Ray Cook: Thanksgiving flies in the face of original Americans

Thanksgiving is one of those American holidays that seem to fly in the face of today’s original Americans. I get tired of the sales that celebrate the holiday. What balls it must have taken for the first store owner in America to think that this is a money-making opportunity.

Every morning, if and when we wake up to greet the day, we do so (for the most part) with appreciation and prayer. So, not to sound too cliché, to our way of thinking every day is thanksgiving. That is what we are taught, from birth. Our fathers hold us up and sing a welcome song when we are born. A song of welcome and thanks. Always be thankful. It’s true, ask any Native with a good mind.

What were the Pilgrims thankful for and to whom? Well, the answer is loaded with conjecture. They were strangers in a strange land. They got there on ships meant for hauling livestock, so the ships were rank. And given the traditional disregard for bathing in Europe, extra rank. So the Pilgrims were sickly, starving and very weak, in weapons and in health. They hardly knew how to fish, the easiest thing in the world, but these sorts were used to buying their fish from fishmongers. When in Europe, they were used to buying what they needed. Few of them knew the sharp end of an ax, for shit’s sake. They were pitiful. But, they were also conniving. How else could one rationalize taking what is not theirs?