Thanksgiving

[cellio]

I commend this post about George Washington and thanksgiving by osewalrus to your attention.

And so I say to my coreligionists that spurn Thanksgiving as a "goyish holiday," to the secularists who deride Thanksgiving as a recognition of a false "higher power," to those for whom the real injustices and oppressions that they have suffered -- and in many cases continue to suffer -- make the expression of Thanksgiving seem a bitter irony, and to those who see a recreation of the "First Thanksgiving" a celebration of the prelude to genocide, I beg you to consider this. Is it not worthy to take one moment to reflect on the creation -- whether by accident or Design -- of the dream and ideal of George Washington spoke? Fear not that recognition of this good renders injustice more palatable or forgives the unforgivable. Rather, I shall argue, if we refuse to recognize even this bit of good, if we refuse to acknowledge that nobility of spirit and ideals to inspire can arise in all places out of the complexity of the human spirit, then it is we who have proven the hypocrite.

I don't think I can add anything to that.

Comments

[grouchyoldcoot.livejournal.com]

Wow- that's a really nice piece.

[byronhaverford.livejournal.com]

What a coincidence -- This same conversation came up at dinner last night. My nieces and nephews were the only children at their school to take off for Thanksgiving. (My sister is Lubavitch.) My mother (Reform) was deriding the decision of most of the Lubavitch community to spurn Thanksgiving celebrations, suggesting that they were taking for granted the liberties that allow them to practice their religion so freely and comfortably. My sister defended them, noting that no one was "spurning" the holiday, per se, but instead they were celebrating it to a lesser degree. She notes that we don't participate in Veteran's Day parades, but shouldn't Veteran's Day be more important than TG? My sister has always enjoyed bucking societal expectations....

Thanksgiving

[(Anonymous)]

One of the things I like most about Thanksgiving is that it is a religous holiday but not a sectarian holiday. It was a little bothersome, though, for our seven-year old grandson, who wanted to know when I was going to hide the matza!

Larry Kaufman