This week is Thanksgiving week. It is one of those holidays that has lost a lot of meaning because of the woke mentality that is today. I will ask is that a bad thing? A lot of people well say “yes”. I am not one of them. Knowing the truth does not change that thought that is of Thanksgiving. The Pilgrims were very lucky to have the Native American there to assist them. The first Winter was a disaster in America for the Pilgrims. Half the settlers died from malnutrition and inadequate housing. It was the Native Americans that taught the Pilgrims to plant corn, how to hunt, and where to fish. Let’s face it without the Native Americans the Pilgrims may not have survived. The first Thanksgiving was the Pilgrims sharing a harvest feast with the Native Americans as a way of thanking them. So let’s see here. The tradition of Thanksgiving is celebrating the help that the Native Americans living in New England gave to immigrants. That harmonious relationship did not last long though. War broke out between the one time friends and the Native Americans of New England are mostly a memory. Funny how that worked out. I wonder what would have happened if those “uncivilized heathens”, as they were called, would have just walked away and let the Pilgrims fail.

Now someone would read what I write and label me woke as a way of insulting me. I would thank them because the search for the truth is very important to me. The search for the truth doesn’t diminish my Thanksgiving Dinner with friends and family. I don’t reflect on the Native Americans and the Pilgrims. I reflect on the things that I am thankful for today. Knowing the real history really doesn’t change the present that much to me. I would rather know the real history than live the lie in ignorance. I want to know our actual history and not the fairy tale that too many love to accept as the truth. Hollywood movies are entertainment and many times not the truth. Gone With The Wind is a great example. It shows the Southern Plantation Owners as very noble group with high principles where, what they really were, are slave owners that treated people as property instead of the living beings that they were. I am not saying that I am not entertained by movies like that but I never think of them as actually showing real history. To know real history you have to research and read.

This Thanksgiving I will concentrate all of the things that I am thankful for. I will also think about the things that I am not thankful for. Here are a few that I am not thankful for. I am not thankful for the evangelical church that has turned its back on the teaching of Jesus and spread their Ideology of hate. I am not thankful for the hate and bigotry that the Republicans bring to the table. I am not thankful for the Supreme Courts twisting the 2nd amendment into something that kills children. I am not thankful that children have to practice active shooter drills. I am not thankful to any group or organization that takes women’s and minorities freedom away from them. I am not thankful for the idiots like Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert that spread more hate than love. I am not thankful for Donald Trump and the damage that he was done to us at home and abroad. I am not thankful to for a Republican majority House that will obstruct and tear down instead of build. I am not thankful for the hate that has been brought into our world just because someone is different. I am not thankful for those people that put profit before people’s lives.

I am thankful for many things. The first thing that I am thankful for is for the all the people that stepped up to the plate to help their fellow man. Living in the Fort Myers area of Florida I witnessed firsthand the love and charity that I there is in the world. I am thankful for a Federal Government that rushed in to help all of us even though our own Representatives voted against the aid. I am thankful for the ones that came before us that actually put the plans in place on how to deal with these emergencies. I am thankful for all of the immigrants that are working very hard to put South West Florida back together again. I am thankful to all of the people that inquired if my wife and I are ok. I am thankful for my friends that I sat through the Hurricane with. I am thankful for my wife that without her I really wouldn’t be here. I am thankful that I have two wonderful sons and have four wonderful grandchildren that give me faith in the future. And I am thankful for Zoe my Springer Spaniel that is my companion.

I am also thankful that there is a day called Thanksgiving that I can sit down with good friends, share a meal and watch some Football.