happy thanksgiving

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joe
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happy thanksgiving

Post by joe » Wed Nov 24, 2010 5:06 pm



a thanksgiving prayer
by william burroughs

Thanks for the wild turkey and
the passenger pigeons, destined
to be shit out through wholesome
American guts.

Thanks for a continent to despoil
and poison.

Thanks for Indians to provide a
modicum of challenge and
danger.

Thanks for vast herds of bison to
kill and skin leaving the
carcasses to rot.

Thanks for bounties on wolves
and coyotes.

Thanks for the American dream,
To vulgarize and to falsify until
the bare lies shine through.

Thanks for the KKK.

For the "n" word-killin' lawmen,
feelin' their notches.

For decent church-goin' women,
with their mean, pinched, bitter,
evil faces.

Thanks for "Kill a Queer for
Christ" stickers.

Thanks for laboratory AIDS.

Thanks for Prohibition and the
war against drugs.

Thanks for a country where
nobody's allowed to mind their
own business.

Thanks for a nation of finks.

Yes, thanks for all the
memories-- all right let's see
your arms!

You always were a headache and
you always were a bore.

Thanks for the last and greatest
betrayal of the last and greatest
of human dreams.

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In 1883, Sitting Bull was a guest of honor at the opening ceremonies for the Northern Pacific Railroad. When it was his turn to speak, he said in the Lakota language, ‘I hate all white people. You are thieves and liars. You have taken away our land and made us outcasts.’ A quick-thinking interpreter told the crowd the chief was happy to be there and that he looked forward to peace and prosperity with the white people. Sitting Bull received a standing ovation.

"To perceive is to suffer" - Aristotle
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joe
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Re: happy thanksgiving

Post by joe » Wed Nov 24, 2010 5:07 pm

‘Thanksgiving’ did not begin as a great loving relationship between the pilgrims and the Wampanoag, Pequot and Narragansett people. In fact, in October of 1621 when the pilgrim survivors of their first winter in Turtle Island sat down to share the first unofficial ‘Thanksgiving’ meal, the Indians who were there were not even invited! There was no turkey, squash, cranberry sauce or pumpkin pie. A few days before this alleged feast took place, a company of ‘pilgrims’ led by Miles Standish actively sought the head of a local Indian chief, and an 11 foot high wall was erected around the entire Plymouth settlement for the very purpose of keeping Indians out! Officially, the holiday we know as ‘Thanksgiving’ actually came into existence in the year 1637. Governor Winthrop of the Massachusetts Bay Colony proclaimed this first official day of Thanksgiving and feasting to celebrate the return of the colony’s men who had arrived safely from what is now Mystic, Connecticut. They had gone there to participate in the massacre of over 700 Pequot men, women and children, and Mr. Winthrop decided to dedicate an official day of thanksgiving complete with a feast to ‘give thanks’ for their great ‘victory’.
How I Stopped Hating Thanksgiving and Learned to Be Afraid

by Robert Jensen / November 13th, 2009

I have stopped hating Thanksgiving and learned to be afraid of the holiday.

Over the past few years a growing number of white people have joined the longstanding indigenous people’s critique of the holocaust denial that is at the heart of the Thanksgiving holiday. In two recent essays, I have examined the disturbing nature of a holiday rooted in a celebration of the European conquest of the Americas, which means the celebration of the Europeans’ genocidal campaign against Indigenous people that is central to the creation of the United States.

Many similar pieces have been published in predominantly white left/progressive media, while indigenous people continue to mark the holiday as a “National Day of Mourning.”

In recent years I have refused to participate in Thanksgiving Day meals, even with friends and family who share this critical analysis and reject the national mythology around manifest destiny. In bowing out of those gatherings, I would often tell folks that I hated Thanksgiving. I realize now that “hate” is the wrong word to describe my emotional reaction to the holiday. I am afraid of Thanksgiving. More accurately, I am afraid of what Thanksgiving tells us about both the dominant culture and much of the alleged counterculture.

Here’s what I think it tells us: As a society, the United States is intellectually dishonest, politically irresponsible, and morally bankrupt. This is a society in which even progressive people routinely allow national and family traditions to trump fundamental human decency. It’s a society in which, in the privileged sectors, getting along and not causing trouble are often valued above honesty and accountability. Though it’s painful to consider, it’s possible that such a society is beyond redemption. Such a consideration becomes frightening when we recognize that all this goes on in the most affluent and militarily powerful country in the history of the world, but a country that is falling apart — an empire in decline.

Thanksgiving should teach us all to be afraid.

Although it’s well known to anyone who wants to know, let me summarize the argument against Thanksgiving: European invaders exterminated nearly the entire indigenous population to create the United States. Without that holocaust, the United States as we know it would not exist. The United States celebrates a Thanksgiving Day holiday dominated not by atonement for that horrendous crime against humanity but by a falsified account of the “encounter” between Europeans and American Indians. When confronted with this, most people in the United States (outside of indigenous communities) ignore the history or attack those who make the argument. This is intellectually dishonest, politically irresponsible, and morally bankrupt.

In left/radical circles, even though that basic critique is widely accepted, a relatively small number of people argue that we should renounce the holiday and refuse to celebrate it in any fashion. Most leftists who celebrate Thanksgiving claim that they can individually redefine the holiday in a politically progressive fashion in private, which is an illusory dodge: We don’t define holidays individually or privately — the idea of a holiday is rooted in its collective, shared meaning. When the dominant culture defines a holiday in a certain fashion, one can’t pretend to redefine it in private. To pretend we can do that also is intellectually dishonest, politically irresponsible, and morally bankrupt.

I press these points with no sense of moral superiority. For many years I didn’t give these questions a thought, and for some years after that I sat sullenly at Thanksgiving dinners, unwilling to raise my voice. For the past few years I’ve spent the day alone, which was less stressful for me personally (and, probably, less stressful for people around me) but had no political effect. This year I’ve avoided the issue by accepting a speaking invitation in Canada, taking myself out of the country on that day. But that feels like a cheap resolution, again with no political effect in the United States.

The next step for me is to seek creative ways to use the tension around this holiday for political purposes, to highlight the white-supremacist and predatory nature of the dominant culture, then and now. Is it possible to find a way to bring people together in public to contest the values of the dominant culture? How can those of us who want to reject that dominant culture meet our intellectual, political, and moral obligations? How can we act righteously without slipping into self-righteousness? What strategies create the most expansive space possible for honest engagement with others?

Along with allies in Austin, I’ve struggled with the question of how to create an alternative public event that could contribute to a more honest accounting of the American holocausts in the past (not only the indigenous genocide, but African slavery) and present (the murderous U.S. assault on the developing world, especially in the past six decades, in places such as Vietnam and Iraq).

Some have suggested an educational event, bringing in speakers to talk about those holocausts. Others have suggested a gathering focused on atonement. Should the event be more political or more spiritual? Perhaps some combination of methods and goals is possible.

However we decide to proceed, we can’t ignore the ugly ideological realities of the holiday. My fear of those realities is appropriate but facing reality need not leave us paralyzed by fear; instead it can help us understand the contours of the multiple crises — economic and ecological, political and cultural — that we face. The challenge is to channel our fear into action. I hope that next year I will find a way to take another step toward a more meaningful honoring of our intellectual, political, and moral obligations.

As we approach Thanksgiving Day, I’m eager to hear about the successful strategies of others. For such advice, I would be thankful.
"To perceive is to suffer" - Aristotle
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Re: happy thanksgiving

Post by japanimater » Wed Nov 24, 2010 5:36 pm

I actually sat through all 16 minutes of that video and frankly, i'm not surprised. America dictates it's own terms of what is right and what is noble. The violence America engages in is passed as defending it's own freedoms. The violence others are engaged in are passed as a threat to the U.S. In short, America is a hypocritical two-faced nation.
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Re: happy thanksgiving

Post by BIGGIE » Wed Nov 24, 2010 6:05 pm

thanksgiving was a month ago. gaaawwwwddddd you guyzzzz
skinthinner wrote:wtf...you know that canada has one woman and a bunch of mooses...or miices...or whatever you call them...
the one woman has a full beard and no teeth and lives in an igloo...
so I must conclude that you, good sir, are lying and are really sitting around drinking beer with a moose and playing with your small canadian penis...
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Re: happy thanksgiving

Post by MrBlip » Wed Nov 24, 2010 6:09 pm

Did any of you guys just hear someone from an extremely inferior country say something? I coulda SWORN I heard something, but I donno.
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Re: happy thanksgiving

Post by Django » Wed Nov 24, 2010 6:16 pm

MrBlip wrote:Did any of you guys just hear someone from an extremely inferior country say something? I coulda SWORN I heard something, but I donno.
i just wanted to say hi to Mr. blipy blip, what up bro
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Re: happy thanksgiving

Post by tehENEMY » Thu Nov 25, 2010 1:11 am

Joe your sounding alot like Knoid, which is to say British.Which is to say unhappy.
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Re: happy thanksgiving

Post by joe » Thu Nov 25, 2010 2:46 am

just reminding people thanksgiving is a holiday celebrating a genocide
"To perceive is to suffer" - Aristotle
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Re: happy thanksgiving

Post by KoD » Thu Nov 25, 2010 10:43 am

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Re: happy thanksgiving

Post by Rat-morningstar » Thu Nov 25, 2010 10:47 am

yay genocide
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Re: happy thanksgiving

Post by pepper » Thu Nov 25, 2010 12:08 pm

yeah we know it's about that
nonetheless, I celebrate it as a day that I can eat my ass off other than christmas.
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Re: happy thanksgiving

Post by stickbeast » Thu Nov 25, 2010 1:23 pm

I woke up today feeling sad that I couldn't go home this year for Thanksgiving, and now I don't feel sad about that at all, I feel like an asshole for feeling sad about it actually.

Thanksgiving is one of those days when entire families get together, people will see each other they only see two times in a year... It really is scary when you realize genocide brings families together.
pepper wrote: yeah we know it's about that
nonetheless, I celebrate it as a day that I can eat my ass off other than christmas.
joe wrote:We don’t define holidays individually or privately — the idea of a holiday is rooted in its collective, shared meaning. When the dominant culture defines a holiday in a certain fashion, one can’t pretend to redefine it in private. To pretend we can do that also is intellectually dishonest, politically irresponsible, and morally bankrupt.
Django wrote:Why would you want to eat a deer, that animal is dirty.
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Re: happy thanksgiving

Post by pepper » Thu Nov 25, 2010 1:52 pm

Yeah and my family doesn't come together either to celebrate anything
we just cook and eat, and watch football
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Re: happy thanksgiving

Post by japanimater » Thu Nov 25, 2010 2:15 pm

One of the funniest and saddest things is idealistically we want a government, nay a world without corruption or evil. But this very idea contradicts human nature will never come to fruition in a perfect way.
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Re: happy thanksgiving

Post by Cc_Hairy » Thu Nov 25, 2010 4:15 pm

fuck you my smart phone is vastly superior to your retarded smoke signals
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