First off let me say that I DO NOT in any way agree with the radical views of the puritans, but were they really any more extreme than the catholic churches slaughtering thousands and thousands of people who refused to convert, burning churches they'd found because it proved they weren't the first church? Any more radical than the church of england burning people at the stake for trying to translate the Bible into English? Than the slaughter of Ana Baptist (which was what spurred THIER flight to Holland and later America)?
There were a lot of extreme religious acts ocurring at this time in history. None of them were right, but lets dont pick and choose. Some people who came to America came so they could come and be thier own little cult without the government getting in the way, but a very good number did come for true religious freedom, and the chance to make a better life for themselves and thier children out from under a society that told them what class they were, and didn't allow them to better themselves. And a good number did come to escape religious persecution.
What the puritans did was wrong, but there were people in that first group of immigrants to America who worked and sacrificed for our freedom, and I think thats what we ought to remember on thanksgiving: To be thankful for the freedom so many people worked and fought and died for.
(That being said, I don't have anything against England, or catholics, or anglicans, or anybody else. Nobody can help what thier ancestors did, all we can do is be what we want to be today.)
Another thing, while I understand that what we did to many of the indians was wrong, i don't like it when people just call it the 'white man'. This ties into one of my political soapboxes, but I'll try not to stay there too long. When you say 'the white man', you tie in every single white skinned person who's ever lived, and then you blame a lot of individuals for something they couldn't have done because they weren't alive, and probably wouldn't have done if they had been. Political decisions made by a few corrupt leaders shouldn't condemn an entire race of people, or even the soldiers who probly didn't have a whole lot of say in the matter either way.
I'm not justifying anything my ancestors did to these people, I don't think it was right, but I can't help what they did. When somebody says the 'white man' thats like accusing me for something I wouldn't do, and don't even believe in. I do agree that native americans should have some kind of repayment for what was done to them, and they should definitely have equal rights, but the fact of the matter is there is not one single person in America today who was alive during these events. I wasn't alive to kill a native american, and my uncle chuck (who was adopted) who gets a check for having enough cherokee blood wasn't alive to have to fight for his land. So why should I be accused and punished for something I didn't do, and why should he get a check and free dental for sitting on his butt and smoking pot all day???
I think that any person born in America should have equal rights, , and be allowed to work to better themselves the same as anybody else, regardless of race or religion. I think equality is about everybody beginning thier own life as a citizen with a blank slate, an oppurtunity to work as hard as you like and go as far as you want to go, without having to repay society for the sins of somebody long gone. We have to start looking at people as INDIVIDUALS. As long as we keep validating a mind set of lumping evrybody in one race into a group, then how can we find true racial equality in America? To keep race from being an issue, we have to eliminate race as a factor all together, FOR GAIN OR LOSS, and let everybody make thier own name by thier own actions that they do, not what thier grandpa did, not what thier father did, not what thier ancestors did.
And now Ive gone on and on for way too long lol Im not mad at anybody I just get on these kicks sometimes, you'll have to excuse me. I'm also not disagreeing with any comments already made, James and Acapo are exactly right, I'm just 'throwing in my two cents' so to speak.
All You Need is Love