Happy THanksgiving from me too!

GoldenMotor.com

Allen_Wrench

Resident Mad Scientist
Feb 6, 2010
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Indianapolis
This holiday never fails to remind me of all things that I am thankful for. But this year, for no particular reason I can put my finger on, felt a little different. I suddenly knew the depth of all that the Pilgrims were thankful for so long ago.
Back in England at that time, they were not free to openly practice their beliefs as Puritans. They did not have true freedom. So the bravest among them, rather than "go underground" with their beliefs, sold their houses and whatever they could not take with them and bought passage on a decent-sized carrack (not much bigger inside than a typical four-bedroom house) named the Mayflower. And managed to talk the captain into taking them all clear across the ocean to the New World!
They endured over a month of very little food, much of it fish. And very little fresh water, unless it rained and the crew were quick to stretch sails over the dingies and collect some. And there was sickness and death and very low morale.
Then they get ashore, and have to somehow gather food and make shelter, neither of which went very well at first. Then came a brutal winter (no shovels or plows or snowshoes in this first colony) and many more died of starvation and cold.
When the first few Native Americans came along, the Pilgrims needed all the help they could get. And the Natives supplied it, without really caring about what these Puritans believed. They showed these new Pilgrims how to plant and grow vegetables, how to hunt and to fish there. They soon agreed to peace between the two peoples.
That first true feast of Thanksgiving represented a whole new kind of independence for these Pilgrims: not just from tyranny in England, but their ability to live on their own - independently. They now knew enough to live on their own, grow and hunt their own food, build better shelters, and were now free to live according to their beliefs. That first Thanksgiving feast was a tribute to true freedom.
All throughout history, human beings have placed an even higher value on freedom than they do on human life. There often comes a time when some of us must endure great hardship, or fight, and even die so that people can be free. And since the earliest times, people have done so - for freedom.
I am thankful for all such people who have put such a price on freedom, and all those who've paid it. Not only would there have been no America without them, but whole races and religions would have been suppressed or extinguished without them. Long may America remain the land of the free and the home of the brave.