HAPPY THANKSGIVING

I am going to copy an article that was in IRISH AMERICA MAGAZINE Dec/Jan 2006 issue and written by John Cusack. I found it very interesting. (Many people do not realize that the Irish were treated very poorly when they first came in droves to this country to escape the starvation in their homeland. )
In 1621, the Pilgrims, just arrived in the New World, had no idea how wild their new frontier could be. Winter arrived and with it came starvation, death, and the idea that maybe it was time to give up and go back to Europe where the strict confines of politics were easier to deal with than the utter randomness of Mother Nature.
The real story of what happened next is all but lost.
On February 20 of that same year, a ship called The Lyon arrived and delivered much needed provisions which helped sustain the humble colony. The ship was sent over by a Dublin merchant whose daughter was married to one of the Pilgrims.
Grateful for their salvation, the Pilgrims dubbed the following day, February 21, a Day of Thanksgiving.
Over 200 years later, President Lincoln decreed the day a national holiday and moved it to the 4th Thursday of Nov. The pilgrims' amiable relationship with the Native Americans became the focus of the holiday, and the true origin of the 1st Thanksgiving remained misconstrued for 75 yrs.
The Boston Post, the largest paper in New England at the time took up the story in "The Observant Citizen," a section of the paper which discussed a wide range of topics. An unsigned article appeared appeared in this section which mentioned The Lyon as the ship responsible for the first Thanksgiving, by the writer claimed that the ship had come from England or Holland.
Irish organizations in Boston were outraged and cited anti-Irish bias as the reason for the paper's failure to mention Dublin as the true port of origin.
The writer of the article later acknowledged that he had made a mistake and promised to make a correction in the paper the following Thanksgiving. The correction was never made. Time quelled the public outcry, and the true origin of the first Thanksgiving is all but forgotten.

I have much to be grateful for today. The fact that I survived cancer, my heart surgery, my son survived leukemia. I am grateful for my home that is modest but filled with love and hospitality. I am grateful for a person who shares my life and fills it with love and caring. I am grateful for the friends that I have. I am happy for the many friends I have met thru the internet in both chat rooms and journals. You have all added to my life in ways you might never realize. I am grateful for my friend Laura who has been an endless supply of caring and kindness. I wish all of you a very Happy Thanksgiving and I hope you will all pause for a moment and think of the many blessings that you have as well. Peace to all, especially today.