to most Americans is a great time, and there’s so many good things about it it’s difficult to list them all. I believe the thing people most like about this holiday is being with family, whether you’re gathering with just your immediate family, or travelling across the country to be with many extended family. You don’t have to worry about school or work and are just enjoying the relaxing times. The tradition of this celebrated holiday usually does not ever shed light on what happened with the Europeans landing in the Native American land. No, this truth never centers itself during family gatherings. You could even say that families don’t acknowledge the truth of what happened in the past maybe just because it’s easier to pay no mind to it and just say the pilgrims had great success when coming to America, end of story. But that’s a little rude, isn’t it? The Native Americans went through some horrible things due to the European’s arrival and it shouldn’t be ignored. Even on TV, the Charlie Brown Thanksgiving reenacted the pilgrim voyage and made the story all fluffy with peace between the Native American tribe and pilgrims and yay happy the end. I really think Americans should acknowledge what happened to the Native Americans because of the Europeans on Thanksgiving. We can be merry and enjoy ourselves, but not ignore what the history of this holiday is. I admit my family doesn’t do this, either, which we should. We have a very laid back holiday and pretty much just eat the main meal, excluding what a lot of other Americans do.
This article changed my thinking of Thanksgiving celebration a little. I don’t think Americans should change the way they celebrate, it’s great and enjoyable. I just think each family should take time to acknowledge the history of the holiday they’re celebrating, including respecting the Native Americans for what they had to go through. Just imagine some strangers coming into your territory and bringing disease, foreign objects like weapons, and generally just kicking you out of your home. However it still is important that the Europeans came here anyway, but they honestly could have been more courteous about it. Anyway, it’s in the past, so I don’t think people should rest on it with anger, but should acknowledge what happened.
Claire Lancaster
ReplyDelete1st period
Our family always loves getting together every year to give thanks and have some wonderful food. We always eat at my great aunt and uncles house every year in Henderson, NC and my grandparents and most of my cousins all come. That is for dinner though. We also have a thanksgiving lunch with my other grandparents and cousins on my dads side in Creedmoor, NC. For lunch we normally have a country ham, some chicken, corn pudding, some type of vegetable, bread, and of course, followed up by some delicious desserts. For dinner with my mom’s side, we normally have turkey, mashed potatoes, corn pudding, green beans, oysters, gelatin, bread and at least three different types of pie for dessert. One tradition that we always have is that we always say blessing and what we are thankful for, before both meals.
This article didn’t really change my opinion on anything. I have always believed that what the pilgrims did to the Native Americans was awful and shouldn’t have happened, but I think everyone should celebrate thanksgiving, regardless of their race or beliefs because it’s just a time to give thanks for what you have today. During thanksgiving I just love getting together with my family, eating great food and giving thanks, and not thinking about the bad things that happened in the past.
From the Native Americans point of view, what we did was wrong, and I can understand that. The Europeans marched over from a place where they were perfectly fine with living in, and destroyed all that was theirs without even feeling bad about it. But on the Europeans perspective, everyone can live on any land that they want and they were just as entitled to living in America as the Native’s were entitled to living in Europe, if they wanted. Personally I am on the Native Americans side. But I also think that what happened in the past, happened in the past and maybe we should all just put it behind us and take a day to give thanks.
Sarah Taekman
ReplyDelete11-23-12
Period 5
Thanksgiving is a time to stuff your face, spend time with your family, and of course, give thanks. Every American knows the standard tale of the pilgrims sharing an autumn feast with the Native Americans. But most people choose to ignore the fact that the colonials weren’t very friendly with the Native Americans after that. My family is in the majority of people, that either chooses to not acknowledge it, or simply don’t know. In my personal Thanksgiving experiences, I feel like the “giving thanks” part of the holiday is slowly disappearing, with football and food beginning to take over. Additionally, all the companies start to advertise Christmas before Thanksgiving is even over, which is a pet peeve of mine. But amidst all the cons, I do enjoy getting my family and family friends together, because it’s very hard to get everyone together in one place over the course of the year, but Thanksgiving makes time for it. The food is delicious, especially the desserts. And there’s no worrying about school, or sports, or other things for the entire day. The way my family celebrates Thanksgiving is by having some family friends come over, and we all just chat, relax, and eat. And I always make a habit of cooking all the food with my mom, so it’s a good bonding experience. Despite the few cons of Thanksgiving, there’s more good than there is bad, and it’s always a holiday I look forward to.
This article did make me look at this holiday a bit differently. It made me realize how we Americans try to shove the injustice we had against the Native Americans under the carpet and pretend that everyone was content, and everything ended happily ever after. In the future, I will definitely keep up the traditions my family has now, but I’ll also take a few moments to remember the Native Americans the colonials wronged. But the tradition of Thanksgiving isn’t all about the pilgrims and Native Americans’ feast. It’s a harvest feast, and a time to give thanks. While we should remember the Native Americans, we should also continue the true purpose behind the holiday, to give thanks.
Colonialism was not uncommon back in the times of Thanksgiving’s origin. Countries were looking for more territory, so they could possess more wealth and resources, and therefore become more powerful. England, or some other country would have colonialized North America, no matter what. If some other country had colonialized it, I think most of the details, like the mistreatment of the Native Americans, would have stayed the same. The European settlers weren’t exactly “humble.” Humans are curious, and would have discovered North America and, no matter who was the finder, would have most likely followed a very similar path to that of the English settlers.
Thanksgiving is a holiday in which you acknowledge all the things you are thankful for. You get together with your family and friends and enjoy the food and company. People have a big meal with plenty of dishes and desserts. Thanksgiving provides a time for the family to get closer together. However, the idea that thanksgiving is based on is not good. There were a lot of negative impacts of the Europeans arriving. We have brushed over the effects of the arrival in our history books. This is something present-day native americans have a right to draw attention to.
ReplyDeleteThanksgiving has never been my favorite holiday, but this article made me feel even worse about it. There are so many native americans that were harmed during a holiday that we idealize. This is unjust especially because Thanksgiving is a national holiday. We spend so much time and money on it with the food, traveling, decorations, parades and shopping. We should be able to put aside some of these resources to help out Native Americans and their "day of mourning". Perhaps this will help raise national awareness for their cause. The colonialism of current-day America was very hard on the native americans. Not only in the beginning when they took over the New England coast, but later when they made our way throughout the midwest and west. They kicked out hundreds and thousands to set up our colonies because they thought they were better than the pre-existing people. This is shown in events throughout history such as the trail of tears.
Thanksgiving is a holiday in which we give thanks and all of our family members gather together and enjoy the foods brought to the table. Some common food/dessert would be the turkey and pie. My family personally doesn't bring turkey or pie but we do have many other wonderful meals. In my opinion I don't think there are any cons in this holiday because its just a day were family get to come together as a whole and give thanks for what they have.
ReplyDeleteAs I was reading this article it didn't change the way I thought about the holiday. But it did make me realize that Native Americas were abused and did go though some horrible things and in there opinion thanksgiving is a holiday were they celebrate there struggle but I don't think American celebrate it for that reason. Thanksgiving is a holiday were the family comes together and I think everyone should be able so celebrate it.
Ari Horwitz
ReplyDelete7th Period
Thanksgiving is a fun holiday to celebrate life and all that you are thankful for. My family has a tradition of gathering together with my extended family and doing a bunch of fun activities including an AMAZING feast. We usually do a project, which involves blowing up stuff like a works bomb or potato cannon. Not only do we do activities but we hangout and have time to catch up and chat. The majority of Americans think of the history of thanksgiving as colonist being friendly and bonding with the Native Americans. Although this is somewhat true, it doesn’t explain the background information. My family chooses not to even worry about the history of thanksgiving and just thinking of it as a time off from school and have a vacation.
The truth is several thousand Native Americans died as a result of colonist invading their land. Although this was a terrible thing that happened, think about it, then we might not of been here. America was going to be discovered sooner or later and the large countries being greedy and strong they were going to try to gain territory whichever way they could. The result probably wouldn’t be much different for the Native Americans sorry to say.
Most Americans choose to look at thanksgiving as a time to give thanks and be happy. I always look forward to the great memories my family and I make during this time and I always love spending time during this great weather to be together. Although there are pros and cons of thanksgivings history the pros have to trump the cons because of the happiness and joy this season brings to family’s and friends gathering to remind themselves the beauty of life.
Anna Grace Kelley
ReplyDelete11-23- 12
Period 7
My family is just like the average family in America when it comes to celebrating Thanksgiving. We gather with many friends and families and eat a ton of food, watch football and have a great time. Another tradition that we participate in is having a huge football game. It is always a lot of fun because some people are good at football, but others are awful! For us, Thanksgiving is just a time to enjoy time off, remember what we are thankful for and simply enjoy life.
As we celebrate, we definitely don’t really think about the history of Thanksgiving. Along with most Americans, we know and believe that the Native Americans and English colonists had a friendly dinner to represent how thankful they were for life. This is somewhat true, but as I read this article, some other things became clear to me. The Native Americans were actually abused and many died as a result of the colonist’s invasions. This is often overlooked and ignored which should not be the case. Maybe next time that we celebrate Thanksgiving we should think of the troubles and hardships that are associated with this holiday. If we do this, we will become even more grateful that we live in a free country and are in fact living.
Ashley Yang
ReplyDelete2nd Period
Thanksgiving is a day where people get together with friends and family to give thanks and to be grateful for everything. On this holiday, many parents get a break from work and the kids are let out of school. There are often many parties to celebrate this holiday and is also a time when friends can visit other friends who may live in another state. This holiday is when everyone kind of reconnects with each other. A big tradition is to eat turkey and have a big feast, and of course black Friday. It has always been taught to us that Thanksgiving is a happy time when everyone comes together, but people often don’t think about the history related to it. During this holiday, my family and I often go to parties and have a big meal with our friends.
What was discussed in the article was not how I viewed Thanksgiving, I have never thought of it in that perspective. It always seemed like a great think about expanding territories and exploring new places and ideas. The Native Americans were treated cruelly and from their point of view, I would not feel so happy thinking people are celebrating the holiday that led to the decline of the Native Americans. I think exploring is something that was inevitable. If America had not been found, we would not be here today. This has caused a lot of suffering on the part of the Native Americans, but it is what has brought us to the world today. We would never know what it would have been like if the settlers didn’t explore new lands in the Americas, but I think the exploration has brought about the prosperity of the present. After reading this article, I will still celebrate this holiday as one of happiness and as a positive thing, but I will think of and respect the Native Americans, whom may not see this holiday the same way.
Cisem Karaca
ReplyDelete5th period
Thanksgiving is a day to give thanks for what you have and to celebrate the time by eating a lot of food. Some traditions that we have are to get together with friends and family, and share a meal together. We have many dishes to choose from and enjoy the time we have together. The next day I like to go shopping and see if I can catch some good black Friday deals. This is not a tradition but I like to use the opportunity to go shopping. This can actually be a con because of the time wasted shopping at 3 in the morning ruins the holiday festivity and rushes the quick change in holidays. Black Friday rushes the Christmas mood.
This article did not change my views on Thanksgiving because I already knew about the shady tales not told regarding the true happening on that night so long ago.I do not think that thanksgiving is a holiday that celebrates the victory of taking over a new land or even ruing the lives of the Native Americans. I feel that it is seen as a holiday where you can enjoy time with close friends and family and give thanks for what you have. I do not think it is seen, as a negative holiday but a positive holiday that is celebrated for its good reasons not it’s negative past events regarding Native Americans.
Harish Prasad
ReplyDelete11-22-12
Period 5
For most people, Thanksgiving is a great time to revaluate family values, and to be thankful for the blessings they have in life. It is a time to get together with family and friends and share good will and good food. A tradition that most families do on thanksgiving is eating turkey and watching football but I am a vegetarian so I do not eat turkey. Instead of turkey, my mom prepares some dishes which are different every year and we invite a couple friends to eat with us. Thanksgiving is probably the best American holiday in my opinion. I think that because it is the time were you can spend time with family and friends, eat your favorite foods, and watch some TV with them too. Unlike Christmas, it is not commercialized and not accompanied with the exchange of gifts. There are many benefits to Thanksgiving. You get to eat, relax, and celebrate with family. However there are a few downsides. It is made into a shopping frenzy with Black Friday, and the story is insulting to Native Americans.
After reading the article my views on the holiday were impacted a little, but not by a ton. I think the holiday is a great one overall. However, I do think it is a little unfair to Native Americans. I don’t think its right that they are made out to be needy of the Native Americans, and the peace agreement is completely wrong. The Native Americans were persecuted once the Pilgrims settled and set up a country. Their land was taken, they were killed, and forced to leave their homelands. Most Pilgrims were not nice to Native Americans.
I think it was wrong what the European settlers did to the Native American. I realize that they established our country, but I’m not proud of their treatment of the Natives. I think that it was fine for European explorers to come and settle in the new lands. However, they should not have committed the terrible acts they did against the Native Americans. While I still think Thanksgiving is great, I understand Native American resentment toward it.
Emily Ball
ReplyDeletePeriod 1
11/23/2012
Since the farthest back that I can remember, I have always thought that Thanksgiving is when the Native Americans and the pilgrims first started to really bond and form a friendship. I had also always had the thought that Thanksgiving was a happy time for everyone where the whole family gets together and eats a bunch of turkey. But after reading this article, I have come to the conclusion that this is far from true because many Native Americans were harmed and killed by the pilgrims. I began to think about how if my ancestors had been hurt, how sad I would become on the thought of Thanksgiving.
Even thinking about all the things said and stated in the article, it did not in any way change my thoughts about Thanksgiving. It is a holiday, and I think every holiday should be celebrated in a jolly way with smiles and laughs other than tears and frowns. It’s also a great way to get the family together and enjoy the time you have left with each other while it lasts.
The Pros and Cons of Thanksgiving
ReplyDeleteWenbo Wang
11/23/2012
Period 2
Thanksgiving is often known for the time of reunion and celebration for the success of one’s personal and shared labor achieved in the year. These aspects of Thanksgiving are enjoyed among families, with family members exchanging words of thanks to one another, while feasting on the indigenous dishes of roasted turkey and corn along with pumpkin pies; the symbol of the year’s plentiful growth of crops and livestock. Many families including ours invite many family and friends over to discuss about the year’s progress, while eating turkey and other foods. Family traditions of family and friend gatherings in our family are followed when celebrating Thanksgiving. The celebrated aspects of Thanksgiving however well-known also contain several aspects that are debatable in society. For example, the history of Thanksgiving is often thought to have reflected the peace and friendship between the Pilgrims and the Native Americans. Although this may be the case, events after the First Thanksgiving strained the friendship, caused by territorial claims over the Native Americans, and other forms of control over the land and resources made by the arriving people. Thus, Thanksgiving also reflects the strained relations between the two groups of people despite the friendliness of the First Thanksgiving.
This article deeply expresses the overall distress between the Pilgrims and the Native Americans despite the friendliness during the First Thanksgiving, and how the people of today are responding to these events with mourning and understanding. Having been taught about the relations between the Native Americans and the Pilgrims in the past, my viewpoint upon Thanksgiving has not changed; for I remain viewing Thanksgiving as a wonderful opportunity for family gatherings, and celebrating the success of the year while offering respect to the Pilgrims and Native American’s many accomplishments, and understanding their differences. Native Americans went through many negative situations in history. Mahtowin Munro organizes the National Day of Mourning every year to remember the Native Americans who died from the period of colonization. Although the Pilgrims and Native Americans had different viewpoints on property, culture, tradition, and such; the citizens of today who are the descendants of the first Pilgrims attend or learn about these events, thus understanding the many things the past Native Americans have gone through. This made any feelings of wrong become understandable and welcome to change for the better. The Native Americans did experience hardship, and so did the Pilgrims when colonizing unknown territory. They both succeeded in many things, for the Native Americans were the first to successfully create a complex society in the New World, adapting many hunting and farming techniques in response to the environment. The Pilgrims established a diverse community in foreign soil, creating a vast land that eventually became the country; bringing many new devices and technology to the New World in the forms of ships and furniture. The two groups contributed ideas to each other, allowing the European settlers to create the Thirteen Colonies that was vital for the events that we know of to occur to create the country.
Sydney B
ReplyDelete5th pd
There are way more pros than cons about Thanksgiving. For one, Thanksgiving is a time to get together with your family and catch up. It's a time to eat lots of good food and talk about your life. It's a time for your cousins to see your step-brothers, and so on. All those are very good things, a.k.a. pros. A cons is the fact that the native americans had to go through such hard times in order for this holiday to be the same. The biggest pro in my opinion is Black Friday. I went at midnight this year and last year with my sister and it's the most fun I had in a while. I didn't get back until 5am, and this has become a new tradition with my sister and I. For Thanksgiving, my family usually goes to the Hogan's farm where there is a big gathering of many different people. We've always brought a 7-layer salad every year since I can remember.
This article didn't really change my views on Thanksgiving THAT much. I now know about how hard the trials of being a native american at the time of colonization was, but I still think of thanksgiving the same way. Food. Black Friday. Family. Nothing has changed. I do feel sympathy for the native americans who died and I'm glad that a lot of people do the National Mourning Day. The pilgrims weren't in the wrong when they came to America hoping to colonize, but they were wrong when they forcefully invaded. Native Americans were faultless; it was not their fault in any way, so I feel sorry for them.
Alexis Ramirez
ReplyDelete1st period
Honors World History
I think that Thanksgiving is a Holiday where our friends and families gather together and celebrate. No only just for the delicious meals but also what Mr. Moore a historian said that also we have to keep in mind that the soil, the water, and the air we breathe. What I also like about Thanksgiving is that its no just an Holiday to give lots of gifts to everybody but a its a gift for everyone. And many people do their celebration in many ways, such as traveling and also like not just eating but to have a great time like activities to do.
In my opinion I think that article it changed my mind that I felt bad what had happened to the Native Americans. I had always thought that this holiday had any problems about the settlers and the Native Americans. What has Mr.Munro said I agree, because why teach us the false mythology. I felt bad for the Native Americans what they had gone through, and that this changed my mind but you cant change the past. But I think that this holiday should celebrated like the way its is
Today’s current event is on “Thanksgiving is some native Americans day of mourning” for many
ReplyDeleteAmericans people celebrate by eating turkey and spending time with their family to give thanks for
everything. They say that Thanksgiving is good because you recognize and give thanks for everything you
have. For Native Americans it’s a different story. A con for thanksgiving is that Native Americans had to
do so much in order for Thanksgiving to happen. This article didn’t change my perspective of
Thanksgiving . Even though Native Americans had to do a lot for this holiday to happen but we still
celebrate it all together.
Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. One reason being because I can eat as much as I want and no one will judge me, and it is also just a great way to spend time with the people you love.t makes me so grateful for the life I get to live. It makes me feel priveleged and it's just a great holiday to celebrate in my family.
ReplyDeleteFor the Native Americans, what the settlers did was selfish and wrong, and I can totally understand where they are coming from. The Europeans marched over from a place where they were perfectly fine with living in, and took what had been the Natives for centuries and claimed it as theirs. But on the Europeans perspective, everyone can live on any land that they want. I honestly think the Natives were in the right, and what the English did was rude and inconsiderate. I also strongly believe that we can all put this behind us and just be thankful for the life we have been givin.
Lillian Menkens-Weiler
ReplyDeleteMr. Waters Period 5
Honors World History
Thanksgiving is a very special holiday for me. My family and I a gathering and we enjoy cooking and getting to spend time with family and friends. We often play music and sing, as well as eat lots of food and enjoy each others' company. All of these are pros of Thanksgiving for me. I love getting to see people I don't get to see very often, and I love taking time to think about the things that I am thankful for.
This article did show me a new side of Thanksgiving. The cruelties that the Native Americans faced are difficult to read about. This holiday is celebrated with festivity, and most people do consider the story of the first Thanksgiving when they are celebrating Thanksgiving today. The truth is that the Native Americans suffered a great deal, and we should also take time to consider this. But I still do appreciate what the holiday is today: a time to relax and think about how lucky we are and the things that really matter, and the beginning of the holiday season.
Anna Zurliene
ReplyDeleteHonors World history
7th Period
Thanksgiving is a national holiday where people come together not by race or religion, so I believe it is very valuable to our country. It doesn’t have a specific group that it is angled toward, it’s the individual and what they are thankful for. With that said, it is also a time to be around my family for me and that’s what matters most, is being surrounded by the people you love. It is the one day a year where we really process how blessed we all are and how much we value in our lives. At our house at thanksgiving we all go around before we eat and say what we are thankful for. Plus we get days off of school. But then there are the cons, which have obviously been displayed in the article. We don’t know the complete story behind thanksgiving, and our celebration could be taken as an offense to those who think of thanksgiving as a day of mourning. Also, I feel like we shouldn’t just be giving thanks on one day of the year, because every day there are little things that we should be thankful for that we need to appreciate. Thanksgiving can be a narrow-minded holiday.
There are definitely mixed feelings for me. I do have sympathy for the Native Americans because it is kind of like celebrating the day that your land was taken over, which is not a happy day for them and it changed their lives forever, but not always in a bad way. Unfortunately, they are still suffering today from what happened in the past, like becoming an American joke. I feel like some people don’t even think they are real, but if they weren’t treated like that, then maybe thanksgiving would be different for them. Like I said before, now that I think about it we shouldn’t just have a set day where we all think about what we are thankful for.
With all of that said, America would not at all be the place that it is today if it weren’t for those settlers. Sooner or later America was going to be discovered by someone and I think we should be glad it was those people who brought very advanced technology for that time period, or else we could be a third world country today. I think that overall, even though Native Americans might be somewhat mournful on thanksgiving, that it is a holiday worth celebrating because its point is to bring people together and unify us as families, communities and a country and be thankful for what we’ve got and what has been done for us.
Keith Segars
ReplyDeletePD2
Current Event #11
The Pros and Cons of Thanksgiving
Like many families, our family has a long tradition of Thanksgiving celebration. We like to gather all of our relatives together and then celebrate the holiday with a meal of turkey, dressing, and desserts. The main event of the gathering is the blessing of the food. During the blessing, my Dad will give thanks for the good things that have been given to us and for the safety and health of our family. This has been a tradition in our family for a very long time. We love to tell stories of our ancestors and recall the things they accomplished, where they lived, and how they lived. Sometimes our Thanksgiving seems like a big meal followed by a family history lesson. It is a fun time that we all look forward to.
The CNN article gives a very different view of Thanksgiving. As stated in the article, for many Native Americans, Thanksgiving represents a day of mourning. This is because many Native Americans view the arrival of the pilgrims as the beginning of the downfall for their way of life. When my family visited to mountains of western North Carolina we learned about the trail of tears that marked the path of the Cherokee as they were moved to the Western United States. This was a very sad time for the Cherokee and it does remind me of some of the points made in the article.
I do think that Native Americans were not treated fairly by European settlers. I can see why many of them might think differently about Thanksgiving. However, I also think it is important to have a day when all people give thanks for the blessings they have received. Maybe it is better to think of Thanksgiving in a broader way. Pilgrims and Native Americans might be just a way to represent the holiday in a storybook like manner. The real purpose is to remember to be thankful for the things we receive and to realize that there are others who may be in need.
Thanksgiving is viewed upon by the typical American as a day of celebration; a day when friends and family gather and to show gratefulness for what you have, as well as a time to cherish your belongings and your loved ones.
ReplyDeleteI already know about the Native Americans' treatment. Also, I already know the Europeans' perspective. The European explorers were more technologically advanced and viewed the Native Americans as a lower being, a pattern seen all throughout history due to general human traits such as greed, for money and/or power. This really did not change my view of Thanksgiving, I still view it as what I have before.
Noah Miller Johnson
ReplyDeleteHonors World history
First period
1) Thanksgiving is the one of the only holidays in the U.S. where there are no politics or religion involved. It is largely without controversy. It is a way to bring together a lot of normally separate groups of people. The cons include the facts that what really happened the on the first thanksgiving has been lost in the passing of time and what we are doing today may have no relation to what happened more than 200 years ago.
2) The article helped me increase my thankfulness for the people that made it possible for us to not have school. On a more serious note it made me think about how the native Americans have been pushed off their land by European settlers. I am not really in a position to talk about because without them I would not be here today. I believe that if the Europeans had not taken America then some other group of people would have tried to do the same things with similar results.
I do think that Native Americans were wronged by the Europeans but again I am not in a place where I can make a comment on it. I don’t know enough about those times to say whether something’s could have worked out better but I think that with a stronger and kinder guiding had many things could have been avoided.
Iain Dixon
ReplyDeleteHonors World History
Period 2
My family’s history all starts out with immigrants form different countries, so I have no history with the native americans. Because of this, Thanksgiving has always been a time a feasting, and family at my household. Recently my family has even been inviting friends over to eat with us, as my mother likes to cook food en masse. All the regular pros of thanksgiving, food, family, friends, and Black Friday, apply to my family. There is no grieving for people who were killed in the pass, as they were not part of my family. The cons that I see are the rush to buy things on Black Friday, and the horrible feeling you get the day after, when you overate.
When I was in second grade back in New York, they taught us about Thanksgiving in the usual way, about how the hungry pilgrims came and found the helpful indians that taught them how to survive their way through the winter and in thanks the pilgrims had a feast with the indians. But unlike other schools that also taught us how the same pilgrims came back and slaughtered their savors several years later. Because of these teachings, I have always had a rather skeptical view on the pilgrims, and this article hasn’t changed it one bit.
There is no doubt that the pilgrim settlers treated the Native Americans unfairly, but that time period was all about being brutal to survive. The pilgrims set up a moderately successful colony in the americas by conning the natives into teaching them how to survive and then killing them off to gain land. Tis the way of the world, the strong prey on the weak.
Elise Dixon
ReplyDeletePeriod 5
For a long time Thanksgiving had been a time where people get together and, in the simplest form, have a big meal. Some of the pros of having Thanksgiving is that it is a time where families will enjoy their time, get to know each other more and also say what they are thankful for. Some of the cons of Thanksgiving is that it can be deceiving, because what families tell their children is actually not what happened and that the Native Americans were actually not treated that well. Some of the family traditions that my family does is of course to have a huge meal. If we can we also invite other families over. Before we eat our meal, each of us have to say things that we are thankful for, such as being healthy and together as a family. Also, in the morning we all eat pumpkin pie or turkey and gravy for breakfast.
My views on Thanksgiving have not changed in the slightest after reading this article. For a very long time I have really known that what us Americans say about Thanksgiving is really not what happened. Also the fact that the pilgrims were all nice to the Native Americans for all that they did to them but later killed off many of them. I feel that the Native Americans were wronged but as J. Lucy Bond had said, I also believe that celebrating Thanksgiving more in the aspect as a tradition that the Native Americans would do for the end of the harvest is perfectly fine. I think that the explorers really shouldn't have tried to take over places where there are already people living in, even if they needed recourses then they could just make an alliance with the other place. But sadly it is too late to tell the explorers that they should not take over random parts of land just because they wanted to. Happy late Thanksgiving.
Thanksgiving is a holiday that is ment to be celabrated with family and also with friends. It is spent to give thanks for everything that we have in this world. Most of the time we spent time around family and friends and just loving being around people. Thanksgiving is a very big holiday in my family because we have so many traditions the we celabrate. Like having time as a family and eating with each other on thanksgiving.
ReplyDeleteThe only thing that I think about when I think of thanksgiving is the huge feast that the pilgrims had with each other. All of the happy times that we all always hear about when learning about thanksgiving. We never think about all that bad things that have happend and like the people killing off all of the Native Americans. I don't think that it has changed my outlook on thanksgiving at all because to me its not about that its really about spending time with the people that you really do care about in life! I am very haply that we do have thanksgiving.
Sam Nielsen
ReplyDeletePeriod 1
This article did change my views on thanksgiving somewhat. I still believe that it should remain a time of celebration for many people, as it has been for so many years. On the other hand, I think that for the ones who are aware, there will always be a sober reminder of what the Native Americans went through. So, I certainly think that the Native Americans were wronged. The way that they were driven off of their land and killed in conflicts, shows how they were, in some cases, mercilessly persecuted due to their lack of technology and customs. Despite the fact that the Native Americans helped the foreign settlers out, these settlers ended up killing and driving away thousands of them. Though thanks giving should still be celebrated, people would do well to remember the other side of the story. As for my family, we usually just celebrate it by having a big breakfast in the morning and a big dinner in the afternooon. Lunch tends to be overlooked.
I think that the idea of European settlers exploring the Americas is somewhat glorified. Exploration, at its heart, seems great and wonderful. The idea of discovering new lands, finding new species of plants and animals, meeting new people... but wait. That's where the European settlers ruined the ideals of exploration. After meeting the Native Americans they decided to get rid of them, rather than be friendly with them. I think that the idea of exploring new lands is great, but the sad truth is that when man-kind is doing the exploring, other people tend to suffer for it.
Edward Zhuang
ReplyDelete5th Period
My views on Thanksgiving have changed slightly. I love Thanksgiving. Each year, this tradition, which has been passed down 1000's of years, brings great joy to me and my family. It is a holiday of gathering, where people get together and have a festive time. People eat turkey and other classic foods.
However, when one learns about the bloody history behind Thanksgiving, it is tough for him or her to enjoy the holiday. Who wants to feast knowing the truth behind the harvest? We realize, had it not been for our colonization of America, we wouldn't be here. Exploration was essential, but it shouldn't be viewed as it is today. Behind all the wonders of a new land, there suffered Native Americans.
Joyce Yao
ReplyDelete2nd period
I always viewed Thanksgiving as a time to be with family, eat a lot of food, and have a break from school. As a tradition, my family all cooks a dish for the Thanksgiving meal and watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. I always look forward to Thanksgiving.
I never knew that Thanksgiving could be viewed as a bad thing; you eat good food, you're with family, and everyone's happy. Also, most movies, books, and media portray the pilgrims and Native Americans as amicable and friendly towards one another, therefore we're falsely led to believe that Thanksgiving is a day of total goodness. Reading the article brings to everyone's attention about the cold truth of the pilgrims and Native Americans. Not only did the pilgrims take their land, they also brought diseases, making the natives suffer. I wouldn't go so far as to say that the Europeans should never have settled in America because then we wouldn't be here, but they made many people suffer. It's good that in the present day, native americans as well other people are trying to raise awareness of what really happened with the European settlers and Native Americans, diminishing the well-known happy relationship between Native Americans in the settlers, as portrayed in movies such as A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. I still enjoy those types of movies, however, they won't be the same knowing the truth. I do love Thanksgiving and I won't stop celebrating it, but now I will view it in a different light, knowing the suffering and pain that the Native Americans actually endured.
I think that Thanksgiving is what it sounds like. It is a few days you set apart every year to give thanks. You give thanks for your friends and family and even your life. You spend time with relatives that you rarely see otherwise. You get to eat tons of food and have a feast to give thanks for life.
ReplyDeleteI didn't really think that Thanksgiving could be a bad thing. I never realized that Native Americans and pilgrims didn't get along like in the movies. I thought that they got along just fine, and I never realized that anything happened that was bad between the two. Thanksgiving is a great holiday that I love to celebrate and I will continue celebrating it, just celebrating it acknowledging what happened between the Native Americans and pilgrims.
Gavin Rothwell
ReplyDeletePeriod 5
For most people, Thanksgiving is a great time of family and thanks. It is a time to get together with others and realize how fortunate you are. To me Thanksgiving is a fun time of thanks and family. Every Thanksgiving we eat, talk, play and watch football. It is a time I look forward to. There are many benefits to Thanksgiving. You get to give thanks, eat, relax, and celebrate with family. However there are a few downsides. It is made into a shopping frenzy with Black Friday, and the story is insulting to Native Americans.
After reading the article my views on the holiday were impacted a little, but not by a lot. I think the holiday is a great one overall. However, I do think it is a little unfair to Native Americans. I don’t think it’s right that they are made out to be needy and mooching of the Native Americans, and the peace agreement is completely wrong. The Native Americans were persecuted once the Pilgrims settled and set up a country. Their land was taken, they were killed, and forced to leave their homelands.
Paige Jones
ReplyDeletePeriod 2
Thanksgiving is a holiday in which families are together to spend time with each other, eat, and be thankful for all their blessings. In my family, all of my family gets together and give thanks for all the good things in our lives, and then we eat all of the food my grandmother has prepared for us. Thanksgiving is special holiday to me because everyone gets to be together. Before I read this article, I never really looked deep enough into how everyone thought of this holiday; I just had my opinions and assumed everyone had the same opinion I do. But that’s in fact not true at all. People like the Native Americans have no reason to celebrate this day. The Europeans came into their world, took their land, and changed everything for them, not in a good way. I think the Native Americans were wronged. They already had a system going for them, a way of life, and then these random people came and took everything from them. The worst part, was that the Native Americans couldn't do anything to stop these people who had way more power than them. I know that the Europeans probably didn't think about how they were harming the Native Americans. But, the fact is that they did harm them in many ways, and they should have been more careful not to do so. If the Europeans hadn't come to America though, none of us would even exist. So I’m glad that the Native Americans still honor their ancestors because they did not deserve to get pushed around by the Europeans.
To me, Thanksgiving has always been a time of reunion and joy, when differences are put aside. In my family we invite over many other people and we all participate in enjoying a feast. We have never really discussed the "union" between the pilgrims and the native americans at the thanksgiving table.
ReplyDeleteThis is because from an early age I was taught about what actually happened at the first thanksgiving. I for one have always liked thanksgiving, although I do not think of it as a union between the pilgrims and the native americans. Therefore this article did not change my opinion of thanksgiving. I am ashamed of what happened between these two peoples, and I am against celebrating it. However, when I am sitting around the table I am celebrating my family, not the dispersal of an ancient people.
Nick Agusta
ReplyDelete1st
Thanksgiving is a time for tradition and family gathering, the message of thanksgiving is in my opinion a message for unity. On Thanksgiving people gather with their families and eat one big meal with many different foods, celebrating the freedom, and unity we all have in this country.
This did not change my opinion, i do not think Americans should have to change the way we celebrate this holiday, because of something people did hundreds of years ago. We had nothing to do with it so why do we have to change our traditio0n.
Rachel Danner
ReplyDelete7th period
Thanksgiving at my house is a very family oriented time. My family is very big, and we all get together to celebrate this holiday. I always make the green bean casserole, which is my favorite part of Thanksgiving. Another one of our traditions is to have a scrabble tournament on the day of Thanksgiving. My Grandmother always wins. I love this holiday because I do not get to see much of my extended family on a regular basis, so it is a fun way to get together with them. I understand that there are negative connotations surrounding the origin of this holiday, but today it is a day to eat and be together. Also, black friday, the day after Thanksgiving, can be a big boost to local economies. A con of this day is that everyone gains six pounds over the long weekend.
This article did not really change the way that I see Thanksgiving, because I already understood the injustices that were done the the Native Americans around and after the first Thanksgiving. I think we can be aware of the things that happened, and continue to be sensitive to those topics, but I also think that we can enjoy this holiday guilt free. We need to remember that people were treated badly, but try to make up for it by stuffing ourselves with turkey and pumpkin pie.
I do think that the effects of European colonization, both positive and negative can still be seen today. But I do not necessarily blame them for exploring. I know that it caused terrible things to many civilizations, but I think that it was a natural response to a want for expansion. I also think that dwelling on the past is not as good an idea as focusing on the future.
George McBurney
ReplyDelete5th
Thanksgiving, to me is a just a time to be with your family and to realize what you have and what others do not. My family ussually stays home and we watch football and eat turkey together. Technically I am native Amercian and should not enjoy this holiday, but the past is the past and I do not hate this holiday.
The thing I think about when I think of thanksgiving is the huge feast that the pilgrims had with each other. All of the happy times that we all always hear about when learning about thanksgiving. We never think about all that bad things that have happend and like the people killing off all of the Native Americans. I don't think that it has changed my outlook on thanksgiving at all because to me its not about that its really about spending time with the people that you really do care about in life! I am very happily that we do have thanksgiving.
Thanksgiving is a very fun holiday for me. It means spending time with family and being thankful for all that we have. Thanksgiving allows families to keep traditions. My family always eats alot of food and we watch the thanksgiving parade.
ReplyDeleteIt was a little strange for me to hear that thanksgiving is not as good as it seems. It changes my opinion of thanksgiving a little, because I can see that that thanksgiving is not totally wholesome. I will still view thanksgiving as a fun time to spend with family and friends but now I will keep in mind that we are not told a lot of things about our traditions. This article makes me want to look into my family traditions and find their origins and how they have changed over the years.
Jeff Richardson
ReplyDeleteHonors World History
Period 1
1)Thanksgiving is traditionally a time for family and eating. There are many good things about Thanksgiving like the time you get to spend with family or the time off from school. There is also good food and sports on TV. My family does some of the more traditional traditions like eating, turkey, spending time with family, watching football, and decorating for Christmas. The holiday is meant to be a stressful time devoted to family. As I learned in the article it is not that way for everyone.
2) This article changed the way I thought about the holiday, because I hadn’t thought of Thanksgiving being a sad time for anyone. As I learned though the Native Americans of past were wronged by the European settlers. The settlers came into the already occupied North American lands and took them from the Native Americans and destroyed their ways of life. These settlers altered the way of history for Native Americans. I think that it could have been handled in a better way by the settlers in dealing with the Native Americans. I think that it was important that the settlers came to North America though, because without them life as we know it may be very different. My thoughts are that the settlers exploration of the land was important to the development of North America and the world, but they shouldn’t have not have affected the Native Americans in the way they did.
Valeria Campos-Diaz
ReplyDelete1st period
1. Thanksgiving for my family and I is a very fun day. My family is very traditional, we play a small game of touch football than we all sit down and eat. This day for us is very special to us because we all get to spend quality time together and realize what we're all thankful for.
2. After reading this article it changed my outlook on this holiday. For me thanksgiving is supposed to be a happy day and didn't realize that for others it was a day of mourning. I do believe that the European settlers did mistreat the native americans but if they hadn't come it could've changed the way we live today. There are pros and cons to this situation but they shouldn't have treated the Native Americans the way they did.
Sophie Heins
ReplyDelete1
1. Thanksgiving for my family well it depends on the year. The years we are at our moms we have a very southern and traditional thanksgiving. Our dads is more laid-back and has a different variety of food.
2. I was already aware of how cruelly the native americans were treated, and no in some ways this holiday isn't correct to celebrate. But at this point in history people are to engraved in their ways for us to have any chance of trying to reverse this tend, also it doesn't help that all throughout elementary school we are taught to idealize the pilgrims and that we all lived in peace and harmony.
Nikki Thai
ReplyDelete1st Period
To me Thanksgiving is a nice chance to take a break from school and be with my family. We don’t necessarily have any traditions. In general we spend the day stuffing our faces and watching football. Every Thanksgiving my sister and her husband, who live in Charlotte, come down here to spend Thanksgiving. They’re always busy so they usually only stay for a day. The only down part about Thanksgiving is that a lot of stores are closed that day, especially with the whole Black Friday shopping stuff.
I’ve never really thought much about Thanksgiving and its background story. I just thought of it as a free break and a bunch of food. The only real thing I knew, or thought I knew, about Thanksgiving was the feast between the pilgrims and native americans. I never thought about the dark parts of this holiday, but then again I didn’t know what happened. Still, this hasn’t changed my views of Thanksgiving, because to me the past is the past.
Julia Perkins
ReplyDelete1st pd. History
I think that thanksgiving is a great holiday. Every year, my whole extended family from my dad's side gets together to catch up and share a meal together. Traditionally, we eat a turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, cranberry sauce, gravy, sometimes a ham and definitely lots of pies. Sometime during the meal, we all share things that we are thankful for or things that have happened to us in the past year. To me, thanksgiving is all about food, family and thankfulness.
I think that thanksgiving today has very little to do with the origin of the holiday. It was unfair that European settlers thought that they were supreme to the Native Americans, and I do feel bad that Native Americans were persecuted in such a way. However, I think that thanksgiving nowadays has less to do with relations between settlers and Native Americans and more to do with giving thanks for what we have. Basically, while back when America was being taken over by European settlers, Thanksgiving was probably more about that than it is today. I mean, really today, Thanksgiving is more about football than about pilgrims. Honestly, I don't think this article changed my opinions about Thanksgiving, because the holiday will still mean the same thing for me as it did before, regardless of what bad history has led us to this holiday.
Erica Johnson
ReplyDeletePeriod 1
1) I definitely did not realize that for some people, Thanksgiving is more of a mourning holiday, rather than a celebratory one. There are definitely pros to the holiday; joining with family, and giving thanks for what you have. For my family, thanksgiving is a big holiday, since a lot of our family lives far away but still attempt to come together each year. A tradition that my family holds is making a toast before we eat, by saying what we are thankful for. And although Thanksgiving is an important and fun holiday, a different aspect could be that it does not even recognize the hardships of Native Americans who have gone unnoticed. I definitely think that children should be taught correctly about how the relationship of the Native Americans and the Pilgrims were, in reality.
2) After reading the article, I realized that many people suffered rather than gave thanks and celebrated on Thanksgiving day. As for the specific people mentioned in the article, such as Mahtowin Monroe, I definitely feel sorry for them, since they know of their ancestors who died from disease and/or starvation after the pilgrimage from the Europeans. Specifically for Monroe, I was glad that he was making efforts to make adults and children alike understand the suffering that the Native American people went through.
3) As for the European settlers, I am not sure what their intentions were in regard to the Native Americans. I really hope that our ancestors did not intend to invade their homes and ruin their settlements! I really wish that the European people as well as the indigenous people could get along, or at least that people today would be aware of BOTH of the settlers who lived together.
Kaitlin Hill
ReplyDelete2nd Period
At my house Thanksgiving is always a joyful holiday that is looked forward to. With lots of tasty food and time to spend with loved ones, there are pleanty of pros to Thanksgiving. Although there can be come cons, like those unforcunate people who burn down their house trying to cook the turkey. Overall though, i love this holiday and think it is a happy time filled with good food and good company.
I was quite surprised to read that some people think of Thanksgiving with sadness. I feel very sorry for these people, who mourn on this day instead of celebrate. No one should have to spend their Thanksgiving like that. After reading this article I do think of Thanksgiving differently and am thankful for getting to spend my day being happy.
McKenzie Matherly
ReplyDelete2nd Period
Thanksgiving is traditionally a time for family. There are many good things about Thanksgiving like the time you get to spend with family, or the time off from school. There is also good food, and lots of sports on TV. My family celebrates the traditional Thanksgiving like eating turkey, spending time with family, watching football, and decorating for Christmas. The holidays are meant to be a time devoted to family. As I learned in the article it's not that way for everyone.
When I think about Thanksgiving, I think of the good things, but I am aware that the Native Americans were wronged, and for them Thanksgiving is a day of sorrow. This article did not change my view of Thanksgiving. Because for me Thanksgiving is a day to eat good food, and spend time with my family.
Harrison Young
ReplyDelete7th Prd
Some of the great things about thanksgiving are simple things. Things like being with your family and enjoying a great meal. But one of the most valued parts of Thanksgiving is in the name, giving thanks. We give thanks to the explorers of the sixteen hundreds that began the development of our country. Although those are great things about thanksgiving, there are some bad things. Bad things like having no family to visit and having no home to be warm in or not even enough money to buy food for thanksgiving which happens to many civilians in the US.
I am glad to be blessed with a great family that keeps a tradition going every year. It’s tradition that I go out every Thanksgiving morning and throw the football with my father and grandfather that started when my dad was a child. After, we leave to my grandparent’s house on my mom’s side for a huge feast with everyone from my mother’s side of the family. They cook amazing food every year. After the meal we go back to our house and sleep off the food we had just eaten. Next, we drive over to my uncle’s (my dad’s brother) house to have dinner with my aunt and uncle and my grandparents on my father’s side. We don’t eat very much there because we basically ate two meals before. After that, we drive home and sleep in.
This article has changed the way think about Thanksgiving because it makes me realize that the Native Americans were pushed off of their own land by foreigners of a higher power just because they were more advanced. I see it as a “first person there gets it” kind of situation. If the Native Americans owned the land first I feel that they shouldn’t have to give it up but if they didn’t then we wouldn’t have a well progressed country that we have today so we also especially have to give thanks and mourn the loss of the fight between Native American and intruding explorers because we never gave apologies for the way we treated the Native Americans and never took that into consideration.
Ian Hufford
ReplyDeletep.1
This thanksgiving, my grandparents came to spend the week with us at my house, although most years, me and my family go to visit them. We have a turkey every year, we make it on the grill or in the oven. I think that it is important to have a part of the year that you spend with family and friends, and i think that thanksgiving encourages that. Although i think that it is important to have thanksgiving, it is also important to look at what really happened that day.
Reading this article made me realize that the Kindergarden thanksgiving play may not be accurate. I think that it is important to know and respect what really happened that day. I think that Native Americans may have been wronged, and we owe it to them to respect what really happened on that day.
I think that children do have a sugar coated reality of what thanksgiving was really like, and what went on at that day and how Native Americans were treated. This article also helps me look at how traditions and ideas have changed over the years.
Alex Parks
ReplyDelete1st period Honors World History
My pros of Thanksgiving are that it is a time to eat good food and spend time with your family. At Thanksgiving I help prepare the meal with the rest of my family and then sit down with my relatives and family to have a good time. I really don’t see any cons in Thanksgiving. To me, Thanksgiving is just a time to get together with my family and have a good time. My family has a few Thanksgiving traditions; first we always cook a turkey, cranberry sauce, stuffing and mashed potatoes. Also my dad likes to watch football and we always talk to our relatives who are eating with us.
When I think about Thanksgiving, I only look at the good things but I do acknowledge that the Native Americans were wronged and that for them Thanksgiving was a day of sorrow. This article did not change my view of Thanksgiving because for me, Thanksgiving will always be a day to eat good food and spend time with my family. No matter what side of history I look at it does not influence me, I don’t celebrate Thanksgiving because of the Pilgrims or the Native Americans; I celebrate it because of my family.
Bobby Russell 5th period
ReplyDeleteThanksgiving is a holiday in which families are together to spend time with each other, eat, and be thankful for all their blessings. In my family, all of my family gets together and give thanks for all the good things in our lives, and then we eat all of the food my grandmother has prepared for us. Thanksgiving is special holiday to me because everyone gets to be together. Before I read this article, I never really looked deep enough into how everyone thought of this holiday; I just had my opinions and assumed everyone had the same opinion I do. But that’s in fact not true at all. People like the Native Americans have no reason to celebrate this day. The Europeans came into their world, took their land, and changed everything for them, not in a good way. I think the Native Americans were wronged. They already had a system going for them, a way of life, and then these random people came and took everything from them. The worst part, was that the Native Americans couldn't do anything to stop these people who had way more power than them. I know that the Europeans probably didn't think about how they were harming the Native Americans. But, the fact is that they did harm them in many ways, and they should have been more careful not to do so. If the Europeans hadn't come to America though, none of us would even exist. So I’m glad that the Native Americans still honor their ancestors because they did not deserve to get pushed around by the Europeans.
Takoda Ren
ReplyDelete2nd
11/26/12
Late current event (whoops)
I feel like the typical American family thinks of thanksgiving as a time for family and thankfulness. Little or no thought is given to the matter of the origins of this holiday. Neither do people think about how the Native Americans played a role in the holiday. In my opinion there really are no cons for how we celebrate it. I like eating food in general and having family time is always good. I also realize that this is the only holiday that is truly of an American origin, forgotten Christmas and Easter. This is truly the most important holiday that originated from the America.
When I read the article I realized what some Native Americans are thinking and why they may despise this holiday. I knew that the non-native people caused genocides, wars, and death within the Native American community, but I realized what it must be like to know the true story of thanksgiving and still be oppressed. People from Europe literally just took the land away from these indigenous people. I probably won’t change the way I celebrate thanksgiving and neither will lots of other Americans, but I will have changed my outlook upon the actual holiday.
I feel that Native Americans were wronged; they tried to change their fate of being ruled by the Europeans, and failed due to lack of advantageous numbers. But, it is 200 years later, little can be done now, and a protest or even a revolt would shake the entire world and not just the United States. It was and is a lost cause for them. A lot of Native Americans seem to accept this fate, although some still protest and try to get people to notice the unfairness of their situation.
Jeffrey He
ReplyDelete7th Period
Some pros of any holiday are the days off, and the vacation usually given. For most people Thanksgiving is a time of being grateful for what you have and what you're able to have because of your family. It's a time to be with family and friends and eat big meals. One of the best things about Thanksgivings is the original traditions such as the turkey and the other signature foods.Thanksgiving is generally a happy holiday for most Americans. I can't really think of any cons of Thanksgiving besides the fact that there is no work going on around the country, and also some poorer families may not be able to celebrate holidays like Thanksgiving because they can't afford to.
The article did not change the way I view Thanksgiving. I believe it was wrong that the Native Americans weren’t treated fairly, but that is not what the holiday is about. The holiday is about celebrating the first harvest the pilgrims had in America. On Thanksgiving, everyone should give thanks for living in a free country and everything else they are grateful for.
Casey Patterson
ReplyDelete11/26/12
(sick)
Thanksgiving is traditionally a time for family and eating. There are many good things about Thanksgiving like the time you get to spend with family or the time off from school. There is also good food and sports on TV. My family does some of the more traditional traditions like eating, turkey, spending time with family, watching football, and decorating for Christmas. The holiday is meant to be a stressful time devoted to family. As I learned in the article it is not that way for everyone.
I’ve never really thought much about Thanksgiving and its background story. I just thought of it as a free break and a bunch of food. The only real thing I knew, or thought I knew, about Thanksgiving was the feast between the pilgrims and native americans. I never thought about the dark parts of this holiday, but then again I didn’t know what happened. Still, this hasn’t changed my views of Thanksgiving, because to me the past is the past
Current event #11
ReplyDeleteThanksgiving is a holiday celebrated from the time the pilgrims came to America to modern day life. In my family my sister and I would join our father and go to his mother’s house and celebrate Thanksgiving there. If there was a day he couldn’t get us for whatever reason we would join our mother. At my grandma’s house we would wait until she prepared a decent amount of food then we would eat what we could. After dinner my sister and I would go to sleep for a few hours, when we woke up we’d gather some dessert, wrap it up, and carry it to our mom’s house for the night.
I had originally thought this holiday was a time of happiness, but I had not realized the Native Americans didn’t have the best of a life style. This does not change my opinion on Thanksgiving though because, the Native life was terrible but now they have much more to be thankful for. It is okay to mourn but it is also best to be thankful, thankful for everything you have to look forward to. I say celebrate while you still can or at least be happy you are alive.
Period 5
ReplyDeleteJames Menache
I think the way we are celebrating this holiday is ok but we also need to mention the Native Americans while we celebrate. I think the Native Americans were definitely wronged and deserve to be mentioned while we celebrate our holiday. The Europeans might not have thought the same way as the Native Americans though. I’m sure the Europeans thought what they were doing was right and that since they found some land, that it was theirs. I think they should have made a deal to live together with the Native Americans.
period 2
ReplyDeleteI hace before I read this article that maybe thanksgiving had some darker correlations, but I never payed attention. I was aware that as the europeans invaded america they burned,destroyed,killed,and raped. But thanks giving for me was always a time to be with family and try new things and, most importantly, eat way to much. But after reading this article I will never be able to think of thanksgiving the same way. I think next year I will be thankful and celebrate and eat, but at the same time try to pay respect to the native americans that were wronged.
The native americans were wronged during the colinization of america. They were at an extreme technological diatvantage when compared to the europeans and so they suffered. Now native americans have all but disapeared and with them there culture. It is truly one of the saddest stories in history.
period 5
ReplyDeleteFor majority of people, Thanksgiving is a peaceful holiday viewed as a time where we should be thankful for what we have. Usually people visit their family members, and enjoy a full meal with them. Thanksgiving is a time to relax, and take a break from our rapid daily routines. It is a stress free period where all you have to worry about is not burning the turkey. Adults take some time off of work to spend time with their children and siblings, while kids get a break off of school to enjoy the time they have with their families. Many people also participate in arts and crafts, or lists of what you are thankful for.
I never realized that Native Americans are still hurt by the horrible destruction of their tribes and community when America was discovered. While I do feel glad that the United States was founded long ago, I do feel sympathy for the Native Americans. This changed my opinion of Thanksgiving- to us, it is a holiday to thank our settlers for founding America- but for the Native Americans, it is a sad day of mourning for their ancestors that got killed by our ancestors. I remember being in elementary school and learning about Thanksgiving, and my teacher just explained it with a big grin on his face. I doubt he would be grinning if he found out how much Native Americans still suffer to this day. Overall, I learned a lot from this article. I hope people learn how much the Native Americans suffered, but I still will enjoy celebrating Thanksgiving for a different reason- not because hundreds of Native Americans were killed, but because a great country was discovered.
I do think that Native Americans were not treated fairly by European settlers. I can see why many of them might think differently about Thanksgiving. However, I also think it is important to have a day when all people give thanks for the blessings they have received. Maybe it is better to think of Thanksgiving in a broader way. Pilgrims and Native Americans might be just a way to represent the holiday in a storybook like manner. The real purpose is to remember to be thankful for the things we receive and to realize that there are others who may be in need.
Annelise ter Horst
ReplyDelete7th
I love thanksgiving and I love the atmosphere it gives off. While I know that this was a terrible time for the Native Americans, I do not believe that we should wrestle with consciences because people on this land before us were cruel and were not thinking of the indigenous people that lived on it. I do not have ties to this event because my family came to america from germany only fifty years ago but I am sure that my ancestors from over there weren’t saints. We are all human. And while I am not defending the people of the first colonies, we should not punish ourselves for something that happened way before our time. I believe if people feel bad about something they should actually take action. Do something to help the Native Americans today.
The article did not change the way I view Thanksgiving. I believe it was wrong that the Native Americans weren’t treated fairly, but that is not what the holiday is about. The holiday is about celebrating the first harvest the pilgrims had in America. On Thanksgiving, everyone should give thanks for living in a free country and everything else they are grateful for. We should be thankful for our families and how fortunate we are to be American citizens, where we are free. To have all the great things happen that have, our history had to have some rough patches, and thats just the way it is.
I very much enjoy Thanksgiving and the time that I have to spend with my family and friends, I love the atmosphere that is given off of love and thankfulness for all that we have now. I do feel bad for the Native Americans that were hurt during this time and I feel that Thanksgiving just like it said in the article is everybody's holiday and not only some peoples holiday.
ReplyDeleteThe article did not change much of my perspective of Thanksgiving because its a day to just give thanks to everybody and everything that we have and even though people were hurt during this time a long time ago is sad but they should use this day to remember them and be thankful that they made a change and were important people. No one should really be mad or upset on Thanksgiving day.