Thanksgiving is the time when we sane, normal people give thanks to God for His blessings.

It is the time when insane Liberals call us a bunch of genocidal racists.

Liberals decided to go along this route because, aside from being insane, they need to totally delegitimize the entire American experiment – and this means they have to call the Pilgrims evil. Our ancestors were just bad people who came ashore to murder and enslave! Bad, bad Pilgrims! And, so, bad Americans. But it wasn’t quite like that.

First off, Europeans had been coming to what is now New England for some time. The first exploration of what became New England was done by Verranzzano nearly a century before Plymouth Rock (there’s a bridge named after him in New York City). No permanent settlements were established for quite some time but Europeans did land here and there to explore and obtain supplies or to fish off the coast. This is crucial – this contact.

This is because by the time the Pilgrims arrived there were Natives totally familiar with Europeans…including speaking European languages. But very crucially, it means that the European disease environment had arrived. It cannot be overstated how important this was – it wasn’t at all intentional. Neither Natives nor Europeans had the foggiest notion of how disease spread. But for the Natives, the problem was that they had never been exposed to an outside disease environment and they got hit with pretty much the collected disease environment of the rest of the world that had developed over thousands of years of human interaction. They simply had no natural defense against these diseases…and given the level of medical knowledge at the time, once the diseases showed up, they would just have to run through the population until resistance was built up.

It took some time for these diseases to spread because, especially in North America, population was thin on the ground but from contact with Europeans and then from tribe to tribe the diseases shot through the Native population like an apocalyptic calamity. By the time the Pilgrims arrived, the diseases had already hit New England and among the first thing the Pilgrims came across were abandoned villages and farms, and skeletons of Natives who had died…meaning that they had died in such great numbers, and so fast, that nobody remained to bury the dead. Population was low to start with – the diseases dropped it even lower. So, when the Pilgrims came ashore they found plenty of empty land…and Native tribes, weakened by losses, eager to make deals…because they already knew about Europeans and figured having allies with steel swords and firearms would be useful.

And it was – and it was beneficial to both sides. No doubt about it, the Natives helped the Pilgrims through the first few years. They probably wouldn’t have made it otherwise. As it turns out – and a bit of thought would make this obvious to everyone – farming isn’t just planting seeds and getting food. Climate and soil conditions vary widely from place to place and while North America has fertile soil, no European had ever farmed it before and it had its own peculiarities which could only be overcome via experiment – which would have taken too long – or someone handy who could just tell them about the peculiarities. That is what the Natives did – and got aid in return.

But in the nature of things, there were conflicts. Bound to happen. The Europeans had their own ideas of law and, especially , land ownership and they were in no way a 1 to 1 match up to Native ideas. A treaty selling this plot of land to that European seemed to the European to be a very straightforward transfer of title. The Natives didn’t really have that developed a concept of private property. They weren’t just stone age hunter-gatherers but they also weren’t settled agriculturalists. They moved around a lot. They likely didn’t understand the concept of permanent ownership of a particular piece of land. Add into that various conflicts over what constitutes a lie, a breach of contract, or an immoral act – plenty of things Natives took for granted were viewed with suspicion or horror by the Europeans and doubtless vice versa by the Natives. Still, with all that, it was quite a while before war broke out – more than half a century passed. The causes of the war were varied but once it started, it was bound to become a blood feud. To the Natives, killing everyone was ok. To Europeans, schooled in the commands of Christian chivalry, you just can’t do that. But if that was the way the Natives wanted it, then the Europeans would pay them back in their own coin…so massacre begot massacre with the Natives having the distinct disadvantage in numbers, equipment and discipline (a Native chief couldn’t really command – he might be honored as a chief, but whether or not any particular group or person would obey was based upon what that group or person saw as advantage in obedience – meanwhile, men in the European militia were drilled to unquestioning obedience to orders legally issued).

And once war happened, and the Europeans won, they were bound and determined to prevent a recurrence. This meant they started ordering Natives around, and ordering them off. All trust broke down and the only way a Native could remain around the Europeans was to become, in effect, European. Most didn’t want to and so, war by war, the Natives just kept losing more and more and their population kept going down and down until only a remnant, easily controlled, remained.

What you have here (very briefly) is just human history. There was no evil intent – not on either side. There were misunderstandings. There were lies. There was cheating. There was also nobility and mercy. Once again, on both sides. But it was all something that was going to happen. Eventually someone was going to gross the ocean and encounter the Natives of North America…and when that happened first disease, and then conflict, were going to ensure a bad outcome for the Natives. To be angry about this in 2024 is to essentially demand a repeal of human nature and history.

The better way to view it is what came out of it all – in this case, the United States of America. A place of freedom and prosperity – where even those descended from the Natives of 1620 are vastly better off than their ancestors dreamed. Sure we can all regret the crimes that were committed, but there’s no sense dwelling upon them…nor indicting a whole civilization. They happened. They will not happen again. Our job is to make today as good as we can…not try to get pay back for people dead for centuries.

So, from me to you, Happy Thanksgiving – a time to be grateful for what we have, not morose over what happened ages ago.