Should We Celebrate Thanksgiving?

Should We celebrate Thanksgiving? It can be quite argumentative, on one hand Thanksgiving brings family together. But on the other hand, in the beginning it only tore people apart. The history of this holiday isn’t one of the many with a happy ending. How do all people see this holiday though? Do they see it as coming together and giving thanks and eating? Or is it a time of mourning and rebuilding for others? The story of Thanksgiving has been twisted and changed throughout time; they tell students in school that the Colonists came across land and that land belonged to Natives. But they came to a mutual agreement and they somehow all got along, and they lived happily ever after. But this is only a quarter of the true story, in 1621 Colonists arrived on Native land. They broke bread together and had peace for three days the peace was very short lived. Then after Native Americans opened their homes and land, and even shared their food. The colonists started to take selfishly, they took with force and if the Native American people didn’t comply, they were slaughtered with no remorse. With this now in mind, should we celebrate this holiday? Knowing what you do now would you? I don’t think we shouldn’t celebrate the holiday, but when people cover the story and change it with the intensions of sugar coating what truly happened the history of this holiday becomes a disarray of part history and part lies. I feel as though Colonists ‘having peace’ with Natives shouldn’t be celebrated and remembered. Thanksgiving in my opinion should be about family. Everyone coming together and gracing one and other with each other’s presence. Nobody can take back what happened in 1621, we can’t wash away the pain of Native American people who lost loved ones, homes, children, and their lives all those years ago. Nobody can take it back or say it didn’t happen. Although many of us celebrate the holiday, we should respect the people who don’t. Thanksgiving can be a day of Remembrance and Reminiscence, but it can also be a day of gratitude and appreciation. If you are not celebrating, you get a long weekend of relaxation without any dishes to clean up. And if you are celebrating Happy Thanksgiving.