I miss Thanksgiving for my boys, thank goodness for Martin Luther King

Last updated on: November 16, 2011 at 12:00 pm by Dave Griffey

I miss Thanksgiving for my boys, thank goodness for Martin Luther King 2011-11-16T12:00:00-04:00 Dave Griffey

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Today, it’s not easy thinking Thanksgiving thoughts. Like most traditional holidays, it has a certain inertia, carried on by the tradition that we should all get together and hang out with family, eat, watch football games, and plan on traveling. Other than that, much of the traditional Thanksgiving paraphernalia is more or less just consumer goods with no real concern about its background. In the public schools, I see little brought home that commemorates any historic connections to the event. In my time, hand drawn turkeys that traced my fingers for the feathers, in-class pumpkin pie making, pictures of the Pilgrims trekking through the winter woods, lessons and stories and plays and even old projector movies relating the events of those early days of the Plymouth settlement all reminded us of what the holiday was about.

It wasn’t unusual for us to have a band concert or similar production the day before our Thanksgiving break. Sure, for most of us kids, Thanksgiving break was that tiding over, that pregame festivity that heralded the mack daddy of all holidays, Christmas. Today, that’s called Winter Break. Then, Christian or no, it was Christmas. And even for those of us not in church, we loved every minute of it. Thanksgiving, even more than Halloween, meant the most wonderful day of the year was coming soon.

Today, of course, due to multi-cultural education and PC sensitivities and censorship, we no longer have such easy recounting of the events of that first Thanksgiving so long ago. Instead, as is usual today, we are reminded of the meaner things, the ‘genocide’ that arguably didn’t really happen but we learn it that way anyway, the imperialism, the racism, the ill treatment of the Native populations – all of these become the focus. In deference to any potentially offensive presentation, little to no focus on any traditional Thanksgiving trappings is done. There might be a turkey picture here, or a lesson if the student happens to be in a grade that teaches history there. But nothing major. There are certainly no big celebrations, pumpkin pie feasts, band concerts on Wednesday (or Tuesday), or any such thing. At best – and I admit I’ve become happy with the break-even point – we just stop hearing about the awful legacy of America’s horrendous past for a couple days.

In fact, with our modern sensitivities, most schools have little to do with this or that holiday formerly known as Christmas. There will be some winter decorations, and of course the break that happens to fall over the last couple weeks of December. But our schools have become wastelands of doldrums and yawns, daring not to celebrate anything traditional lest someone be offended by the references.

But come January, they will begin winding up for America’s new Holy Day: The Feast of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. They will spend weeks watching films, reading books, drawing pictures, attending assemblies. The hallways will be adorned with his pictures, with quotes, with references to the moments of his life. They will see clips from his March on Washington. They will be told to make the day special, to take in its meaning, to apply themselves to making our world a better place. It will be all the things that the holiday formerly known as Christmas and that other one that is still somewhat special because of family but not because of the horrible legacy it represents, used to be.

Which goes to show you. Every culture, every generation, every ideological revolution, every nation has its heroes, its holy days, it absolute values that it demands everyone conform to absolutely. Ours today is no different. Having dispensed with the old guard under the auspices of tolerance and sensitivity toward all people, beliefs and demographic groups, we now fill the void with new absolute value systems with their teachings and heroes, and bid a gradual farewell to the celebrations of yore that no longer have a place in the post-modern, post American nation in which we live. Happy Thanksgiving.

Uncategorized

Previous Post

November 14, 2011

You know the GOP has done something screwy

Next Post

November 16, 2011 The religion of PETA continues to make a joke of itself

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Abortion Atheism Awesome things Bigotry for the hip American Blogging Books Catholic Catholic Teaching Catholics on the Internet Christian Persecution Christian Unity Christianity and America Christianity in the Post-Modern World Christianity in the world Culture of Death Culture of Life Current Events Decline and Fall of the Christian West Defending Liberty Fun Stuff Global Warming Good Causes Good News Gun Control Health Care History Holidays Homeschool Humor Important things Inspiring Stories Interesting Insights Interesting Stories Islam and the West Liberal "Tolerance" Liberal observations Life in a post-Christian world Memorial Movies Musings News Other Blogs Our Big Politically Correct Bother Politics Popular Culture Post Modern Values Prayers Pro Life Promoting LGBT Protecting Liberty Racism in the world today Scientism Social Observations Sports Strange Stories The Boys The Catholic Church and the Left The Decline and Fall of the American Dream The end of liberty The Faith and the Left The Faith and the Right The Family The Greatness of God The Internet The Leftist Juggernaut The LGBT Question The Media The Pope The post-liberal Left The Power of Propaganda Tributes Twilight of the American Experiment Uncategorized Uneducating Postmoderns When the Church is wrong Why learn from history when we can repeat it instead Wisdom in the Post Modern Age World Events

Select a Month August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who was the prophet after Moses?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Isaiah Samuel Joshua Elijah