On Thanksgiving Day there was a gathering of descendants of  Native American tribes on a hill overlooking the site of the Mayflower landing.  They were there not to give thanks but to mourn the Pilgrim’s arrival and the centuries of white man’s racism and mistreatment.

I believe these people are wrong.

White people did not come to America to exterminate Indians. Yes, there were a number of vicious and deadly Indian wars, but most times it was a live and let live situation.  Unfortunately, white men carried with them many diseases to which the natives had no natural resistance.  These diseases killed hundreds of times more Indians than white men’s bullets.

Europeans came to America looking for land and freedom.  The North American continent was sparsely settled by widely scattered indigenous tribes, and white settlers poured into the vacuum.  There was no way to curb this massive incursion even though many white leaders, including Washington, Jefferson and others, were sympathetic to the Indian’s plight.

Also, it is wrong to paint pre-colonization America as an idyllic paradise.  The various tribes were often decimated by internecine warfare, and life expectancy was very short.

No race has a monopoly on either goodness or badness.  Each has its saints and its sinners.  In America we have created a nation of many nationalities and races that is united by a common belief in freedom and the brotherhood of man. 

Let us be truly thankful for our country and avoid those actions that would divide us.

And may God bless America.