Thoughts for Thanksgiving, 2025
27 November 2025
I recommend these 2 essays:
Heather Cox Richardson describes the history of the holiday:
Thanksgiving is the quintessential American holiday…but not for the reasons we generally remember.
The Pilgrims and the Wampanoags did indeed share a harvest celebration together at Plymouth in fall 1621, but that moment got forgotten almost immediately, overwritten by the long history of the settlers’ attacks on their Indigenous neighbors.
. . .
And then, on April 12, 1861, southern soldiers fired on Fort Sumter, a federal fort in Charleston Harbor, and the meaning of a holiday for giving thanks changed.
Robert Reich writes:
Today, many of us are fortunate enough to share a Thanksgiving dinner with our loved ones. Despite all the darkness around us — despite Trump and the hatefulness and fear he has sown — our loved ones and the community around us give us sustenance and strength.
But it’s important to remember those in America who now live in want and in fear. Millions of people in this nation — including a large number of children — are unhoused and hungry. Millions of immigrants to America are living in fear.
Happy Thanksgiving! I am grateful for many things, including having the time, energy and ability to still write!
My political blog focuses on what you can or should do to make the world a better place and yourself a better person. I have another blog on Cancer and Medicine.
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