Genocidal Redux or Pilgrims go Home

As we sit back today scratching our overextended guts after our Thanksgiving Day feasts, it struck me how the Pilgrims and Israelis have much in common.

First of all the use of the term "Pilgrim" is a strange word to describe the settlers of new England.
Pilgrims denotes a holy trek to a sacred site. While evidence abounds of native peoples of America having a sense of sacredness for earth, I don't think settlers of the "New" world shared this view.
Yeah, they viewed themselves as pure in their religious beliefs, as evidenced by their need to escape the church of England, and live by their idea of purity, but their actions were quite to the contrary. Stealing from the people who already lived here, hardly seems a pure action to me.

As we are taught in grade school, Thanksgiving Day, was a day that Native and new comer shared in the spirit of friendship on the first feast. Uh, OK. While there does appear to be some historical truth to a gathering in 1620 or 1621 where Natives and settlers shared food, it makes more sense this was more of a sizing each other up, and to determine the threat level of each to the other. Of course the grade school indoctrination is left slightly devoid of the rest of the story.
If you are confused as to the outcome ask a Native American what happened next.

So lets draw some lines of comparison.
Pilgrims=Settlers=Occupiers
Natives= no room for= Palestinians
Genocide is genocide no matter what group of people are considered sub human.
Be it Indians, Jews, Africans, Palestinians, or any other of the dozens of victimized peoples.
Lies are lies.
Truth is truth.
We have always had a masters and slaves.

Iraqis want the occupiers to go home.
Palestinians want the occupiers to go home.
What is the common element in both cases?

People simply need to understand if we lose the capacity to care for the most vulnerable folks on the planet, we are all occupied by a force that makes it impossible to understand the most important expression of humanity.

If we become so entrenched in beliefs that we are paralysed in our ability to look in the mirror, objectively, we are truly living in the dark ages. If we believe that all actions, no matter how outright wrong, are justified by some distorted self righteous reason, we have set into motion the complete demise of our being. If you don't believe me ask Hitler. Ironic how Israel's excuse for eliminating Palestinians resides in the pain suffered from the holocaust!

On this day after Thanksgiving I find myself being thankful for not falling for obvious deceptions that many still cling to. Thanksgiving is a day of mourning for Native Americans. It's not too late. Thanksgiving could be a day that we recognize the lies for what they are worth. All human beings are worthy of consideration. No matter the color of their skin or the belief system they live by. Mutual respect allows room for all to make mistakes and learn from them, also by humbly admitting the error of our ways when needed. History must be revised to reflect the truth, not the manufactured control by deception.

We all get our noses rubbed in it. Every Thanksgiving Day.