Wanksgiving

Today is Thanksgiving here in the USA and I’m working while everyone else is stuffing their faces with turkey and Budweiser. The giant balloons are floating their way down Broadway as I write, encouraging the little kids to scream at their parents to get out to the Thanksgiving sales and buy products by Fisher-Price, Disney and McDonald’s.

Like a lot of other non-American, I couldn’t really give a fuck about Thanksgiving, however I find it quite offensive that they should celebrate an event that led directly to the deaths of millions of aboriginal Indians. Why can’t we have a day of remembrance where you sit down with your family and give thanks that the white-man didn’t send you a smallpox-laden blanket to keep out the cold.

Now I know that it was the British who gave out the smallpox blankets but what we have to remember here is that the original settlers who arrived on the Mayflower were a bunch of fucking mad Protestant Brits. Now I’m not sure if the religious fundamentalism of today’s America has much to do with the original pilgrims but the attitude strikes me as amazingly similar. I guess it’s in the DNA.

Just take a read of The Mayflower Compact:

"In the name of God, Amen. We, whose names are underwritten, the Loyal Subjects of our dread Sovereign Lord, King James, by the Grace of God, of England, France and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith, e&. Having undertaken for the Glory of God, and Advancement of the Christian Faith, and the Honour of our King and Country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the northern parts of Virginia; do by these presents, solemnly and mutually in the Presence of God and one of another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil Body Politick, for our better Ordering and Preservation, and Furtherance of the Ends aforesaid; And by Virtue hereof to enact, constitute, and frame, such just and equal Laws, Ordinances, Acts, Constitutions and Offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the General good of the Colony; unto which we promise all due submission and obedience .In Witness whereof we have hereunto subscribed our names at Cape Cod the eleventh of November, in the Reign of our Sovereign Lord, King James of England, France and Ireland, the eighteenth, and of Scotland the fifty-fourth. Anno Domini, 1620."

Thankfully half the buggers died during the first winter. The others unfortunately have outstayed their welcome.

In the name of God, Amen. Indeed!