Thanksgiving 2016

As this missive is published I’m in China. I’m sorry to be missing out on feasting with family and friends, not so sorry to be missing the shopping extravaganza where many feast on others’ spending.

Thinking about Thanksgiving, this uniquely American holiday, got me musing about how it’s a celebration of immigrants.

The first Thanksgiving was a 3 day event the Pilgrims held in 1621. According to Edwin Winslow…who was there…it was attended by 90 Native Americans and 53 Pilgrims. I hear a good time was had by all.

There they were, 90 locals welcoming and sitting down to a feast celebrating the harvest with 53 immigrants who dropped in after a long voyage and never left.

As we all know, things went downhill for the Native Americans before too long. The immigrants kept coming and came to outnumber the locals and take control of just about everything. The nationality of the immigrants kept changing as situations in their homelands led to them deciding to hop on a boat and find a new, and hopefully better, life.

In 1621 the locals offered the Pilgrims a welcoming feast, but over the years, as the new immigrants came to see themselves as locals, the welcoming became less and less welcoming. Soon each new group of arrivals was met not with open arms and a welcoming feast but with anger, suspicion, and more than a little nastiness. And of course, some arrived as indentured servants and slaves, and were greeted with far worse.

Yet over time, the immigrant groups mostly integrated into and broadened American society, making the country stronger for it. The integration process continues although it is much longer, difficult and rancorous for today‘s immigrants.

And as the immigrants arrived and integrated, they began to celebrate Thanksgiving.

It pains me greatly to consider the horrible situations and degradation so many endured to come to America and become Americans. And it fills me with admiration to realize how much strength, endurance and hard work it took. I include my ancestors in this group as they made such a voyage to America to escape persecution and find a better life more than 100 years ago.

But what pains me even more is how we continue to persecute and demean not just recent arrivals but those who have been here for many years…even those who have been citizens for decades.

Many think they came from the wrong country, speak the wrong language, are the wrong color or religion or ethnic group. Yet we all enjoy the benefits of their culture, skills, knowledge, and willingness to work at things others won’t do.

Our fear and hate are growing while our openness and compassion are shrinking. Gains we made toward acceptance and unification over the last decades are receding as we become more and more separate over minor things rather than united in our common desires and beliefs.

So as we go through this Thanksgiving season I reach out to all of you with a fervent request. Open your eyes and your hearts and your minds to those you see as other. Remember that very first Thanksgiving, the 3 day feast when all could sit down together in comity and friendship.

Reach out to someone who recently arrived in this country, or someone who’s been here awhile but now needs some help. Ignore the surface differences and see them for who they are…someone who themselves or whose ancestors arrived long ago seeking the very same things your ancestors did…a new beginning in a wonderful place.

After all, except for today’s 5.4 million Native Americans and those descended from the Mexicans who became citizens when we took over a large chuck of Mexico, all the rest of us are part of immigrant families.

I hope each of you have a wonderful Thanksgiving season. May we all come together as Americans to create a better future for all of us and fulfill the dreams of all those who came here looking for a better life.