Pardoning of the Turkey at the White House-A White House Preview-
OK, So here is my take on the whole mainland "Thanksgiving Holiday". Why can't you people just drop the whole Pilgrim/Indian thing and have a national day of thanks without stirring up that whole "We came, we saw, we conquered" business? I mean it's like having a "Confederate Slavers Day" or something. Now that we all know what really went down after this whole romantisised "We all sat down to dinner, after Squanto taught us how to plant corn" thing, after which you massacred my relatives, and eventually sold me off after the 60's sweep to a nice white Catholic couple, the whole idea of the "Mainland" style hypocritical "Thanksgiving Day", with its cherubic and innocent looking little Pilgrim and Indian boy and girl cutouts and cute turkeys means absolutely nothing to me.
In fact, it sparks a lot of anger across Indian Country I am sure, to be reminded each year of how, after you gave these illegal aliens, (Who are now standing at the border as Patriots telling the South Americans to get off their continent and go home ) food, shelter and clothing, and taught them how to feed themselves they went off and sucker punched you, took all the land, killed all your people and herded you into reservations and pretty much forgot about you. Yep, I bet that makes Native Americans real thankful.
Now lets look at the way Hawaii does it, local style. We actually have got this whole "Thanksgiving" thing down. After all, most people here aren't Native American, although there are some here but not enough to make a real dent in things. In Hawaii, Thanksgiving Day truly is a day to give thanks for what you have, with aloha, and invite people over, and sit in the garage, and eat a mixture of local food and mainland food, and really and truly be thankful for what we have without the whole Pilgrim/Indian thing over our heads at the dinner table.
Of course we don't need the Pilgrims, we have mainlanders, and the struggle of Kanaka Maoli to be even recognized as a people, after being illegally overthrown. No, we can't celebrate that coming to the table and hanging out as friends yet. The Hawaiians, have given and given, and no one even made a table to share a meal with them yet. So our version of the whole Pilgrim thing can't actually be celebrated yet.
So instead, we sort of keep Thanksgiving Day, as a real "Thanksgiving Day". We celebrate with everyone together just for the sheer joy of having a holiday and eating a lot, kanikapila, and for the guys usually watching some football. Yep, in Hawaii, we do it up royal. We got the right idea. We don't think about that whole mess going on on the mainland, mainly because we are in the middle of our own mess.
So let's be thankful for what we have got, and not what we don't. Lets eat until we are tired. Let's all get together as one big happy ohana.
Because come Monday, we will resume where we all left off.
Aloha. and HAPPY THANKSGIVING!
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