Thanksgiving: How Genuine are We?

Next Thursday we will be celebrating "Thanksgiving Day."  I wonder how many of us know or even care to know about the historical origins of this celebration.  Like with many other cultural, religious, and social holidays, many, if not most of us, tend to do things in a very mechanical and robotic manner, i.e. not even thinking about why we do things.  We take things for granted.  In many cases, we have the attitude of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it."  In this case, we feel or think that if things have been done a certain way for ages, why bother changing them?  We act and think as if age-long traditions establish the truth of what we do.

In a historical perspective, Thanksgiving Day, dating back to the seventeenth century, was an act of thanking God for the harvest.  In later centuries, and in our times. Thanksgiving has become a secular tradition in which we gather with family and friends to eat and socialize. I would be the last person to say that this tradition should be discontinued.  However, when we put it against the backdrop of history, can we really in all good conscience give thanks for the "blessings" that we have received, knowing full-well that these "blessings" are nothing more than that which we as a nation have usurped from the original inhabitants of this land?  As an Afro-Puerto Rican, I can affirm that my ancestors had absolutely nothing to do with Plymouth Rock.  When I think of how my ancestors were brought here from Africa in animalistic conditions, and how my indigenous ancestors from the Caribbean were treated so inhumanely, can I have the audacity to refer to what was received through their hard work and labor as "blessings?"    Where is God in all of this?

Did God bless the Pilgrims and Puritans by having them take the land away from its original inhabitants?  Did God bless our national ancestors by having them enslave others and colonizing their lands?  These are questions that are disturbing in that most of us don't want to deal with or be reminded of the past.  We feel we had absolutely nothing to do with what happened back then.  I respectfully submit that while we are not doing anything to reverse the course of that historical moment, that we are just as guilty as our national ancestors of maintaining certain groups within and sectors of society in subjugation, and marginalization.  We have continued the "sins of our fathers."  When President Obama makes his decision regarding undocumented migrants tomorrow, and we remember the origins of Thanksgiving, dare we celebrate it with a bold face?  May God have mercy on us as we celebrate in the midst of misery, poverty, and suffering.

Feel free to comment on this essay.  Your comments will enable us to have more serious reflections.

Grace and peace,

Dr. Juan A. Ayala-Carmona