No Thanks, No Giving.

What a great idea they had. The Pilgrims trekked off into the unknown in the hope of putting down their religious roots in a place where they were free to worship as they were compelled. They marked the success of this great adventure by celebrating a “Thanksgiving”, a day to reflect on their gratitude to their creator.

Today the great minds of the Religious Right tells us that Thanksgiving is a religious holiday and that we are all supposed to thank God for what we have. We are reminded of the words of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln that acknowledge a “Creator” in the celebration of Thanksgiving. This then is extrapolated to illustrate to us heretics that this is a “"Christian nation founded on the Bible"”.

Of course, they forget that the reason the Pilgrims came here in the first place. It so much sucked to live under a repressive religious state that they decided to roll the dice, get on a big damn boat and risk life and limb to get somewhere where they could worship as they wanted to. This holiday is mostly about being thankful for freedom, the freedom to escape oppressive state-sponsored endorsements of specific religious dogma.

The Right can't candy coat this societal turd. Thanksgiving nowadays is about turkeys and secular bullshit. For most people Thanksgiving marks the start of a season that encourages our combined evils. It is a time to do less, consume more, get fatter, stupider and deeper into a financial rut.

In my opinion we should be thankful every day. We should be giving every day. Moreover, shouldn'’t “thanks” and “giving” be directed towards those in our communities and those around us more than to some deity that may or may not really exist? By definition a "Creator" can create the stuff it needs and probably isn't too worried about what you think, say or do.

Let's get real. Thanksgiving Day commemorates our unbridled consumption of food and the Friday to follow celebrates relentless consumption of stuff. Face it, these two days are a microcosm of the American year. If you don’t believe me look at those around us—-- Americans are obese and in debt. There is no thanks and no giving, just hazardous consumption to the fault of physique and finance.

We should change the holiday name to Gluttonygetting.