Thanksgiving by Nuriel Rozenberg

Thanksgiving just recently passed, but it is clear that most of us want to go back to the four-day food filled weekend we just had. I know a lot of us had the simple struggle of wanting to stay in bed because you are tired, but then getting hungry, so you contemplate the pros and cons of going downstairs. The aroma of delicious food making your mouth water. It was hard for me not to go downstairs especially when my grandma called me her "Official Taste Tester." Once downstairs, I knew I had to start helping set up three tables for all the family that was coming over. This year especially, I heard that a lot of families were trying to skip the political talk and keep a calm environment. My family was one of those families, but when thirty-five people sit at the table with not much to talk about, it became hard to not talk politics. Everyone was mostly in their own conversations until my uncle loudly disagrees with his brother. Then one of my aunts exclaims her reasoning for agreeing. By now, most of my family was listening to the argument. My uncle then shoots up from his seat yelling in his brothers face why he's right and why his brother should agree with him. This triggered his brother to then stand up too and yell back why he's correct. Suddenly, my uncle takes a small piece of turkey and flicks it in his brother's face. The room is dead silent, my grandma looks offended by the actions that my uncle took with the turkey that she made. His brother was about to launch some mashed potatoes into the air until my grandma hits the both of them on the head and yells at them and curses in Arabic. The feud died down and this was definitely not the point and purpose of Thanksgiving. As we all know, the real reason Thanksgiving happened was because of the peace that the Native Americans had with the colonists. That is not completely true either since the colonists not only took their land and invaded their villages. Also, a war was started. The real story that happened was that hundreds of women and children of the Pequot Tribe had gathered for the annual Green Corn Festival. This is similar to our Thanksgiving. The Natives who were sleeping at the time were surrounded by English who were ordered to shoot whoever walked out. Others, who did not go outside were then buried alive. The following day, the governor of the Massachusetts Bay colony declared that a day of Thanks should happen since hundreds of unarmed natives were killed. So, no matter how crazy or bad your Thanksgiving goes, just remember that we are honoring the natives that were caught in the genocide.