The Other Side of Thanksgiving

It has been my tradition on Thanksgiving to honor the other side of the story. For members of the first nations of this country this is a day of sadness as stories of the horrors inflicted on the ancestors are retold, remembered and relived. It is important that we honor these feelings and feel the sadness.

Atrocities were committed in the settlement of America when native peoples were slaughtered. Atrocities were also committed when free people of Africa were captured and brought to America as slave labor. Pretending these things didn’t happen won’t make them go away. Healing in this country will never happen until we admit that terrible mistakes have been made and crimes committed and we seek forgiveness.