This November I have more to be thankful for than I ever have in life. I have my beautiful soul mate Betty L. Nitch, a wonderful family, especially my dearest parents Geoff and Mary AnnTorrence, and my sisters Holly Reed and Linda RYan, my niece and nephew Mary Beth and Harrison Reed, my Aunt and Uncle Phyllis and Robert Buffington, my dear cousins Avery Buffington, Manya Buffington Newell, Paula J. Singletary, Melissa Zoller Symes and all in the Zoller clan. I also have a new new family in San Antonio including Mom and Dad Marvin and Estelle Clauss, Aunt Cookie, sisters Bonnie Clauss, Nancy Clauss, Susie Clauss, Karen Clauss, and Cynthia Clauss, my beautiful nieces Parker and Cameron Fernandez, Melanie and Jill Martinez, my best friends Kerry and Keith Leuty, Daren Mork, Mychael Vincent Ritterhoff and Shawn Michael Rogers, new thruth seeking buddy Emil Gottfried and fellow lovelord John Mark Bramlett, my brother and wedding minister Jason McMaster, my dear partner in musical crime Rick A Shay, plus too many incredible friends to list. Also I am so thankful for our beautiful apartment in Kyle, my new hip (even though my left hip is going out), our wonderful dog and cat, my great recording programs, instruments and of course my Tom Scholz Rockmans to finally make the music I have been hearing in my head my whole life. I am blessed beyond my wildest dreams! However I have always been haunted by the fact that reality and history are not exactly what I was brought up to believe. My 50 years of life have been tormented by the fact that I am so blessed but so many others have endured terrible suffering. Therefore I want to share another version of Thanksgiving with you that seems to be the REAL version rather than the fairy tale cartoon stories we all grew up with. Below is an exert from the article you can read in full here - manataka.org/page269.html Today the town of Plymouth Rock has a Thanksgiving ceremony each year in remembrance of the first Thanksgiving. There are still Wampanoag people living in Massachusetts. In 1970, they asked one of them to speak at the ceremony to mark the 350th anniversary of the Pilgrims arrival. Here is part of what was said: Today is a time of celebrating for you -- a time of looking back to the first days of white people in America. But it is not a time of celebrating for me. It is with a heavy heart that I look back upon what happened to my People. When the Pilgrims arrived, we, the Wampanoags, welcomed them with open arms, little knowing that it was the beginning of the end. That before 50 years were to pass, the Wampanoag would no longer be a tribe. That we and other Indians living near the settlers would be killed by their guns or dead from diseases that we caught from them. Let us always remember, the Indian is and was just as human as the white people. Although our way of life is almost gone, we, the Wampanoags, still walk the lands of Massachusetts. What has happened cannot be changed. But today we work toward a better America, a more Indian America where people and nature once again are important.
Posted on: Thu, 14 Nov 2013 04:30:58 +0000
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