Gasoline Alley by Jim Scancarelli for November 22, 2009

This perpetuates several myths and outright lies. First of all, the Separatists did not come to America for religious freedom. They already had that in the Netherlands. They left because their children were learning the ways of the Dutch, and a lot of other radical ideas were also tolerated there were also considered threatening because they were afraid their children would drop their religion altogether. They wanted their religion to be the official one. If they had been concerned with oppression, they certainly would not have gone to a land under English jurisdiction.

They also landed at Provincetown Harbor, NOT Plymouth Rock. Finally, this was not considered a thanksgiving. It was a harvest festival. A thanksgiving consisted of a lot more praying than eating, and non-believers would not have been invited.

(yawn) The same old tired garbage. What else do you do for fun, Ed? Do you snatch the candy bags out of the hands of trick-or-treaters howling about pagan harvest rituals? Get into the face of children and tell them that Santa’s just some German fairy tale? Maybe you march during your town’s 4th of July celebrations with a placard saying “We really declared independence on the SECOND!”

For my part, I think that a feast of thanksgiving, with tales of religious freedom, adversity in danger and cooperation with other peoples is a great idea and sends messages we want to send. Or are these values you don’t want our kids to have?

Edcole 1961 forgot the main reason for the landing. The pilgrims were running out of beer and had to get on land to brew more.

Beautiful artwork today… especially the seascapes.

Ditto @ravenswing

I thought I had clicked on a wiki page instead of comics for a sec

I hope Skeezix doesn’t fire Gertie…

Thanksgiving came much later. Lincoln invented Thanksgiving, when we had reason to be thankful. But the old Pilgrims story is sweet, if a myth. It takes me back to when I was a small boy in school. Too bad it’s not history. Hug a Native American today and tell them you’re sorry.

About as often as I walk up to black people at random and hug them, apologizing because idiots 300 years ago bought black slaves from black slave-SELLERS (part of that business the revisionists carefully avoid).

How about we get over the victim mentality and - take a deep breath here - MOVE ON and STOP OBSESSING about ills of the far past which we didn’t commit, our parents didn’t commit, our grandparents didn’t commit and THEIR parents didn’t commit?

That’s the classic story they told us in grade school anyway. I do wonder how the “debunked” version would look with Jim’s verse and art… that could be cool too.

By the way, is there something in human nature that predisposes us to accept a debunking as fact, as readily as we accepted the original version? Shouldn’t we be even more skeptical of the new “facts” once the original “facts” have been called into question, once bitten, twice shy?

That’s what they’re still telling kids in grade school.

When I taught English-as-a-Second-Language classes to immigrants, I would promote Thanksgiving as a good holiday for them– people who came to a new land for a fresh start and opportunity.

Todays comic is wonderful. Jim’s done an excellant job of showing a traditional Thanksgiving and still being correct historically. And it is visually a work of art. The waves in particular.

I wish each of you a Happy Thanksgiving. I have much to be thankful for this year. I know how blessed I am to be doing well in a time when many others are not. Let’s hope next year will be a better time for our nation and our world.

Whatever your take on Thanksgiving (and the true story of Christopher Columbus - another mythic figure, would curdle your cranberry sauce) it is good to see that folks are looking at these events with a healthy, skeptical eye.

Yes, they happened many years ago, but to continue their retelling without the truth being revealed, only gives fodder to folks who are sure that their way was/is the only true way of things.

Thanksgiving is a great holiday of appreciattion and rememberance, but many people other than white colonists, made great sacrifices (or were made sacrifices of) along the way.

Yes, lets give thanks for what we have, and remember that there are those in this country who continue to want to take what we do have from us, leaving people living in tents like indians …

and then they slaughtered them and stole their land and named a pro football team after them

Speaking of Thanksgiving, I’ll give mega thanks to Jim Scancarelli if he cuts the current story off right now and starts something completely different tomorrow. And it would be swell if the gert could somehow manage to have never existed.

Well Mike48, I hope you have a happy whatever it is day that you celebrate.

Sorry some ancient white folks in the past messed up whatever ancestors there are that responsible for you. I sure hope whatever white folks that have personally persecuted you get what they deserve. They’ve turned you into one angry guy. None of that could be your fault, I’m sure.

If you can do it without cussing at me I’d love for you to recommend a proper history book, with the history that you approve of. I do my best to teach my students history as it really happened and if there’s something out there better than what I have I’d welcome it.

WOW!!!! What comments. Oh Well….. That’s America!!!

Hey Dypak, Happy Thanksgiving! I bet you have some time off, so enjoy!

I have a learned friend who recommended a book to me awhile back called ”Guns, Germs, and Steel.” I listened to it on CD during my commute a few years ago. I don’t think it was so much about assessing blame or guilt as it was about explaining how the Europeans had some key advantages over other groups as they marched through history. Probably less eloquent than some of the posters today, but perhaps more reasoned in approach!

By the way, Deborah Reyes always knows her stuff, regardless of the subject raised.

Good grief! All this because Jim Scancarelli elected to portray a positive holiday in a positive light.

Don’t let any naysayers detract you, Jim. Keep up the great work!

Hey Axe! Yeah, it’s a two day week. To be honest I don’t like long weekends. The kids will be a mess next Monday! It always takes a day or two for them to get back into the groove.

I’ll see if I can track down your book. You recall the author? It sounds like a unique take on the issue.

I liked Deb’s post. The only part I slightly disagreed with was on the forgotten farmers. I live in a rural area, the farmers are pretty happy doing what they do. For the most part they love their work. Modern agriculture makes a big differance from the days when farmers had to struggle to get a crop to grow.

Technically speaking, my sister and I are partners in a farm - so I know for a fact that crop yields are down nationwide for most crops. There ARE a few exceptions - such as soybeans. Most members of my family were still using horses for the majority of their farm chores when World War II broke out in the 40s. In the area where we lived, electricity did not come in until about 1947 and telephones were introduced about 1952. Television didn’t arrive in our area until 1958. While a lot of farm equipment HAS made the job of farming easier than it was in the past, there are really NO machines which can handle problems created by such events as prolonged drought, catastrophic floods, tornadoes and other weather events. Also, there are fewer and fewer younger people who are interested in getting involved in farming - so the lion’s share of farm work being done these days is being done by senior citizens. Farming is not really something you can learn at school - and the number of people interested in learning how to farm by doing it is dwindling every year. Plus, of course, a lot of farm land has been turned into housing developments, shopping malls and superhighways. Although the price of bread keeps going up – the average farmer who raises the wheat which goes into the bread still receives about the same amount for a bushel of wheat as he received in the late 60s and early 70s. The same scenario is true for nearly every other crop being grown today. Another strange event occurring in rural America is the interest which foreign investors have shown in American crop land. A few years ago, it was discovered that, when a farmer in Colorado went broke and had to sell his farm to the highest bidder - the highest bidder for the farmland was often an investor from Japan (or some other foreign country), and the crops being raised on those farms were being shipped directly to Japan (or whatever country the investor lived in) and NEVER entered any American markets. There HAS been an effort to limit the amount of American farmland which foreign investors can own - but it has all been slow going in most states.

As the Continental Congress observed in 1777 - It is time to remember: “the Labor of the Husbandman, that our Land may yield its Increase:”

Axe is right again .

Neh 8:10 Then he said to them, “Go, eat the fat, drink the sweet, and send portions to those for whom none is prepared. For this day is set-apart to our יהוה. Do not be sad, for the joy of יהוה is your strength.”

Jubilant Thanksgiving to all and thanks , Deborah Reyes .

Yes, some of the details of the story of the Plymouth settlement and the “First Thanksgiving” there have been embellished and romanticized. BUT the naysayers are also guilty of embellishing and overemphasizing the differences between the historical record and the “received version” of the story. I would point out, as well, that the distinction between a harvest festival and a thanksgiving celebration is a totally artificial one. The purpose of a harvest festival is to rejoice in the harvest and (if you believe in any kind of deity) to give thanks for that harvest.

Happy Thanksgiving, one and all - from Lois and Family

Great idea. Thanks for sharing, Lois.