This year marks the 61st anniversary of the National Thanksgiving Turkey presentation. Though live Thanksgiving turkeys have been presented intermittently to presidents since the Lincoln administration, the current ceremony dates to 1947, when the first National Thanksgiving Turkey was presented to President Harry Truman.
So while they say not to talk about religion or politics around the Thanksgiving Day table, here is the Political Warrior cornucopia of political/historical/religious/culture info to impress
your guest this Turkey Day.Starting with the 'Chief Turkey' follow this link to the White House website, where you can find film of President George W. Bush pardon "Pumpkin & Pecan" the two birds that were saved by the president's signature Wednesday.
www.whitehouse.gov/holiday/thanksgiving/2008/
Next this short film from the History Channel has much on our Poltical Culture as linked with Thanksgiving -- watch for how FDR wanted to move up Thanksgiving to spur on the economy and the Christmas shopping season. "Franksgiving?"
Did you know that the author of "Mary Had a Little Lamb" was behind the US making Thanksgiving a national holiday, that Lincoln was the president who initiated this, that there is no proof that turkey was actually eaten on the first Thanksgiving. So many nice tidbits in this video and more of the story here.
And finally, from CBS 2 School the two have their take on the POLs that best play the role of the staples of today's truly American holiday table.
VIDEO: Politics And Thanksgiving
Have a great Thanksgiving. I am thankful for you reading and blogging!
2 comments:
I don't have a problem with the ideals behind Thanksgiving in reality or in fantasyland, but the crap stories we as a country have somehow decided to feed children borders on brainwashing. Who deemed it necessary to tell every single child growing up in the country that Thanksgiving was about eating dinner with Native Americans and eating turkey, when its actual meaning is so much more profound? We have kids coloring in paper turkeys that mean absolutely nothing; there's no need to fabricate bogus stories and feed them to the nation's most gullible demographic just in order to make a holiday seem interesting..
Unfortunately many people in this country need things to be interesting for them to celebrate it. So we create a grand story about eating with half naked people that we secretly wanted to slaughter, we made it the start to a holiday, most importantly we made it a food and drinking holiday. Yes the idea of giving thanks is more profound, but we mix them with fairy tales, gift cards, and football, pour it on the rocks and you have the greatest american holiday ever.
My point is: Who cares what the story is as long as people get together with their families and have a good time and forget about life for a while. Heck, if they made it into alien appreciation day, but had the same traditions, i'd still enjoy it. The ends justified the means in this case. It could be worse, we could be celebrating a holiday for a president-elect.
Post a Comment