CompassCast™

This Thanksgiving, as you gorge yourself with turkey, fixins' and rest for a massive shopping spree on the next day, remember the following:

1. The pilgrims were illegal aliens.
2. Border fence? Not even an ocean thousands of miles wide could keep those who wanted in from getting in.
3. The pilgrims came here not because it was perfect but because it was better.
4. The pilgrims came here to work and create a life not for a hand out.
5. The pilgrims had faith -- and I don't mean faith in god -- they had faith that things would work out.
6. The pilgrims came at the worst time of the year -- just before winter -- and they still survived.
7. The first pilgrims to arrive didn't steal anybody's jobs. Instead they dug up burial sites and stole food stored by the locals. Then a few years later, they invited two leaders from the locals over for food and murdered them.
8. The pilgrims came here to practice religious freedom believing that state religions impinged on the freedom of conscience.  They would probably not be in favor of our 1954-modified pledge of allegiance or motto, adopted in 1956, "In God we Trust."
9. Thanksgiving wasn't about a big party with loads of food while you contemplated how you were going to get the best bang for your buck the next day. It was solemn. It was about praising and thanking God. If the pilgrims here today they would probably by in a church praying and not at the dinner table or watching parades, football and old Christmas movies.  When is the last time you prayed around gratitude instead of asking for a "fix" or a "solution"?
10. The Pilgrims didn't "count their blessings" as so many people do these days on Thanksgiving day. They were truly grateful.  Period. Imagine for a moment that during the 12 months HALF your family and friends died. Not one. Not two. HALF. Would you, like the pilgrims, be able to find gratitude at the end of all that?  They did. And they did it without Prozac or mental health counseling.

Why do we forget these facts? Why don't these images of what America was at the start shape our Thanksgiving traditions by filling us with emotions?  Emotions like shame for what happened to the locals by the "illegals". Emotions like openness for our current "illegal" who continue to want to come her because it is better-not-perfect. Emotions like faith and hope?  Why don't we think of church and prayer on Thanksgiving?

Instead our minds are filled with an image of a green bean casserole.