Deanna Fry
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I am taking off my journalist hat and posting this just as citizen of the world. I do not celebrate “thanksgiving” and rather recognize today as the National Day of Mourning for our indigenous people. However I do not judge anyone for their personal traditions. I just wish more empathy for us all.
03:51 PM - Nov 23, 2023
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Jonathan Hecht (He/Him)
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In response to Deanna Fry.
#Landback

I choose to celebrate Thanksgiving with a reminder that the story Pilgrims and Indians we’ve all been fed is a 19th C. historical revision and fiction meant to hide the true history and meaning of this day.
Like all lies, the myth of Pilgrims and Indians always felt flat.
Because it is.
04:06 PM - Nov 23, 2023
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Jonathan Hecht (He/Him)
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In response to Jonathan Hecht (He/Him).
#Landback

Before the Civil War some parts of the country celebrated thanksgiving days, others did not.

Thanksgiving was however a tradition among deeply religious Abolitionists in the Northeast. As was the regional specialty pumpkin pie.

Among these were persons like Abolitionist and..
04:09 PM - Nov 23, 2023
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Jonathan Hecht (He/Him)
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In response to Jonathan Hecht (He/Him).
#Landback

… pumpkin pie enthusiast Sarah Josepha Hale, of “Mary Had A Little Lamb” fame. She conducted letter writing campaigns to create a national day of Thanksgiving, which were derided by Southern pro-slavery governors as a plot to eradicate the slaveocracy.

With the advent of the election…
04:14 PM - Nov 23, 2023
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Jonathan Hecht (He/Him)
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In response to Jonathan Hecht (He/Him).
#Landback

… of Abolitionist-adjacent Abraham Lincoln in 1860, these white supremacist slavers seized the entirety of the Southern United States and declared war upon the nation in order to create a white supremacist ethnostate for all time.

Hale persisted in her letter writing advocacy, and in…
04:16 PM - Nov 23, 2023
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Jonathan Hecht (He/Him)
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In response to Jonathan Hecht (He/Him).
#Landback

…1863 Abraham Lincoln proclaimed the first annual Thanksgiving as we know it today, as a measure to bring unity of purpose and shared values to the people of this country as we fought our worst enemy.

Hale and the Abolitionist campaign for Thanksgiving (and pumpkin pie) were victorious..
04:19 PM - Nov 23, 2023
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Jonathan Hecht (He/Him)
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#Landback

… as the country would be 2 years later.

However, Thanksgiving remained ignored throughout much of former Confederate-claimed territory, and as they set upon the destruction of Reconstruction, calling themselves Redeemers and creating organizations like the Daughters of the Confederacy..
In response to Jonathan Hecht (He/Him).
04:21 PM - Nov 23, 2023
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Jonathan Hecht (He/Him)
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In response to Jonathan Hecht (He/Him).
#Landback

.. they set upon the destruction of our historical memory in favor of their own Lost Cause mythology. And in this they were unfortunately largely successful. One of the effects of this was the loss of our knowledge of Thanksgiving and its replacement with the Pilgrims and Indians story..
04:24 PM - Nov 23, 2023
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Jonathan Hecht (He/Him)
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In response to Jonathan Hecht (He/Him).
#Landback

So that’s why I celebrate: to acknowledge the eternal struggle against white supremacy, which remains our greatest enemy and challenge in this nation to this day.
To push back on the myths tied to the Lost Cause and it’s ill effects.
And to work toward our common mandate for justice.
❤️
04:26 PM - Nov 23, 2023
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