Thanksgiving painting; Angelina Jolie

In its origins, Thanksgiving is no celebration of human prowess and cultural domination – and certainly not murder.

American actress Angelina Jolie deliberately avoided being in the United States this Thanksgiving. As Rob Shuter of Popeater.com reported,

“‘Angelina Jolie hates this holiday and wants no part in rewriting history like so many other Americans,” a friend of the actress tells me. ‘To celebrate what the white settlers did to the native Indians, the domination of one culture over another, just isn’t her style. She definitely doesn’t want to teach her multi-cultural family how to celebrate a story of murder.’”

I am not certain how commemorating a harvest celebration initiated by Pilgrims and Native Americans can be convincingly dismissed as “rewriting history”. Labeling the relationship between the Pilgrims and Indians as simply “the domination of one culture over another” is not only unconvincing – it’s quite disrespectful to both cultures. Although every century in history has its fair share of corrupt commercialists and unscrupulous jerks, Jolie et al apparently have the Pilgrims of Plymouth confused with a different group of people.

The Separatists who ventured to start a new government in the New World endured an awfully rude voyage across the Atlantic and had managed to survive a year in a strange land. But when a successful harvest took place in 1621, did they praise themselves and their superior culture? Did they thank themselves for all their hard work?

No. They thanked God…

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