-Caveat Lector- http://www.tbwt.com/views/specialrpt/special%20report-1_11-22-00.asp
Whose Thanksgiving? ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- 11-22-00 By Asiba Tupahache The Spirit of January Reflection <>=<>=<>=<>=<>=<>=<>=<>=<>=<>=<>=<>=<>=<>=<>=<>=><=<>=<>=<> November 2000 Takwank Update Number 24 <>=<>=<>=<>=<>=<>=<>=<>=<>=<>=<>=<>=<>=<>=<>=<>=><=<>=<>=<> Thanksgiving of the 1600's "Young children, some of them snatched from their mothers, were cut in pieces before the eyes of their parents, and the pieces were thrown into the fire or into the water; other babes were bound on planks and then cut through, stabbed and miserably massacred, so that it would break a heart of stone; some were thrown into the river and when the fathers and mothers sought to save them, the soldiers would not suffer them to come ashore but caused both old and young to be drowned. Some children of from 5 to 6 years of age, as also some infirm persons, who had managed to hide themselves, but were all murdered in cold blood and thrown into the fire or the water. A few escaped to our settlers, some with loss of hand, others of a leg, others again holding in their bowels with their hands, and all so cut, hacked and maimed, that worse could not be imagined...." >From The Narratives of New Netherlands A historic log of accounts and events kept by the Dutch in the 1600's The Dutch Governor Willem Keift thanked the soldiers for having brought a successful night raid and complimented the murdering of babies and children as having acted with Roman valor. The soldiers were rewarded with a day of praise and celebrated a "thanksgiving." This was an account of a series of raids that took place over three days in February of 1643. Something about a rumor having spread about a stolen pig set the colonists and soldiers on a blood rampage from northern New Jersey to Long Island. This was typical of the Thanksgivings of the 1600's rather the fabled myth of pilgrims and Indians in the woods. Another example of a 1600's thanksgiving was following the massacre of the Pequots in 1637. Seven hundred or so Pequot men, women and children were burned alive as they were in ceremony. The structure in which they had gathered was set on fire. Those who tried to escape were shot down. Those who could not burned alive. As the massacre took place, the Governor of The Massachusetts Bay Colony, William Bradford commented: "It is a fearful sight to see them frying in the fire, and the streams of blood quenching the same and horrible was the stink and stench thereof. But the victory seemed a sweet sacrifice, and they gave praise thereof to God." What is interesting to me is how all this is disposed of in the American environment. I read in an encyclopedia references to Governor Bradford and his involvement with the thanksgiving of the 1600's and no mention of the above quote or the incident. The Narratives of New Netherlands (what the Dutch called New York) can be found in the reference section of the library (not all libraries may have the actual document). I always encourage folks to find this stuff so they can hold the information in their hands and see for themselves. There are too many people frontin' as this or that saying any old thing. The information is there, it was all the time. Something else I tell people (especially school children) to check out is the lie about Columbus thinking he was in India. There was no such place known as "India" in 1492. Check out any historical atlas, again, in the reference section of any library. I saw an atlas dated as late as the 1500's where that land was still called "Hindustan." In any event, the thanksgivings of the 1600's have been sterilized, dwarfed, and retarded to a fantasy. There are conglomerations of thanksgivings from that time up to now that could fractor in to what the American calendar event has come to be known. Of course it's good to acknowledge a thanksgiving of some kind. I don't think this society expresses thanks enough. My people have had thanksgivings centuries before any boat from Europe hit our shores. That's in October which is over and so is Thanksgiving as far as I'm concerned. [inri note: this coincides with the canadian thanksgiving]. However, it isn't wholesome to be stuck into an interpretation that comes out of a need to fabricate and reinvent over ugly truths. Some historians have tried to defend thanksgiving as America knows it as having originated with the Quakers who have a portion of thanksgiving as part of their religious service. This is fine except that has nothing to do with the slaughters of the 1600's, Plymouth Rock or anything else. Some two hundred years after the post massacre thanksgivings, Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a day of thanksgiving having more to do with the political agenda of the times but, again, that has nothing to do with the 1600's. I was recently introduced to Tom Mountain who offers the following (with his gracious permission): No Thanksgiving/Day of Sorrow As most Americans are sitting down to eat that once noble native bird, the turkey, a growing number of us are observing a No Thanksgiving/ Day of Sorrow to reflect on the genocide committed against the American Indians. While the historical myth of Thanksgiving is still taught as fact to our children, a review of the historical record shows no reference to this event ever happening. In fact, the Thanksgiving holiday was a public relations gimmick dreamed up by that corporate lawyer turned politician, Abraham Lincoln, during the darkest days of the Civil War in an attempt to win support for an increasingly unpopular war. That a ferocious genocide was carried out by Europeans against the American Indians is an undeniable fact. The question we must ask is why did this happen? During the period of the most active genocide against American Indians, slavery was King in America. And as long as Africans in slavery had a place to escape to, as well as base to launch retaliation from, no slave owner was safe. That this happened is best demonstrated by the so-called Seminole Wars of the early 19th century. Seminole is the Spanish word for runaway and the Seminole Indians were a mixture of escaped Africans and American Indians who fought the longest most expensive war in American history until that point. Their defeat followed by the Trail of Tears death march, ended the last major resistance by American Indians east of the Mississippi River, and secured the institution of slavery in the South. With Thanksgiving once again upon us, it behooves all Americans of good will to take the time to reflect on our real history, to teach this to our children, and to stop celebrating this mythical holiday that represents so dark a period in the history of this country. Leave that poor turkey in peace, and join with us in observing a No Thanksgiving/ Day of Sorrow. --Thomas C. Mountain Finally, American holidays such as "Thanksgiving" affirm notions of whiteness and entitlement to domination. Not only are historical accounts invented, twisted and lied about but more contemporary products have evolved to reinforce and legitimize these supremacy needs. For example, every "thanksgiving" certain movies are repeatedly shown to entertain the American mind. One year I asked people in from all over if these movies are shown in their local areas as well. I wanted to know if whether or not this was just a New York thing. Every year the big black monkey movies "Mighty Joe Young" and "King Kong" are shown followed by "March of the Wooden Soldiers." Dark wooly boogie men "rape our women and kill our children" the villagers of Toyland exclaim as they go after the boogie men and villain to rescue Tom Thumb and Little Bo Beep. Pitch forks, torches and all. We know how gorillas, monkeys and apes are processed in the American mind. White militarism embodied in innocent things like wooden toy soldiers are suited to early indoctrination through children's play. It's amazing, and actually could be a course of study. I would like to close this segment with a quote passed along from a Palestinian sister, Amneh Taye: "While you're eating your big, fat turkeys his month, think about this: "One man, a Chippewa...talked about not celebrating Thanksgiving because that would be celebrating one's own destruction." --Lakota Woman =<>= The destruction and annihilation of indigenous people has been the objective of the invader from the beginning. The 1600's were but a chapter. The chronic attack has evolved and taken many shapes to fit changing times but the objective was always the same. Native people are hated, in the way and must be destroyed. I was forwarded the following by Richard Strong of Rutgers University: "Hello family. I thought you might find this interesting. Once again America equates 'youthful indescretion' with genocide. America has no shame." Richard Strong forwarded an article with this note authored by Tim Carpenter published in the 10/9/00 Lawrence Journal-World (Lawrence, KS): 'Oz' Author Sought Indian Holocaust Baum penned 'wonderful' books, plus editorials advocating genocide By Tim Carpenter which says in part: A decade before The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was a bestseller, author L. Frank Baum wrote many racist editorials calling for genocide. Tim Carpenter writes about a proposed theme park the developers of which seek to build on native land: "So deeply is "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" ingrained in American popular culture that a development company is poised to build an $861 million Wonderful World of Oz theme park and resort near DeSoto to capitalize on the tale's popularity. If built, the Oz development would stand as a tribute to a genius storyteller whose essential work spawned the most-watched film ever, "The Wizard of Oz." But one slice of the story is largely ignored. Step back in time to Aberdeen, S.D., in late 1890. Conflict among white settlers and American Indians was intense. Salesman, typesetter, press operator and editor L. Frank Baum was the publisher of The Aberdeen Saturday Pioneer. It was in the pages of his weekly newspaper that Baum left his mark as a racist who repeatedly called for the mass murder of American Indians. Baum's first appeal for genocide was printed immediately after the slaying of Sitting Bull and 10 days before U.S. Army troops, supported by Indian mercenaries, killed about 300 Lakota men, women and children at Wounded Knee Creek, S.D. Here is what Baum wrote: "The proud spirit of the original owners of these vast prairies, inherited through centuries of fierce and bloody wars for their possession, lingered last in the bosom of Sitting Bull. With this fall the nobility of the redskin is extinguished, and what few are left are a pack of whining curs. "The whites, by law of conquest, by justice of civilization, are masters of the American continent, and the best safety of the frontier settlements will be secured by the total annihilation of the few remaining Indians. "Why not annihilation? Their glory has fled, their spirit broken, their manhood effaced; better that they die than live the miserable wretches that they are. We cannot honestly regret their extermination." To read the entire article: http://www.ljworld.com/section/frontpage/story/29224 The development of the OZ theme park has brought about controversy among developers, those who don't think there is anything wrong with Baum's editorials having been written "back then", and native people and others who find Baum's editorials reprehensible along with the idea that the development of a park to cherish the sentimentalisms can be sterilizedd away from his hateful writings. I guess that puts us back to the sterilizations of the 1600's and the contemporary needs to sentimentalize historic fabrications of pilgrim and indian products. Being aware of history gives perspective to what we do today, it's not simply a matter of mulling over the past. As what L. Frank Baum wrote in the 1800's had evolved from the actions of the 1600's, the behaviors we see today, the attitudes that have kept political prisoner, Leonard Peltier captive have very much to do with what's been done before. It's still being done now. Free Leonard Peltier December 10th, New York Justice for Leonard Peltier http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/pnalerts/961520154/index_html Listen to Education At The Crossroads with Basir Mchawi Thursday, November 23rd WBAI 99.5FM 9PM. I'll be joining him with Sam Anderson in a discussion on reparations and justice =<>= >From Ted Glick, National Director of Independent Politics Network: Even though the Fall issue of Independent Politics News came out before the not-yet-concluded elections, it's still relevant and interesting and a good overview of what's been happening around the country. If you would like a copy contact: Ted Glick, National Coordinator Independent Progressive Politics Network P.O. Box 1041, Bloomfield, N.J. 07003 973-338-5398 (t), 338-2210 (f), www.ippn.org "Hold fast to dreams for if dreams die, life is a broken winged bird that cannot fly." Langston Hughes =<>= Night Drum porus.com View Night Drums Events Calendar at: www.nightdrums.org/events/nightdrums.pl Porus also hosts the WBAI on the web: www.wbai.org [EMAIL PROTECTED] Webs: Native Web The latest news effecting indigenous people www.nativeweb.org Urban Think Tank, Inc http://www.urbanthinktank.org Or Email Us At: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Tom Mountain newsmakingnews.com Colours of Resistance Tools for White Guys http://www.tao.ca/~colours The Slaughter by Carroll Case www.theslaughter.com Latino Officers Association http://communities.msn.com/LATINOOFFICERSASSOCIATIONcityofNEWYORKinc/homepag e Independent Progressive Politics Network Ted Glick, National Coordinator www.ippn.org Ken Armstrong's Chicago Tribune Series on Errors in Capital Cases: www.chicagotribune.com/news/metro/chicago/ws/0,,37842,00.html The Black World Today Herb Boyd Read a solid collection of articles, commentaries and reviews by some of the most influential community activists, scholars and artists www.tbwt.com ibn Kenyatta Artist/Visionary Who Refuses Parole, Why? Because he maintains his innocence and will not allow his spirit to be broken by accepting conditional release that bureaucratizes guilt. I look forward to speaking with this ancient soul in the very near future. I'll bring it all to you. In the meantime check out his website: http://pan.afrikan.net/kenyatta/index.html ColorLines Magazine www.colorlines.com A LittleBit Louder www.geocities.com/loudpoet This is the weekly newsletter for NYC's home for the best spoken word. October 22nd Coalition to Stop Police Brutality, Repression and the Criminalization of a Generation WebSite: http://www.unstoppable.com/22/ Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] A site for American justice issues such as prison reform: www.americanjustice.com Straphangers Campaign For information on subway travel in New York City [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.straphangers.org Lists =<>= Connections =<>= Groups >From time to time information and announcements come to SOJR by way of some very informative sources. Because I might forget where an announcement came from, or because an announcement might come from more than one source as I put this publication together, I want to make this section my acknowledgement of the fabulous folks who come my way. I encourage you to make contact. BRC-NEWS: Black Radical Congress www.blackradicalcongress.org Subscribe: Email "subscribe brc-news" mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: Email "unsubscribe brc-news" mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Digest: Email "subscribe brc-news-digest" mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Project: Culture & Social Change A new initiative that supports the blending of cultural and political work by bringing together cultural activists and community organizers; sharing concrete strategies and tools for integrating creativity and passion into our political work; and nurturing creativity and imagination for personal rejuvenation and building community. If you would like more information, please e-mail us at [EMAIL PROTECTED] e-Drum Linking Black writers worldwide through cyberspace. e-Drum is moderated by Kalamu ya Salaam, a renowned writer and cultural critic, who has written and produced a number of acclaimed works, including The Magic of JuJu, What is Life?, and My Story, My Song (a CD featuring poetry and New Orleans music). You can sign up for your free e-Drum membership Visit www.runagate.com and accessing the e-Drum link. IGC Support an ad-free Internet! Help IGC provide progressive news and views by visiting http://www.igc.org/igc/gateway/donate.html and contributing what you can. Thank you. For PeaceNet: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For EcoNet: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For WomensNet: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For AntiRacismNet: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Latino Officers Association http://communities.msn.com/LATINOOFFICERSASSOCIATIONcityofNEWYORKinc/homepag e Robert Lederman. President of A.R.T.I.S.T. http://www.openair.org/alerts/artist/nyc.html For archived Lederman articles see: http://www.levymultimedia.com [For essays and notes on pesticides scroll down to and click on Lederman archive link or go to http://www.levymultimedia.com/lederman/index.htm] HARAMBEE LIST for a list of Robot Commands send message: 'help HARAMBEE' to [EMAIL PROTECTED] =<>=<>=<>= WBAI Pacifica Radio 99.5FM Commentary by Asiba Tupahache on "Night Drums" With Brother Shine Monday morning from 3AM to 6AM Visit web site: www.nightdrums.org Also... WBAI listener supported radio sponsors shout outs for families of incarcerated friends, relatives and loved ones. Everyone is invited to call and record messages. These messages will be played on the air every Thursday at 6:45AM so that those in prison can know that they haven't been forgotten. FMI call (212) 209-2800. For the shout out line (open 24 hours) call (212) 209-2958. =<>=<>=<>= Did you know that if you use an e-mail account through your job, your employer actually owns all the e-mails you send through that address? It's true (so say the courts)! So keep your correspondence private. =<>=<>=<>= It would be a lot easier if information sent to SOJR was not sent as an attachment. Please make your communication in your E-mail. I would really appreciate it. =<>=<>=<>= SOJR Update is available in black and white for those list members who may have older systems that aren't able to receive this notice in color. If you prefer this version reply to this mailing and write in the message section "black and white only." This update is free. Please feel free to forward, copy or distribute. If this is the first time you are receiving the Update, reply to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and write "confirm" in the message area if you would like to continue to receive this communication. If this notice came to you as a forwarded E-mail, information cannot be guaranteed as having originated from Spirit of January. It is possible for information sent in this format to be altered. If you would like to receive it directly, contact Spirit of January Publications. =<>= Thank you for your interest and support Asiba Tupahache =<>=<>=<>=<>=<>=<>=<>= Spirit of January 234162 Old Village Station Great Neck, New York 11023 E-Mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Asiba Tupahache, Editor and Publisher The Spirit of January Reflection Quarterly is published with the support of The Race Relations Institute Fisk University Nashville, Tennessee ------------------------ http://www.eco-action.org/dod/no7/122-124.html Thanksgiving is for Turkeys Amerikkka Celebrates Genocide We are not vanishing. We are not conquered. We are as strong as ever.” - United American Indians of New England. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- Thanksgiving Day is the essence of America, one of the cornerstones on which the USA rests its pride. Not surprising then, really that it is celebrating genocide, and will use brutal force to silence those who try to expose the lies that surround it. NOV. 28, 1997 - An annual American Indian gathering in Plymouth, MA on Thanksgiving Day turned violent when police confronted a group of Indians trying to march through the historic district of town. Reports vary in the number of protesters involved, indicating that anywhere from 100 to 200 members of the United American Indians of New England were present for a peaceful National Day of Mourning. Witnesses said that the group was set upon by police after the media left, and were beaten and gassed. Twenty-five of the group were arrested. Among those who were beaten were elders like a 70 year old woman and a 97 year old man. They face charges of disorderly conduct and unlawful assembly, police said. Some witnesses indicate that mace was sprayed directly into the faces of some Indians. Earlier in the day a group of historical re-enacters dressed as pilgrims had marched through the area to commemorate the first Thanksgiving without incident. When some of the Indian demonstrators tried to argue that they had a right to freedom of speech and assembly as well, they were beaten for their trouble. Thanksgiving: A National Day of Mourning for Indians Every year since 1970, United American Indians of New England have organised the National Day of Mourning observance in Plymouth at noon on Thanksgiving Day. Every year, hundreds of Native people and our supporters from all four directions join us. Every year, including this year, Native people from throughout the Americas will speak the truth about our history, and about current issues and struggles we are involved in. Why do hundreds of people stand out in the cold rather than sit home eating turkey and watching American football? Do we have something against a harvest festival? Of course not. But Thanksgiving in this country—and in particular in Plymouth—is much more than a harvest home festival. It is a celebration of the pilgrim mythology. According to this mythology, the pilgrims arrived, the Native people fed them and welcomed them, the Indians promptly faded into the background, and everyone lived happily ever after. The truth is a sharp contrast to that mythology. The pilgrims are glorified and mythologised because the circumstances of the first English-speaking colony in Jamestown were frankly too ugly (for example, they turned to cannibalism to survive) to hold up as an effective national myth. The pilgrims did not find an empty land any more than Columbus “discovered” anything. Every inch of this land is Indian land. The pilgrims (who did not even call themselves pilgrims) did not come here seeking religious freedom; they already had that in Holland. They came here as part of a commercial venture. They introduced sexism, racism, anti-lesbian and gay bigotry, jails, and the class system to these shores. One of the very first things they did when they arrived on Cape Cod—before they even made it to Plymouth—was to rob Wampanoag graves at Corn Hill and steal as much of the Indians’ winter provisions of corn, beans, and wheat as they were able to carry. They were no better than any other group of Europeans when it came to their treatment of the Indigenous peoples here. And no, they did not even land at that sacred shrine called Plymouth Rock, a monument to racism and oppression which we are proud to say we buried in 1995. The first official “Day of Thanksgiving” was proclaimed in 1637 by Governor Winthrop. He did so to celebrate the safe return of men from the Massachusetts Bay colony, who had gone to Mystic, Connecticut to participate in the massacre of over 700 Pequot women, children, and men. About the only true thing in the whole mythology is that these pitiful European strangers would not have survived their first several years in “New England” were it not for the aid of Wampanoag people. What Native people got in return for this help was genocide, theft of our lands, and never-ending repression. We are treated either as quaint relics from the past, or are, to most people, virtually invisible. When we dare to stand up for our rights, we are considered unreasonable. When we speak the truth about the history of the European invasion, we are often told to “go back where we came from.” Our roots are right here. They do not extend across any ocean. National Day of Mourning began in 1970 when a Wampanoag man, Wamsutta Frank James, was asked to speak at a state dinner celebrating the 350th anniversary of the pilgrim landing. He refused to speak false words in praise of the white man for bringing civilisation to us poor heathens. Native people from throughout the Americas came to Plymouth, where they mourned their forebears who had been sold into slavery, burned alive, massacred, cheated, and mistreated since the arrival of the Pilgrims in 1620. But the commemoration of National Day of Mourning goes far beyond the circumstances of 1970. Can we give thanks as we remember Native political prisoner Leonard Peltier, who was framed up by the FBI and has been falsely imprisoned since 1976? Despite mountains of evidence exonerating Peltier and the proven misconduct of federal prosecutors and the FBI, Peltier has been denied a new trial. Bill Clinton apparently does not feel that particular pain and has refused to grant clemency to this innocent man. [See Prisoner section for contact details.] To Native people, the case of Peltier is one more ordeal in a litany of wrongdoings committed by the U.S. government against us. The media in New England present images of the “Pequot miracle”: a small Native Nation in Connecticut who run the most successful Native casino in the country, and make a ton of money from it. The problem is that while some non-Native people now assume that all Native peoples are making big bucks from casinos, the vast majority continue to live in the most abysmal poverty. Can we give thanks for the fact that, on many reservations, unemployment rates exceed fifty percent? Our life expectancies are much lower, and our infant mortality and teen suicide rates much higher, than those of white Americans. Racist stereotypes of Native people, such as those perpetuated by the Cleveland Indians, the Atlanta Braves, and countless local and national sports teams, persist. Every single one of the more than 350 treaties that Native nations signed has been broken by the U.S. government. The bipartisan budget cuts (enacted by Republicans and Democrats alike) have severely reduced both educational opportunities for Native youth and the development of new housing on reservations, and have caused deadly cutbacks in health-care and other necessary services. These cuts primarily target social welfare programs while the corporations get richer every day. Poor people, elders, immigrants, people of colour, women and children have felt the greatest impact from this assault on the poor. Many states are literally throwing people off welfare and telling them that they have to find a job. [Sound familiar?!] The problem is that many jobs do not pay enough for people to survive; further, in many areas (e.g., rural Indian reservations), there are no jobs to be found. There are increasing numbers of homeless families. Are we to give thanks for being treated as unwelcome in our own country? Or perhaps we are expected to give thanks for the war that is being waged by the Mexican government against Indigenous peoples there, with military aid from the U.S. in the form of helicopters and other equipment? When the descendants of the Aztec, Maya, and Inca flee to the U.S., the descendants of the wash-ashore pilgrims term them ‘illegal aliens” and hunt them down. We object to the “Pilgrim Progress” parade and to what goes on in Plymouth because they are making millions of tourist dollars every year from the false pilgrim mythology. That money is being made off the backs of our slaughtered indigenous ancestors. Increasing numbers of people are seeking alternatives to such holidays as Columbus Day and Thanksgiving. They are coming to the conclusion that, if we are ever to achieve some sense of community, we must first face the truth about the history of this country and the toll that history has taken on the lives of millions of Indigenous, Black, Latino, Asian, and poor and working class white people. The myth of Thanksgiving, served up with dollops of European superiority and manifest destiny, just does not work for many people in this country. As Malcolm X once said about the African-American experience in America, “We did not land on Plymouth Rock. Plymouth Rock landed on us.” Exactly. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- Why did the cops attack a peaceful march? Why did they drag a Native man by his hair when they arrested him? Why did they arrest a peaceful Native elder and medicine person? Why did they intimidate and assault other elders? Why did they attack children with pepper spray? Why did they tear out the dreadlocks of a proud Black Man? Why did they arrest people who were standing on the sidewalk? Why did they force pepper spray into the eyes, noses and mouths of people who had already been handcuffed? Why did they single out people who wore buttons and T-shirts expressing support for Native political prisoner Leonard Peltier? Did these cops go home afterwards and stuff their faces with turkey? Did they sit down with their own families after they had attacked our families? Did they give thanks for keeping Plymouth’s 377-year-old tradition of racism intact? The most sickening part of what happened is that the police attack was executed simply to protect the sacred image of the pilgrims and the sacred image of Plymouth as a tourist shrine. The cop assault was planned and carried out simply to protect the tourist industry in Plymouth. The bottom line is not the safety of women, children, elders and other people, but the protection of business interests. The human and civil rights of people of colour—and especially of Indigenous people—are expendable when money is to be made or tourists might be inconvenienced. The police assault has backfired in their faces. They have shown in graphic detail the truth of what we have been saying all along. Did we attempt to destroy their precious property? No! Did we threaten or attack a single person? No! Our “crime” was to speak the truth about our history. Our “crime” was to attempt to go down the street like free human beings. Our “crime” was to support Leonard Peltier and other political prisoners. Our “crime” was to unify people from all four directions, to bring them together to denounce the pilgrim mythology upon which the tourism industry in Plymouth depends. We point out to all the media here that the responsibility rests not only with the town of Plymouth but with various state authorities. Massachusetts state troopers played a leading role in the cop assault on innocent people. It was clear to us and to other observers that the cops had been trained in so-called counterinsurgency tactics and had been training for some time. There were also plainclothes cops there from unknown agencies. Who were they? What agencies did they represent? We ask that our supporters be on alert and stand by, because we will be planning additional actions, and something for next Thanksgiving too! -------------- http://csf.colorado.edu/mail/psn/2000/msg01413.html Celebrating Genocide! by CyberBrook 23 November 2000 16:25 UTC ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- Celebrating Genocide! Dan Brook Many people annually get as stuffed as their turkeys in celebration of the Thanksgiving holiday. Thanksgiving is a quintessentially American holiday, so much so that it is not just a holiday, but really is (as the etymology implies) one of our Holy Days, almost universally celebrated by Americans. In its sacredness, families get together to (unintentionally?) celebrate one genocide (against Native Americans) by committing another (against turkeys). Can we celebrate in good faith and conscience? On Thanksgiving Day, we give thanks. We give thanks for being the invader, the exploiter, the dominator, the greedy, the gluttonous, the colonizer, the thief, indeed the genocidaire, rather than on the other side of imperialism’ s zero-sum murderous game. As Mark Twain says in his War Prayer, wishing and being thankful for one’s own success and victory is, at the very same time, wishing and being thankful for another’s defeat and destruction. Do we want to make these kinds of wishes and give these kinds of thanks? The Lebanese poet Kahlil Gibran declared that “it is the honor of the murdered that they are not the murderers”. Perhaps, but it is a very difficult honor to uphold. Native Americans, at least those who have survived the 500 year genocidal project, are the poorest ethnic group in the richest country of the world. Each year, a group of Native Americans gather at Plymouth Rock on Thanksgiving Day to mourn and fast in honor of their people and in memory of what is lost. What do we want to be honored for? What are Americans thankful for? It was once earnestly asked by Native Americans, “Why do you take by force what you can have by love?” Christopher Columbus reports in his personal diary that when he arrived in the Americas he was amazed. The Arawaks, with curiosity and joy, came to greet the people coming off the ships from Europe. The Arawaks (whom Columbus mistakenly thought were Indians) were a peaceful people, by all accounts, willing to share anything they had, offering both emotional kindness and their physical objects. Columbus describes how remarkable these people were. So innocent of weapons and violence, Arawak people would initially reach out their hands to feel the strange, shiny objects called swords. The Arawaks would only “work” for a few hours a day, “spending” the rest of their time relaxing, socializing, and creating their culture in the ways that people most enjoy. Columbus also tells of how the Arawaks had no “shame”, being able to walk around naked or make love whenever they pleased. With the tiny amount of gold on their island, they fashioned jewelry to adorn themselves. As with many other pre-contact indigenous groups, the Arawaks essentially lived in Utopia. Can Americans be thankful for living in a utopian society? Are we thankful for having destroyed one? Should we be grateful for having so many deadly weapons? For being so greedy for gold, whether actual or metaphorical? As Kevin Danaher of Global Exchange is fond of pointing out, Columbus could have done one of a few different things after encountering the Arawaks of whom he was so impressed: (1) Columbus could have quit his travels and lived the rest of his days amongst this remarkable people. In fact, millions of people today spend thousands of dollars and their precious couple of weeks of vacation trying to experience modern conditions resembling these ancient ones. (2) Columbus could also have continued on his journeys, exploring other islands, encountering new peoples, and searching for India and elsewhere with which to trade. While doing so, he could have expanded and developed his writings, perhaps doing valuable ethnographic and comparative sociological research. (3) Another possibility is that Columbus could have rushed back to Europe, declaring the wonders of Arawak society and urging that the best minds of Europe go to visit and study the Arawaks. As a result of doing so, Europeans could have incorporated aspects of Arawak society into their own, if not emulating it altogether. Are we proud of and thankful for our hubris and ethnocentrism? Of course, Columbus did none of these. Apparently, there was a fourth possibility. With grave implications, Columbus wrote in his diary that with fifty men he could enslave the entire population and capture all their gold. This was no empty boast. The “savage” Arawaks were enslaved, many were tortured, their labor exploited, and their wealth stolen and shipped off to Europe. During this process of imperialist superexploitation, men had their hands chopped off, women had their breasts sliced and their pregnant bellies cut open, babies were thrown into the air, sometimes crashing to the ground and other times being impaled on those strange, shiny swords, presumably all in the name of Christianity, Civilization, and, eventually, Capitalism. The Arawaks were literally exploited to death and they are now extinct, all of them having been killed off through virulent brutality, overwork, and disease. Are Americans thankful they weren’t Arawaks? For not being the dehumanized “Other”? The Pilgrims later came to America to escape religious persecution from the British, apparently in order to commit ethnic persecution against the Native Americans and others. And this they did, and we in fact continue to do, effectively and mercilessly. At the time of the first Thanksgiving in the 1620s, it was also the dawn of another type of genocide. 1619 marks the first year that human beings were brutally imported from Africa to become slaves in America, if they happened to survive the horrific Atlantic crossing. So while Africans were being heartlessly torn away from their homelands and families, viciously enslaved and dehumanized, tortured and killed, Native Americans were being attacked and annihilated. By the time that President Lincoln re-invented and instituted the Thanksgiving Day tradition in the early 1860s, the US was fighting its civil war. The US Civil War may have been fought over slavery (and labor more generally), though it was certainly not fought for the slaves (or for laborers). Sadly, there is much, much more to the tragic history of genocide and US complicity. Is it for this legacy that Americans give thanks? Are Americans thankful for the results of racism? In Europe, during the 1930s and 1940s, various demographic groups were being systematically targeted by the Nazis, including leftists and unionists, people with physical and mental disabilities, Jews and Jehovah’s Witnesses, gays and lesbians, the Roma (so-called Gypsies) and the small number of Blacks, as well as other misfortunate minorities. Although we now know that the US had accurate aerial photographs of the rail lines leading to and from the death camps since 1941, among other pertinent information obtained even earlier, the US did not enter the war against fascist Germany until almost 1942, only after it was physically attacked by Japan. Even then, however, the US neither bombed the rail lines or the death camps themselves, nor allowed in large numbers of refugees from fascism. Indeed, just like Haitians in the 1990s, Jews in the 1940s were sometimes turned back to their respective Hell. Millions and millions of people died unnecessarily. Adding insult to injury, the US government even paid war reparations to US corporations, including General Motors, which were supplying the Nazi military with much-needed machinery and vehicles, for the damage done to their German factories due to the Allied bombing campaign. (The US government went further by guaranteeing safe passage for many Nazi officers and even employing a number of them, some of whom helped advance biological and chemical weaponry as well as death penalty technology in the US. Other Nazi officers were supported, especially in Europe and Latin America, as an oppositional force against real or suspected communism.) Likewise, the US was seemingly uninterested in Japan’s genocide against the Chinese in Nanking, and then did (and does) little to stop China’s genocide of the Tibetans since the 1950s. The US was interested, however, in setting up concentration camps in 1942 for Japanese-Americans and, to a much lesser extent, Germans and Italians. Are Americans thankful for our selective democracy? In 1965, the US supported and facilitated genocide in Indonesia. Under the US-supported military dictatorship, half a million to a million communist-sympathizing peasants were killed in Indonesia. Their lives are considered so worthless that a more accurate number of those killed is nearly impossible. (A more recent example of this mentality is from the Gulf War, during which US bulldozing tanks buried an unknown number of slaughtered Iraqis in the desert. When asked how many were killed and buried in these mass unmarked graves, General Colin Powell coldly replied that he wasn’t interested and didn’t care. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright followed up that mentality by stating on TV that the hundreds of thousands of additional kids who have died since the war, due to sanctions, are a worthwhile price to pay.) The US supplied some 90% of the weapons and training to the Indonesian military, in addition to favorable trade and investment, but also provided logistics and specific names of Indonesian activists to be targeted for death. The Indonesian military gladly obliged, taking the US hit list and then accomplishing their task as best as possible. Since 1975, similarly, the US has sponsored and abetted genocide in Indonesian-occupied East Timor, culminating in the latest round of “newsworthy” massacres at the end of 1999. Nearly the same time that the modern Indonesian/East Timorese tragedy began, the US condoned genocide in Cambodia, after committing acts of genocide throughout South East Asia in the 1960s and 1970s. In the 1980s, the US supported vicious and murderous wars in Central America, central Asia, and southern Africa, in which hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, were killed, with many more disabled, displaced, and disappeared. The US also sat idly by during the genocide in Rwanda in the 1990s, while almost totally ignoring slavery and genocide in Sudan throughout that entire decade. Furthermore, the US persists in continuously building, vigorously marketing, and violently employing chemical, biological, nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction. Are Americans proud of US foreign policy? Of supporting murderous dictators and regimes? Of maintaining deadly double standards? At the same time that the US has, by far, the most expensive and powerful military on Earth, it also has a high poverty rate, the largest prison population, a relatively high infant mortality rate, tremendous overconsumption and waste, a stingy and demeaning welfare program, an active capital punishment program, and almost as many priovately owned guns as people. Are Americans proud of US domestic policy? Of supporting murderous policies and programs? Of maintaining deadly discriminatory standards? There are many reasons to celebrate and Americans have a lot to be thankful for. Genocide should not be one of those things. What are we doing on Thanksgiving Day? We would be appropriately appalled if Germany or Austria were celebrating a Holocaust Memorial Day, where Germans and Austrians got together with their families for dinner on their official day off, joyously remembering the things that are important to them, just as American families get together for Thanksgiving Day and think of things to be thankful for. (Similar scenarios, just as ugly, could be constructed for other white supremacists, rapists, and murderers.) Some activities and events are inappropriate just because of the context in which they occur and the history they represent. Thanksgiving Day is clearly part of that history. Are Americans thankful for forgetting their own history, for having collective social and political amnesia? We do not have to feel guilty, but we do need to feel something. At the very least, we need to reflect on how and what we feel. We should also review our history and what it means to us and others, while we must rethink our adopted traditions, including our Thanksgiving High Holy Day. My personal (and therefore political!) resolution for the new year is to stop celebrating genocide. American Thanksgiving may be sacred to some, but it’s utterly profane to me. <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance�not soap-boxing�please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'�with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds�is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html <A HREF="http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html";>Archives of [EMAIL PROTECTED]</A> http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ <A HREF="http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/";>ctrl</A> ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
