Dr. Richardson, if you chance on reading these comments today, or even tomorrow, just know that as we, your students in the U. of The Letters, will have given thanks for our Professor as well as all the other blessings in our lives. Enjoy this special day, with all that makes you thankful everyone!
President Franklin D. Roosevelt on a proclamation, Thanksgiving, 1941…
“….We have not lost our faith in the spiritual dignity of man, our proud belief in the right of all people to live out their lives in freedom and with equal treatment. The love of democracy still burns brightly in our hearts…”On the day appointed for this purpose, let us reflect at our homes or places of worship on the goodness of God and, in giving thanks, let us pray for a speedy end to strife and the establishment on earth of freedom, brotherhood, and justice for enduring time.”
From my heart to yours, all of my sisterhood and brotherhood, may our Democracy prevail for enduring time.
May the higher power of each of us root us in Light to show us the way. I am grateful for strife which strengthens us, and bounty which rewards us.
“And we won”. Yes. And, once again, we win.
Thank you Heather and from whence all of us came to be in this country.
Heather, I hope you realize how important and inspirational your words have been to many people. You do all of us a great service. Thank you. Happy Thanksgiving to you and all.
We will, so long as we decide we want to. I re-read Camus' "Letters to a German friend" this past week for inspiration. We will win because we are RIGHT...but only if we are just as determined (in effort, not necessarily means) as those who oppose us.
Unfortunately, negative sound bytes, constantly utilized by the right are feebly echoed by mass media. 30 minute nightly news, all negative except for a 30 second feel good piece! However, I will continue to fight for our experiment with democracy!
Ditto! I loved that “And they won…”. Phase too. It was a great topping for this letter. I was so happy when I saw pictures of President Biden and Vice President Harris and the First Lady and Second Gentleman helping prepare Thanksgiving Dinners for those in need.
It’s funny you mention the herd. Yesterday I was pondering what a group of intelligent, thoughtful people could be called … (yes, I do spend too much time in my head *confession*) what about an enlightenment?
I’m all in for putting the Professor on the best seller list. I ordered two copies of To Make Men Free. They arrive tomorrow. I’m giving one as a gift.
Thanks for this. I knew that Thanskgiving was a Lincoln proclamation, but didn't realize how it started during the war. This is a not-so-subtle reminder of how we are in a war now and can't see the full outcome yet. Thanks so very much for this perspective.
Just reading in Wikipedia about filibuster and its history in 19th century America as unauthorized military expeditions. "A filibuster (from the Spanish filibustero), also known as a freebooter, is someone who engages in an unauthorized military expedition into a foreign country or territory to foster or support a political revolution or secession. The term is usually applied to United States citizens who incited insurrections across Latin America, particularly in the mid-19th century, usually with the goal of establishing an American-loyal regime that could later be annexed into the United States. Successful examples of filibustering include the Texas Revolution and the Bear Flag Revolt in California, while failed examples include the Filibuster War in Nicaragua, the All of Mexico Movement, or the Ostend Manifesto and Lopez Expedition in Cuba.
Filibusters are irregular soldiers who normally act without official authority from their own government, and are generally motivated by financial gain, political ideology, or the thrill of adventure. Unlike mercenaries, filibusters work for themselves, whilst a mercenary leader operates on behalf of others.[1] The freewheeling actions of the filibusters of the 1850s led to the name being applied figuratively to the political act of filibustering in the United States Congress."
So how do we get of the freebooters (filibusters) in the U.S. Senate?
The usual answer we get to that question is, "We go to the poll and vote them out."
That is becoming an impossibility. The news makes it clear that the GOP intends to do away with elections while the Democrats seem not to show much interest in pushing back.
I believe we will prevail. Even if we fail in the short term we have the knowledge that democracy was established here in the past and we can do it again. We also have the knowledge that the Confederates are a once defeated idea working for a twice impeached tyrant.
I once feared that the coming generations would not have the political skill and determination to turn back this assault, but I have had to recalculate since 2018. I was severely underestimating the fire in the hearts of POC, LGBTQ+, and liberals of all shades for having their place in society and not at the liberality of white bigots, but by declaring and taking their place by their power.
"Rights are not bestowed, not even by kings. Rights are asserted, not given. Rights come from human nature, not divine nature. Most of all, natural law is a product of “liberal and expanded thought,” not of divine revelation."
Seidel, Andrew L. The Founding Myth (p. 77). Sterling. Kindle Edition.
I'm glad we have our Thomas Paines in people like Heather Cox Richardson. I'm glad we have AO-C and the Squad. Katie Porter. I can't list them all. bur you see what I mean? These are the Trumans, JFKs, John Lewis', Elijah Cummings, Sitting Bull, Geronimo, and legions who keep hope alive in their own hearts.
I grew up just south of Sonoma County, California, and in all the years I "studied" California history in school, never once did I read or hear about the Bear Flag Revolt. Thank you for that mention and the opportunity to fill in yet another hole in my knowledge of history.
I am so grateful for Heather and all of you for all you have given to me these past almost two years. Thank you!
And for a deeper dive into our Thanksgiving history, listen (for free) to Heather and Joanne give the lowdown on how we bickered over the years before this day became the day of celebration we in this age have come to embrace. https://cafe.com/now-and-then/thanksgiving-wars/
What a great podcast about Thanksgiving history. Heather and Joanne did mention Arlo Guthrie’s 18 minute “Thanksgiving Day Massacree” as an example of the opportunity of Thanksgiving for dissent and how a very long song became so often played and remembered. Add to the list of reasons it got played so often the fact that radio DJs had to cue up vinyls and commercials in predigital days, so they were very busy in the studio between 3 min songs. DJs loved TDM because they could nap, get a snack, etc. in fact some radio station managers banned the song because it might be cued up all night. Read about it in former DJ Laura Lee’s excellent history—of the song, the church and the making of the movie—titled “Arlo, Alice, and the Anglicans”. Amazon link provided here because of all the reviews and flap info included.) https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwiaj5GSwrP0AhXXQzABHfmGA8gQFnoECA8QAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FArlo-Alice-Anglicans-Laura-Lee%2Fdp%2F1581570104&usg=AOvVaw0LWZFAtVmQFBpnr6099XQ2
The late, great, Bob Fass of WBAI in New York City would play "Alice's Restaurant Massacree" non-stop for his entire midnight-3AM show on Thursday evenings, after he "retired" from his daily gig. The song was first performed publicly by Guthrie on Fass's iconic "Radio Unnameable" program. (Fass also debuted Jerry Jeff Walker's "Mr. Bojangles" live on WBAI)
Once again. In my inbox. A miracle of thought and care from you. You teach us with your deep knowledge and understanding of history, your clear-eyed perspective, and your storytelling. In return for our education, we owe you and our country action and dedication to the work against voter suppression.
Cheers to President Biden for acknowledging the need to actively promote and protect democracy here and around the world. Creeping, flagrant autocracy reminds us to never take our democracy for granted.
And Thank you HCR, again, for your profound and enlightening Thanksgiving message.
Thank you once again, Dr. Heather Cox Richardson. And a healthy and happy Thanksgiving to you and those who are near, and those who are dear to you.
What a rousing and inspiring history lesson this morning’s LFAA was! Once again the past informs both the present and the future. I have no idea how long the current national imbroglio will last or what it will consume of our treasure and trust, but I firmly believe that truth and unity and justice and peace will, in the end, triumph once more.
In the interim, we must not only win at the ballot box, but we have the duty and the necessity to reconstruct our Union, our society, so that it can never be taken hostage again. We can plainly see the need to bolster and protect our governmental framework, our educational system, our institutions of justice, our scientific infrastructure, and our moral/spiritual values and efficacy.
This is a pivotal moment in our nation’s and our world’s history. Every one of us should find our place in the ranks of those who are prepared to give their all for the establishment of a social order that is firmly rooted in reality and equality.
In 1775, Lt. Gov. Spencer Phips of the Massachusetts Bay Colony gave colonists license to kill Penobscot people for the entire month of November. The reward was the equivalent of about $12,000 in today’s dollars for the scalp or body of a man, half that for a woman’s scalp and a bit less for a child. 68 other similar proclamations were issued in New England in the 18th and 19th century.
This year descendants of survivors filmed a reading of the Phipps proclamation to their children. Here are links to the film Bounty and the Bangor Daily News reporting from which I took this information.
Sometimes I think the 'nativists' among us acknowledge - in their perverse way, in their prejudices - our original sins against America's First Peoples. We celebrate Native Americans welcoming and sustaining us, and elide how we 'thanked' them. Remorse is the first step to reparation. We are not the first to need to take this step toward Truth and Reconciliation. There are others for us to follow - for example, Germany and South Africa. How we construct our national archive, how we reform our national story to accord with events, how we write/right history rather than indulging in/perpetuating hagiography.
Critical Race Theory is just one element of the Truth and Reconciliation Americans of goodwill must engage in to put our nation on a more balanced footing and on the path to justice as fairness. We do not yet even have a name or theoretical framework for approaching our historic and continued abuse of Native Americans.
My sense of things is "first things first". Until there is justice for the first peoples of this country and this hemisphere, we are always going to be driving with the brake on, a very cruel brake, and we won't truly achieve anything we claim to value.
And for further context, check out the current exhibit at the Maine Historical Society: “Begin Again : reckoning with intolerance in Maine”. www.mainehistory.org
The Free States though the war was over at the Appomattox Courthouse. The Slave States knew better. The war simply shifted from the battle field to political maneuvering.
The Union knew "the war" wasn't over. Sure, the Confederacy was defeated, but that just freed the military to once again focus its attention westward: to subjugating and nearly exterminating the tribes that hadn't submitted yet. Gotta keep building the transcontinental railroad and keep it and the telegraph lines safe, after all.
Sarah Josepha Hale is NOT someone to hold up affirmatively. According to a black historian who mentioned her in a newsletter yesterday, she was generally considered to be pro-South though she lived in the North. She campaigned that the Thanksgiving holiday have no mention of current events, and throughout the civil war wouldn't let it be mentioned in her magazine. She was one of the first to make up the bullshit myth about the Indians and the Pilgrims we all grew up on. After the war she was one of those Northerners who went out of their way to "allow the South to be the South" and bind up the nation's wounds by never mentioning slavery as the reason for the war or Southern white supremacy that was even then restoring the ante-bellum system of power through Jim Crow.
Given I know the history of what the damn "Pilgrim Fathers" - the ignorant Fundamentalist scum who were such pissants that they managed to get their asses thrown out of Holland - even then the most liberal state in Europe - for their religious bigotry. If my ancestors had bumped into North America 100 miles north of where they did, in the lands ruled by the Good Pilgrim Fathers, the medieval scum would have imprisoned them for being "heretics" (they were Quakers), then run hot pokers through the tongues of the men to prevent them ever speaking their "heresy" again, and treated the women as witches. The Pilgrims were the first ignorant bigoted backward Fundamentalist scum to come along and set the precedent for what we have today.
I may make a meal tomorrow for my bedridden wife and give thanks she's OK, but it will have nothing to do with this Bullshit Holiday that turns genocide into niceness.
"This year some Wampanoags will go to Plymouth for the National Day of Mourning. Others will gather at the old Indian Meeting House, built in 1684 and one of the oldest American Indian churches in the eastern United States, to pay their respects to their ancestors, many of whom are buried in the surrounding cemetery. Plenty of Wampanoags will gather with their families for a meal to give thanks — not for the survival of the Pilgrims but for the survival of their tribe.
“History has not been kind to our people,” Steven Peters said he tells his young sons.
“Children were taken away. Our language was silenced,” he said. “People were killed.” Still, “we persevered. We found a way to stay.”
Message to National Day of Mourning 2020 from Leonard Peltier
Greetings my relatives, friends, loved ones, and supporters.
First of all, I want to thank you for the privilege of being allowed to express my feelings about this “Day of Mourning” as we call it, and “Day of Thanksgiving” as the rest of the US calls it. Sometimes I’m at a loss for words to express all the thoughts I have going on in my head after 45 years of imprisonment.
I do want to express my appreciation for our ancestors before us, who fought so hard that we would live today. I want to express my feelings of remembrance for the ones who were overpowered by the weapons of war coming from Europe and the pandemics they faced. Though we have been attacked by the invaders from Europe, over and over in every way possible, and everything that has been done to destroy us, our culture, and traditions, we still survived until today because we are an expression of the Creator’s Will and an expression of the Creator’s Truth. We are a manifestation of that truth, that all mankind should live within the boundaries of those laws.
There is nothing that came from Europe that has made this portion of the Earth a better place to live, but like all nature, we have survived, and nature continues to survive, though mankind is on the edge of destroying itself. The truths that our people spoke of, the need to live in harmony with each other, the Creator, the Mother Earth, and respect one another’s’ approach to spirituality, when expressed by non-Indians becomes a sensation around the world. We must continue to speak our truth, to live our truth, and to support one another, for there lies our survival. The most powerful weapons that we can obtain is knowledge of truth and love for one another, and the practice of that truth and love.
We must unite and work together every chance we can and embrace all others who are of like-mind and willing to work to correct this worldwide pandemic of greed and selfishness that has infected the whole earth and mankind.
On this Day of Mourning, let us again remember our relatives before us, who fought every challenge imaginable that we might survive, and in our prayers say “Thanks for not giving up. Thanks for giving your lives that we might live.” And to all of you out there, I want to say thanks for not giving up on me and my quest for freedom. May the Creator bless you in every way. You brother always, in all ways.
Edgar Villanueva and Hilary Giovale share an ancestral bond that is far from unique, but one that is rarely acknowledged. Edgar is a member of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina. For generations, his family has lived in the same region where Hilary’s ancestor received a land grant after his family migrated from Scotland in 1739. Now 280 years later, Edgar and Hilary reach across the Thanksgiving table to bridge the painful colonial gap.
Indigenous and enslaved peoples have righteous rage, and we also have cause to take inspiration from a historical moment of humanity, as HCR observes, to reflect on our gratitudes and share them with family, however we configure them.
TC, your post intersects my life in many ways. I am from NH, and so have understood for a long time that Sarah Josepha Hale was not the civic paragon she was made out to be (my uncle wrote a ribald parody of "Mary Had a Little Lamb" that is quite funny). I also number among my friends several members of the Wampanoag Nation. Thanksgiving for them is mostly a time for quiet reflection, but also a time to remember the joys of being Wampanoag. I am also from a long line of "ignorant fundamentalist scum" and a somewhat shorter line of Friends (Quakers). The story of how the uber repressive Puritans became Congregationalists, one of the most liberal religious bodies in America, is fascinating, but wicked long. The First Congo church in my hometown got its first female minister in the early1970s. As a Friend, I can only ask what gratitude (thanksgiving) means to you. Is it a time to remember the joys of who you are (your blessings), the hypocrisy and shortcomings of our ancestors and contemporaries, or (much more difficult, but much more rewarding) both?
Doing all the things privately that people do this day is Very Good, and I join that. But if we are ever going to be the country we claim we are, that we want to be, we have got to start by confronting the truth about what has been done. I really do believe that You Shall Know The Truth, And It Shall Set You Free.
You're very right about the history of the Congregationalists. It started when the Fundies expelled people like Roger Williams.
"Roger Williams and his followers settled on Narragansett Bay, where they purchased land from the Narragansett Indians and established a new colony governed by the principles of religious liberty and separation of church and state. Rhode Island became a haven for Baptists, Quakers, Jews and other religious minorities."
Thank you TC ... I was beginning to feel I should just hold my tongue, not to ruin the rosy tinted, warm and cozy sentiment wrapping itself around this page ... 'changing the story' is one of today's therapeutic techniques to clear the hystoric grounds - to plant seeds of more palatable perspectives ... a very thin line between that and deepening the furrows of well established illusions ....
"The Pilgrims and the Wampanoags did indeed share a harvest celebration together at Plymouth in fall 1621, but that moment got forgotten almost immediately, overwritten by the long history of the settlers’ attacks on their Indigenous neighbors." (HCR)
"By the fall, the Pilgrims — thanks in large part to the Wampanoags teaching them how to plant beans and squash in a mound with maize around it and use fish remains as fertilizer — had their first harvest of crops. To celebrate its first success as a colony, the Pilgrims had a “harvest feast” that became the basis for what’s now called Thanksgiving.
*** The Wampanoags weren’t invited. ***
Ousamequin and his men showed up only after the English in their revelry shot off some of their muskets. At the sound of gunfire, the Wampanoags came running, fearing they were headed to war.
“One hundred warriors show up armed to the teeth after they heard muskets fired,” said Paula Peters.
Told it was a harvest celebration, the Wampanoags joined, bringing five deer to share, she said. There was fowl, fish, eel, shellfish and possibly cranberries from the area’s natural bogs."
Our tendency to use people and then throw them away goes way back. If we had half a brain, we would welcome any comers (immigrants, refugees, etc) and give them the freedom we claim to have and let them help us to become our better angels. God knows, we need help in that department. Immigrants have a better track record than the “proud boys”. Except for the Drumpfs, of course.
... mind you, I give thanks every day and night for the uncountable blessings in my life ... and yes, I do believe it matters to emphasize redeeming qualities, and weave threads of positivity into the fabric of what os possible ...
I see no benefit in icing over the gaping wounds of reality to frost the cake of desirable (and marketable) storylines.
"While families gather across the country for this year’s Thanksgiving celebration, frontline indigenous communities that have survived centuries of violence, displacement and systemic racism remain in resistance, defending land, water and their very existence."
"From 1777 through 1868, the United States signed at least 368 treaties with native nations — and violated every one. Canada’s track record is comparable. Indigenous people have never stopped demanding that these treaties, and their national sovereignty, be honored."
"Now, pipelines are being constructed to move the world’s dirtiest fossil fuel, tar sands petroleum in western Canada. Indigenous-led resistance to Enbridge’s Line 3 pipeline in northern Minnesota has been waged for years now. Anishinaabe leader Winona LaDuke has been on the frontlines there. She criticized President Joe Biden’s inaction on Line 3, and commented on the Democracy Now! news hour on Biden’s appointment of the first Native American cabinet member in history, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland:
“Joe, if you appoint Indian people, don’t just make them pretty Indian people that sit in your administration. Let them do their job. Indigenous thinking is what we need in the colonial administration ...
That’s when change happens.”
"'In British Columbia, Canada, the Wet’suwet’en sovereign nation has been resisting the multibillion-dollar Coastal GasLink pipeline being constructed by TC Energy. Just this week, Canadian federal police raided a multi-month blockade, smashing into a cabin with an axe and a chainsaw and arresting the land defenders inside. Police then burned the cabin to the ground."
"This myth of that abundant shared meal 400 years ago continues to mask misery, from poverty and substance abuse to the epidemic of missing and murdered indigenous women. But native communities are resilient and organized, and rising up in resistance. For this, we should all give thanks."
The assertion that "we are a nation of laws" - whether by US or Canadian voices - does not negate the fact that our nations and laws are preceded by deeply rooted cultures and nations of laws, thousands of years old.
Who has the right - or the wherewithal - to mow them over and plow them under, pretending they no longer exist - or have no precedent in today's rule of law?
Well, ok - but hey, let's give thanks anyway ... and let us continue to strive for a world of truth, justice and equity for all people ... shall we ...?
'... miles to go before we sleep ... miles to go before we sleep ....'
If you’ve been with us for some time, you’ve witnessed our struggle at Standing Rock to stop the Dakota Access pipeline and the Anishinaabe resistance to the Line 3 pipeline. You’ve been a friend to us, and you’ve come to know many Indigenous water and land protectors fighting for our sacred lands and waterways. What you may not know is that, for years, our Wet’suwet’en relatives have undertaken a similar struggle in their own territory, to our north in what we now call Canada. They need our attention and support, too.
They arrested two journalists and at least 13 others at the frontlines, the latest in a series of arrests dating back to 2019. The Wet’suwet’en are doing all they can to stop construction of TransCanada’s 670km Coastal GasLink pipeline, because a third of this pipeline would cross their homelands on its way to a facility in coastal Kitimat.
Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs have refused to give consent for the project, and, crucially, they have never signed a formal treaty with the provincial government or relinquished their land. Much like our #NoDAPL fight, this is both an environmental and a sovereignty issue; the Wet’suwet’en are also attempting to protect sensitive headwaters.
In September, they put out a call for support, and this newsletter is an amplification of that call. I ask that, for now, you please visit their page to get more up to speed.
As we go forward, the Lakota People’s Law Project will keep our eyes on things, and — just as so many did for us at Standing Rock — we’ll stand with our First Nations relatives in the best way we can.
Wopila tanka — thank you for supporting our struggle against Big Extraction!
We are thrilled to announce the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has restored its 2008 Clean Water Act veto of the Yazoo Pumps, effectively halting the destructive agricultural drainage project.
Once again tens of thousands of acres of Mississippi Flyway wetlands are protected—some of our nation’s richest habitats that support over 450 species of birds, fish, and wildlife, and are used by more than 28 million migrating birds each year.
Last year, more than 90,000 river stewards, community leaders, and birders took action to oppose the previous administration’s unprecedented revival of the harmful Pumps and ensure EPA would uphold science and the law.
Through your efforts, EPA has restored its veto in full force and reaffirmed its support for advancing effective, enduring flood solutions for vulnerable local communities
_______
President Joe Biden Issues Five New Initiatives at the White House Tribal Nations Summit
Executive Order on Improving Public Safety and Criminal Justice for Native Americans and Addressing the Crisis of Missing or Murdered Indigenous People
Thank you, I had never heard of her. It appears that propaganda machines have long been with us, doing their best to negate the hard work of the world’s builders and the strivers who try to make this country live up to it’s promise. Medieval scum is an apt descriptor for the Pilgrims I think. They make our evangelicals look sane. Ha! As if that were possible.
Wishing everyone a truly calm and peaceful Thanksgiving. Am especially grateful these past few years for you Heather. You have brought sanity to my days. Hope to my heart. Courage to face the future. You are so loved.
Dr. Richardson, if you chance on reading these comments today, or even tomorrow, just know that as we, your students in the U. of The Letters, will have given thanks for our Professor as well as all the other blessings in our lives. Enjoy this special day, with all that makes you thankful everyone!
Gus Koch, “U. of The Letters”. I love it! We need to get shirts
And baseball caps!
Yes! With LFAA!
Diplomas, too.
I'll be ordering a few!
I like University of LFAA!
Hear, hear!!!!
President Franklin D. Roosevelt on a proclamation, Thanksgiving, 1941…
“….We have not lost our faith in the spiritual dignity of man, our proud belief in the right of all people to live out their lives in freedom and with equal treatment. The love of democracy still burns brightly in our hearts…”On the day appointed for this purpose, let us reflect at our homes or places of worship on the goodness of God and, in giving thanks, let us pray for a speedy end to strife and the establishment on earth of freedom, brotherhood, and justice for enduring time.”
From my heart to yours, all of my sisterhood and brotherhood, may our Democracy prevail for enduring time.
May the higher power of each of us root us in Light to show us the way. I am grateful for strife which strengthens us, and bounty which rewards us.
“And we won”. Yes. And, once again, we win.
Thank you Heather and from whence all of us came to be in this country.
Celebrate community that unifies us!
Love and Light!
Thankful every day for wisdom from DrR, and for words like yours Christine!
Wonderful words. Thank you.
Love and Light!
Heather, I hope you realize how important and inspirational your words have been to many people. You do all of us a great service. Thank you. Happy Thanksgiving to you and all.
And they won...
May the democracy win, again
Endless blessings upon you, Dear Heather, and all the herd.
We will, so long as we decide we want to. I re-read Camus' "Letters to a German friend" this past week for inspiration. We will win because we are RIGHT...but only if we are just as determined (in effort, not necessarily means) as those who oppose us.
Unfortunately, negative sound bytes, constantly utilized by the right are feebly echoed by mass media. 30 minute nightly news, all negative except for a 30 second feel good piece! However, I will continue to fight for our experiment with democracy!
Ditto! I loved that “And they won…”. Phase too. It was a great topping for this letter. I was so happy when I saw pictures of President Biden and Vice President Harris and the First Lady and Second Gentleman helping prepare Thanksgiving Dinners for those in need.
Yes, images of moments of kindness matter. So much.
It’s funny you mention the herd. Yesterday I was pondering what a group of intelligent, thoughtful people could be called … (yes, I do spend too much time in my head *confession*) what about an enlightenment?
I’m all in for putting the Professor on the best seller list. I ordered two copies of To Make Men Free. They arrive tomorrow. I’m giving one as a gift.
Carla, have you heard of Heather's Herd that you can participate in?
I want to join Heather's Herd. How to?
I'd like to know about the Herd!
Please say more?
heathersherd@gmail.com
"Heather's Heard" seems appropriate.
I think it's heathersherd@groups.io (and/or?)
Have sent a note to one of the moderators to post for you!
Other than this forum? I have not.
May I join? 😌
And also to you, Kim.
Thanks for this. I knew that Thanskgiving was a Lincoln proclamation, but didn't realize how it started during the war. This is a not-so-subtle reminder of how we are in a war now and can't see the full outcome yet. Thanks so very much for this perspective.
Just reading in Wikipedia about filibuster and its history in 19th century America as unauthorized military expeditions. "A filibuster (from the Spanish filibustero), also known as a freebooter, is someone who engages in an unauthorized military expedition into a foreign country or territory to foster or support a political revolution or secession. The term is usually applied to United States citizens who incited insurrections across Latin America, particularly in the mid-19th century, usually with the goal of establishing an American-loyal regime that could later be annexed into the United States. Successful examples of filibustering include the Texas Revolution and the Bear Flag Revolt in California, while failed examples include the Filibuster War in Nicaragua, the All of Mexico Movement, or the Ostend Manifesto and Lopez Expedition in Cuba.
Filibusters are irregular soldiers who normally act without official authority from their own government, and are generally motivated by financial gain, political ideology, or the thrill of adventure. Unlike mercenaries, filibusters work for themselves, whilst a mercenary leader operates on behalf of others.[1] The freewheeling actions of the filibusters of the 1850s led to the name being applied figuratively to the political act of filibustering in the United States Congress."
So how do we get of the freebooters (filibusters) in the U.S. Senate?
The usual answer we get to that question is, "We go to the poll and vote them out."
That is becoming an impossibility. The news makes it clear that the GOP intends to do away with elections while the Democrats seem not to show much interest in pushing back.
I believe we will prevail. Even if we fail in the short term we have the knowledge that democracy was established here in the past and we can do it again. We also have the knowledge that the Confederates are a once defeated idea working for a twice impeached tyrant.
I once feared that the coming generations would not have the political skill and determination to turn back this assault, but I have had to recalculate since 2018. I was severely underestimating the fire in the hearts of POC, LGBTQ+, and liberals of all shades for having their place in society and not at the liberality of white bigots, but by declaring and taking their place by their power.
"Rights are not bestowed, not even by kings. Rights are asserted, not given. Rights come from human nature, not divine nature. Most of all, natural law is a product of “liberal and expanded thought,” not of divine revelation."
Seidel, Andrew L. The Founding Myth (p. 77). Sterling. Kindle Edition.
I'm glad we have our Thomas Paines in people like Heather Cox Richardson. I'm glad we have AO-C and the Squad. Katie Porter. I can't list them all. bur you see what I mean? These are the Trumans, JFKs, John Lewis', Elijah Cummings, Sitting Bull, Geronimo, and legions who keep hope alive in their own hearts.
Love the quote and love your optimism! Sure want you to be proven right!
Rupert and clones are the Machiavellians of our time, may their evil crash and burn
Best question of our time,
I grew up just south of Sonoma County, California, and in all the years I "studied" California history in school, never once did I read or hear about the Bear Flag Revolt. Thank you for that mention and the opportunity to fill in yet another hole in my knowledge of history.
Fabulous word history! Thank you!
I am so grateful for Heather and all of you for all you have given to me these past almost two years. Thank you!
And for a deeper dive into our Thanksgiving history, listen (for free) to Heather and Joanne give the lowdown on how we bickered over the years before this day became the day of celebration we in this age have come to embrace. https://cafe.com/now-and-then/thanksgiving-wars/
Then there's this from the turkey's point of view: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EW4vgSP-mM
What a great podcast about Thanksgiving history. Heather and Joanne did mention Arlo Guthrie’s 18 minute “Thanksgiving Day Massacree” as an example of the opportunity of Thanksgiving for dissent and how a very long song became so often played and remembered. Add to the list of reasons it got played so often the fact that radio DJs had to cue up vinyls and commercials in predigital days, so they were very busy in the studio between 3 min songs. DJs loved TDM because they could nap, get a snack, etc. in fact some radio station managers banned the song because it might be cued up all night. Read about it in former DJ Laura Lee’s excellent history—of the song, the church and the making of the movie—titled “Arlo, Alice, and the Anglicans”. Amazon link provided here because of all the reviews and flap info included.) https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwiaj5GSwrP0AhXXQzABHfmGA8gQFnoECA8QAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FArlo-Alice-Anglicans-Laura-Lee%2Fdp%2F1581570104&usg=AOvVaw0LWZFAtVmQFBpnr6099XQ2
The late, great, Bob Fass of WBAI in New York City would play "Alice's Restaurant Massacree" non-stop for his entire midnight-3AM show on Thursday evenings, after he "retired" from his daily gig. The song was first performed publicly by Guthrie on Fass's iconic "Radio Unnameable" program. (Fass also debuted Jerry Jeff Walker's "Mr. Bojangles" live on WBAI)
Arlo Guthrie used the film for his intermission when I saw him live about 5 years ago.
In the trivia department, "American Pie" was also a DJ's favorite; at 8 minutes +, it was enough for a decent bathroom break.
Golden, Lee...thanks for sharing!
So good! Love you, Lynell!
Cheers. 💜
Love the gobbler video. Thanks Lynell.
Thank you for the link(s). I've ordered Heather's book too. I do enjoy this history, a respite from the current wars... Happy Thanksgiving!
Thanks for the link to cafe.com, just subscribed!
I'm sure you'll love listening to Heather and Joanne. They are quite entertaining!
Once again. In my inbox. A miracle of thought and care from you. You teach us with your deep knowledge and understanding of history, your clear-eyed perspective, and your storytelling. In return for our education, we owe you and our country action and dedication to the work against voter suppression.
Thank you for continuing these letters. They educate and enlighten me. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving...Here's to saving our Democracy!
Cheers to President Biden for acknowledging the need to actively promote and protect democracy here and around the world. Creeping, flagrant autocracy reminds us to never take our democracy for granted.
And Thank you HCR, again, for your profound and enlightening Thanksgiving message.
Best to all this day and every day.
“And we won.”
Thank you once again, Dr. Heather Cox Richardson. And a healthy and happy Thanksgiving to you and those who are near, and those who are dear to you.
What a rousing and inspiring history lesson this morning’s LFAA was! Once again the past informs both the present and the future. I have no idea how long the current national imbroglio will last or what it will consume of our treasure and trust, but I firmly believe that truth and unity and justice and peace will, in the end, triumph once more.
In the interim, we must not only win at the ballot box, but we have the duty and the necessity to reconstruct our Union, our society, so that it can never be taken hostage again. We can plainly see the need to bolster and protect our governmental framework, our educational system, our institutions of justice, our scientific infrastructure, and our moral/spiritual values and efficacy.
This is a pivotal moment in our nation’s and our world’s history. Every one of us should find our place in the ranks of those who are prepared to give their all for the establishment of a social order that is firmly rooted in reality and equality.
Happy, healthy Thanksgiving, to you, Bill!
Yes, indeed, here’s to creating our Union anew for We The People, All of Us This Time💙!
In 1775, Lt. Gov. Spencer Phips of the Massachusetts Bay Colony gave colonists license to kill Penobscot people for the entire month of November. The reward was the equivalent of about $12,000 in today’s dollars for the scalp or body of a man, half that for a woman’s scalp and a bit less for a child. 68 other similar proclamations were issued in New England in the 18th and 19th century.
This year descendants of survivors filmed a reading of the Phipps proclamation to their children. Here are links to the film Bounty and the Bangor Daily News reporting from which I took this information.
https://www.bountyfilm.org/
https://bangordailynews.com/2021/11/23/news/266-years-ago-new-england-colonists-were-legally-allowed-to-kill-penobscot-people-joam40zk0w/
Sometimes I think the 'nativists' among us acknowledge - in their perverse way, in their prejudices - our original sins against America's First Peoples. We celebrate Native Americans welcoming and sustaining us, and elide how we 'thanked' them. Remorse is the first step to reparation. We are not the first to need to take this step toward Truth and Reconciliation. There are others for us to follow - for example, Germany and South Africa. How we construct our national archive, how we reform our national story to accord with events, how we write/right history rather than indulging in/perpetuating hagiography.
Critical Race Theory is just one element of the Truth and Reconciliation Americans of goodwill must engage in to put our nation on a more balanced footing and on the path to justice as fairness. We do not yet even have a name or theoretical framework for approaching our historic and continued abuse of Native Americans.
https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/568445-colorado-governor-rescinds-1864-policy-that-led-to-massacre-of-native This year the Colorado governor repealed a policy that permitted killing Native Americans. The ceremony was attended by members of tribes across the nation. I remember one soft-spoken man at the podium saying, 'They called us savages. We were really just trying to protect our homes.'
My sense of things is "first things first". Until there is justice for the first peoples of this country and this hemisphere, we are always going to be driving with the brake on, a very cruel brake, and we won't truly achieve anything we claim to value.
Your comment was pulling me in as you read mine. With heart, thank you.
And for further context, check out the current exhibit at the Maine Historical Society: “Begin Again : reckoning with intolerance in Maine”. www.mainehistory.org
Thank you for your generous and ongoing gift of these informative, patriotic, and inspiring letters, Dr. Richardson.🌿
“And they won”
Civil War Slave States 1861-1865
Alabama
Arkansas
Florida
Georgia
Louisiana
Mississippi
North Carolina
South Carolina
Tennessee
Texas
Virginia
And what states after midterms , by hook or by crook, will likely have an iron grip on America?
There is short term winning and long term winning.
The filibuster and owning the Supreme Court is the long term win and not a shot was fired.
The Free States though the war was over at the Appomattox Courthouse. The Slave States knew better. The war simply shifted from the battle field to political maneuvering.
As an homage to Dr. Richardson, I submit this The Atlantic article as evidence that the Virginia election debacle caused in part by school board fury is in fact, nothing new. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/11/failed-school-ban-evolution-conservatives/620779/
The Union knew "the war" wasn't over. Sure, the Confederacy was defeated, but that just freed the military to once again focus its attention westward: to subjugating and nearly exterminating the tribes that hadn't submitted yet. Gotta keep building the transcontinental railroad and keep it and the telegraph lines safe, after all.
Sarah Josepha Hale is NOT someone to hold up affirmatively. According to a black historian who mentioned her in a newsletter yesterday, she was generally considered to be pro-South though she lived in the North. She campaigned that the Thanksgiving holiday have no mention of current events, and throughout the civil war wouldn't let it be mentioned in her magazine. She was one of the first to make up the bullshit myth about the Indians and the Pilgrims we all grew up on. After the war she was one of those Northerners who went out of their way to "allow the South to be the South" and bind up the nation's wounds by never mentioning slavery as the reason for the war or Southern white supremacy that was even then restoring the ante-bellum system of power through Jim Crow.
Given I know the history of what the damn "Pilgrim Fathers" - the ignorant Fundamentalist scum who were such pissants that they managed to get their asses thrown out of Holland - even then the most liberal state in Europe - for their religious bigotry. If my ancestors had bumped into North America 100 miles north of where they did, in the lands ruled by the Good Pilgrim Fathers, the medieval scum would have imprisoned them for being "heretics" (they were Quakers), then run hot pokers through the tongues of the men to prevent them ever speaking their "heresy" again, and treated the women as witches. The Pilgrims were the first ignorant bigoted backward Fundamentalist scum to come along and set the precedent for what we have today.
I may make a meal tomorrow for my bedridden wife and give thanks she's OK, but it will have nothing to do with this Bullshit Holiday that turns genocide into niceness.
"This year some Wampanoags will go to Plymouth for the National Day of Mourning. Others will gather at the old Indian Meeting House, built in 1684 and one of the oldest American Indian churches in the eastern United States, to pay their respects to their ancestors, many of whom are buried in the surrounding cemetery. Plenty of Wampanoags will gather with their families for a meal to give thanks — not for the survival of the Pilgrims but for the survival of their tribe.
“History has not been kind to our people,” Steven Peters said he tells his young sons.
“Children were taken away. Our language was silenced,” he said. “People were killed.” Still, “we persevered. We found a way to stay.”
https://wapo.st/3CKC5eo
Thank you Daria - and Ellie ... this from YES Magazine:
Don’t Trash Thanksgiving. Decolonize It
https://www.yesmagazine.org/opinion/2018/11/21/dont-trash-thanksgiving-decolonize-it
2021 NATIONAL DAY OF MOURNING LIVESTREAM
Watch the 2021 National Day of Mourning Livestream on Youtube
http://www.uaine.org/
Decolonizing Thanksgiving: A Toolkit for Combatting Racism in Schools
https://medium.com/age-of-awareness/decolonizing-thanksgiving-a-toolkit-for-combatting-racism-in-schools-5d4e3023a2f8
Thank you, Kathleen. We are on the same wavelength.
😁✋👋🤚👋🖐👋🖖👋🖖👋🖐👋🤚👋✋😁
Message to National Day of Mourning 2020 from Leonard Peltier
Greetings my relatives, friends, loved ones, and supporters.
First of all, I want to thank you for the privilege of being allowed to express my feelings about this “Day of Mourning” as we call it, and “Day of Thanksgiving” as the rest of the US calls it. Sometimes I’m at a loss for words to express all the thoughts I have going on in my head after 45 years of imprisonment.
I do want to express my appreciation for our ancestors before us, who fought so hard that we would live today. I want to express my feelings of remembrance for the ones who were overpowered by the weapons of war coming from Europe and the pandemics they faced. Though we have been attacked by the invaders from Europe, over and over in every way possible, and everything that has been done to destroy us, our culture, and traditions, we still survived until today because we are an expression of the Creator’s Will and an expression of the Creator’s Truth. We are a manifestation of that truth, that all mankind should live within the boundaries of those laws.
There is nothing that came from Europe that has made this portion of the Earth a better place to live, but like all nature, we have survived, and nature continues to survive, though mankind is on the edge of destroying itself. The truths that our people spoke of, the need to live in harmony with each other, the Creator, the Mother Earth, and respect one another’s’ approach to spirituality, when expressed by non-Indians becomes a sensation around the world. We must continue to speak our truth, to live our truth, and to support one another, for there lies our survival. The most powerful weapons that we can obtain is knowledge of truth and love for one another, and the practice of that truth and love.
We must unite and work together every chance we can and embrace all others who are of like-mind and willing to work to correct this worldwide pandemic of greed and selfishness that has infected the whole earth and mankind.
On this Day of Mourning, let us again remember our relatives before us, who fought every challenge imaginable that we might survive, and in our prayers say “Thanks for not giving up. Thanks for giving your lives that we might live.” And to all of you out there, I want to say thanks for not giving up on me and my quest for freedom. May the Creator bless you in every way. You brother always, in all ways.
In the Spirit of Crazy Horse and Resistance,
Mitakuye Oyasin,
Doksha,
Leonard Peltier
http://www.uaine.org/2020_ndom/Leonard%20Peltier%20statement%20to%202020%20National%20Day%20of%20Mourning.docx
Healing From Colonization on Thanksgiving and Beyond
https://www.yesmagazine.org/opinion/2019/11/27/thanksgiving-colonial-gap-heal
Edgar Villanueva and Hilary Giovale share an ancestral bond that is far from unique, but one that is rarely acknowledged. Edgar is a member of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina. For generations, his family has lived in the same region where Hilary’s ancestor received a land grant after his family migrated from Scotland in 1739. Now 280 years later, Edgar and Hilary reach across the Thanksgiving table to bridge the painful colonial gap.
Here you go:
https://twitter.com/MSNBC/status/1462175533685428227?s=20
Indigenous and enslaved peoples have righteous rage, and we also have cause to take inspiration from a historical moment of humanity, as HCR observes, to reflect on our gratitudes and share them with family, however we configure them.
Wishing a peaceful day for you and your wife, TC.
And wishing a peaceful day to all kindred spirits on this forum. 🍁
And to you.🌷
Thanks for the link, Ellie.
TC, your post intersects my life in many ways. I am from NH, and so have understood for a long time that Sarah Josepha Hale was not the civic paragon she was made out to be (my uncle wrote a ribald parody of "Mary Had a Little Lamb" that is quite funny). I also number among my friends several members of the Wampanoag Nation. Thanksgiving for them is mostly a time for quiet reflection, but also a time to remember the joys of being Wampanoag. I am also from a long line of "ignorant fundamentalist scum" and a somewhat shorter line of Friends (Quakers). The story of how the uber repressive Puritans became Congregationalists, one of the most liberal religious bodies in America, is fascinating, but wicked long. The First Congo church in my hometown got its first female minister in the early1970s. As a Friend, I can only ask what gratitude (thanksgiving) means to you. Is it a time to remember the joys of who you are (your blessings), the hypocrisy and shortcomings of our ancestors and contemporaries, or (much more difficult, but much more rewarding) both?
Doing all the things privately that people do this day is Very Good, and I join that. But if we are ever going to be the country we claim we are, that we want to be, we have got to start by confronting the truth about what has been done. I really do believe that You Shall Know The Truth, And It Shall Set You Free.
You're very right about the history of the Congregationalists. It started when the Fundies expelled people like Roger Williams.
"Roger Williams and his followers settled on Narragansett Bay, where they purchased land from the Narragansett Indians and established a new colony governed by the principles of religious liberty and separation of church and state. Rhode Island became a haven for Baptists, Quakers, Jews and other religious minorities."
Thank you TC ... I was beginning to feel I should just hold my tongue, not to ruin the rosy tinted, warm and cozy sentiment wrapping itself around this page ... 'changing the story' is one of today's therapeutic techniques to clear the hystoric grounds - to plant seeds of more palatable perspectives ... a very thin line between that and deepening the furrows of well established illusions ....
"The Pilgrims and the Wampanoags did indeed share a harvest celebration together at Plymouth in fall 1621, but that moment got forgotten almost immediately, overwritten by the long history of the settlers’ attacks on their Indigenous neighbors." (HCR)
"By the fall, the Pilgrims — thanks in large part to the Wampanoags teaching them how to plant beans and squash in a mound with maize around it and use fish remains as fertilizer — had their first harvest of crops. To celebrate its first success as a colony, the Pilgrims had a “harvest feast” that became the basis for what’s now called Thanksgiving.
*** The Wampanoags weren’t invited. ***
Ousamequin and his men showed up only after the English in their revelry shot off some of their muskets. At the sound of gunfire, the Wampanoags came running, fearing they were headed to war.
“One hundred warriors show up armed to the teeth after they heard muskets fired,” said Paula Peters.
Told it was a harvest celebration, the Wampanoags joined, bringing five deer to share, she said. There was fowl, fish, eel, shellfish and possibly cranberries from the area’s natural bogs."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2021/11/04/thanksgiving-anniversary-wampanoag-indians-pilgrims/
Our tendency to use people and then throw them away goes way back. If we had half a brain, we would welcome any comers (immigrants, refugees, etc) and give them the freedom we claim to have and let them help us to become our better angels. God knows, we need help in that department. Immigrants have a better track record than the “proud boys”. Except for the Drumpfs, of course.
... mind you, I give thanks every day and night for the uncountable blessings in my life ... and yes, I do believe it matters to emphasize redeeming qualities, and weave threads of positivity into the fabric of what os possible ...
I see no benefit in icing over the gaping wounds of reality to frost the cake of desirable (and marketable) storylines.
"While families gather across the country for this year’s Thanksgiving celebration, frontline indigenous communities that have survived centuries of violence, displacement and systemic racism remain in resistance, defending land, water and their very existence."
"From 1777 through 1868, the United States signed at least 368 treaties with native nations — and violated every one. Canada’s track record is comparable. Indigenous people have never stopped demanding that these treaties, and their national sovereignty, be honored."
"Now, pipelines are being constructed to move the world’s dirtiest fossil fuel, tar sands petroleum in western Canada. Indigenous-led resistance to Enbridge’s Line 3 pipeline in northern Minnesota has been waged for years now. Anishinaabe leader Winona LaDuke has been on the frontlines there. She criticized President Joe Biden’s inaction on Line 3, and commented on the Democracy Now! news hour on Biden’s appointment of the first Native American cabinet member in history, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland:
“Joe, if you appoint Indian people, don’t just make them pretty Indian people that sit in your administration. Let them do their job. Indigenous thinking is what we need in the colonial administration ...
That’s when change happens.”
"'In British Columbia, Canada, the Wet’suwet’en sovereign nation has been resisting the multibillion-dollar Coastal GasLink pipeline being constructed by TC Energy. Just this week, Canadian federal police raided a multi-month blockade, smashing into a cabin with an axe and a chainsaw and arresting the land defenders inside. Police then burned the cabin to the ground."
"This myth of that abundant shared meal 400 years ago continues to mask misery, from poverty and substance abuse to the epidemic of missing and murdered indigenous women. But native communities are resilient and organized, and rising up in resistance. For this, we should all give thanks."
https://www.democracynow.org/2021/11/24/as_thanksgiving_turns_400_indigenous_resistance
https://soundcloud.com/democracynow/as-thanksgiving-turns-400
The assertion that "we are a nation of laws" - whether by US or Canadian voices - does not negate the fact that our nations and laws are preceded by deeply rooted cultures and nations of laws, thousands of years old.
Who has the right - or the wherewithal - to mow them over and plow them under, pretending they no longer exist - or have no precedent in today's rule of law?
Well, ok - but hey, let's give thanks anyway ... and let us continue to strive for a world of truth, justice and equity for all people ... shall we ...?
'... miles to go before we sleep ... miles to go before we sleep ....'
11/22/2021
If you’ve been with us for some time, you’ve witnessed our struggle at Standing Rock to stop the Dakota Access pipeline and the Anishinaabe resistance to the Line 3 pipeline. You’ve been a friend to us, and you’ve come to know many Indigenous water and land protectors fighting for our sacred lands and waterways. What you may not know is that, for years, our Wet’suwet’en relatives have undertaken a similar struggle in their own territory, to our north in what we now call Canada. They need our attention and support, too.
https://www.yintahaccess.com
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJ-KKtVSVc8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YwE7WO8VqY
On Friday, Royal Canadian Mounted Police raided an Indigenous-led blockade with dogs and assault rifles.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aljg-k4vLJo
They arrested two journalists and at least 13 others at the frontlines, the latest in a series of arrests dating back to 2019. The Wet’suwet’en are doing all they can to stop construction of TransCanada’s 670km Coastal GasLink pipeline, because a third of this pipeline would cross their homelands on its way to a facility in coastal Kitimat.
Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs have refused to give consent for the project, and, crucially, they have never signed a formal treaty with the provincial government or relinquished their land. Much like our #NoDAPL fight, this is both an environmental and a sovereignty issue; the Wet’suwet’en are also attempting to protect sensitive headwaters.
In September, they put out a call for support, and this newsletter is an amplification of that call. I ask that, for now, you please visit their page to get more up to speed.
https://www.yintahaccess.com
As we go forward, the Lakota People’s Law Project will keep our eyes on things, and — just as so many did for us at Standing Rock — we’ll stand with our First Nations relatives in the best way we can.
Wopila tanka — thank you for supporting our struggle against Big Extraction!
Chase Iron Eyes
Co-Director and Lead Counsel
The Lakota People’s Law Project
https://lakotalaw.org/
Here are some we can celebrate with gratitude:
We are thrilled to announce the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has restored its 2008 Clean Water Act veto of the Yazoo Pumps, effectively halting the destructive agricultural drainage project.
https://www.audubon.org/news/epa-restores-clean-water-act-protections-important-wetlands-along-mississippi
Once again tens of thousands of acres of Mississippi Flyway wetlands are protected—some of our nation’s richest habitats that support over 450 species of birds, fish, and wildlife, and are used by more than 28 million migrating birds each year.
Last year, more than 90,000 river stewards, community leaders, and birders took action to oppose the previous administration’s unprecedented revival of the harmful Pumps and ensure EPA would uphold science and the law.
Through your efforts, EPA has restored its veto in full force and reaffirmed its support for advancing effective, enduring flood solutions for vulnerable local communities
_______
President Joe Biden Issues Five New Initiatives at the White House Tribal Nations Summit
https://news.yahoo.com/president-joe-biden-issues-five-194332413.html
_______
11/15/21
Executive Order on Improving Public Safety and Criminal Justice for Native Americans and Addressing the Crisis of Missing or Murdered Indigenous People
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/11/15/executive-order-on-improving-public-safety-and-criminal-justice-for-native-americans-and-addressing-the-crisis-of-missing-or-murdered-indigenous-people/-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olQrCfkvbGw
TC, best wishes to you & your wife. Have a peaceful day. 🌷
That's the plan. That and spending the morning chasing #$#@!! typos in the new manuscript. :-)
Thank you, I had never heard of her. It appears that propaganda machines have long been with us, doing their best to negate the hard work of the world’s builders and the strivers who try to make this country live up to it’s promise. Medieval scum is an apt descriptor for the Pilgrims I think. They make our evangelicals look sane. Ha! As if that were possible.
Wishing everyone a truly calm and peaceful Thanksgiving. Am especially grateful these past few years for you Heather. You have brought sanity to my days. Hope to my heart. Courage to face the future. You are so loved.