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the reason the Pilgrim story is more important than, say, Jamestown is because the Pilgrims fled not to get rich but for religious freedom.
a lot of immigrants fled tyranny in Europe: not just those fleeing war, religious or ethnic persecution, but people seeking the ability to have a better life for their children...
a dirty little secret that a lot of Americans don't realize is that in many countries, it is nearly impossible for the lower classes to better themselves because the elite have a lock hold on the economy.
So one alternative is to move to America and be free to work, You start out as caregivers or taxi drivers or construction workers or join the military, but the important thing is that these jobs will give you a living wage to support your family, and your kids can go to college.
For example, are you aware that Immigrants own 18 percent of small businesses for example and 30 percent of new small business start ups are by immigrants?. (hence the joke Biden made about not being able to enter a 711 if you don't have an Indian accent: Although many of these are actually Pakistani and in some areas many are Koreans or other immigrants).
As Biden opens the door, millions more will get the opportunity to do this in the same way my relatives are now happy American citizens in Chicago, and in the same way that my daughter in law is a proud American thanks to Reagan's amnesty of immigrants who lacked proper papers.
The idea of Thanksgiving is thanks to God for his blessing: not just being free to worship as you wish, and being equal to every other man. Which is why immigrants are more patriotic than elite students who have had years of distorted history education by anti American teachers: because immigrants know the other side of the story, that America has faults but next to other countries it is a haven of peace.
I've read several snotty editorials ridiculing the song "God Bless America" because they figured America didn't need to be blessed. What they are missing is that the phrase "God Bless" in English is a way to thank someone for a gift. Which is why it was a Jewish immigrant who wrote "God Bless America" to thank America for his freedom: because his family fled the pogroms of Russia and his family was safe when the Nazis started killing his relatives who didn't leave.
One of the things about K Dramas that make me aghast is how the lower classes take abuse from the elites...when we watch them, I often tell my daughter in law that I wouldn't put up with it from an employer or from my mother in law, but my daughter in law here is Filipino and she sighs and tries to explain it to me, because her culture is also Confucian and emphsizes obedience to one's elders or bosses...
In contrast, Americans figure they are all equal and won't take S*** from anyone.
and the rich business types who think these immigrants will supply cheap, obedient labor need to remember it only takes one generation until the immigrant or their kids will start talking back to them, just like other Americans.
Finally, despite all the propaganda, Thanksgiving stresses cooperation between neighbors of all ethnicities.
No, the Pilgrims did not commit genocide: The local Indians had been decimated by Smallpox and other diseases brought to them from trading with European fishermen and traders at a time when the germ theory and understanding of how infection spread did not exist.
There is a complicated story behind why the local tribe wanted to help the settlers, but part of it was to assure peace and trading benefits from the newcomers (the peace lasted for 50 years) and for help against neighboring tribes who were their enemies (think guns). Smithsonian article relates the back story. LINK.
Facing East from Indian Country relates the nuanced history Summary here. Scribd audiobook version. or borrow from internet archives.
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and in a lighter note:
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