We should atone for the genocide that was incited — and condoned — by the very men we idolize as our ‘heroic’ founding fathers. . . Simply put: Thanksgiving is the day when the dominant white culture (and, sadly, most of the rest of the non-white but non-indigenous population) celebrates the beginning of a genocide that was, in fact, blessed by the men we hold up as our heroic founding fathers. . . Obscuring bitter truths about historical crimes helps perpetuate the fantasy of American benevolence, which makes it easier to sell contemporary imperial adventures — such as the invasion and occupation of Iraq — as another benevolent action.
Always Question Authority
One of the beginnings of human emancipation is the ability to laugh at authority. ~ Hitchens
Always Question Authority 
Get angry eh? Get angry at Christopher Colombus, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, etc. Maybe we should also get angry about the persecution of women and non-muslims in places like Iran, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia. Perhpas we should get angry about the state of dissidents in China, Vietnam, or Cuba (non-white, Athiestic nations), as well as the murders committed in the name of communism. Lets get angry at the racisim and anti-semitism that our fore fathers had. Maybe we should get angry at the hatred spewed when people call those who disagree with them “lunitics” (as David Brooks does), or “Horrible and Depraved” as Dawkins does, or “violent, irrational, intolerant, allied to racism, tribalism, and bigotry, invested in ignorance and hostile to free inquiry, contemptuous of women and coercive toward children.” as Christopher Hitchens says (some of the same charges leveled against the Jews to warrent their destruction during the socialist NAZI regime).
Or perhaps we should be angry at Leonard Darwin and all his cohorts for the dispicable actions of the eugenics movement, and entirely racist and genocidal campaign carried out in the name of science. This might also include Margeret Sanger, or those who support this kind of “science”.
I agree that bitter truths about history should not be obscured. So why support someone like Dawkins who does it so often!
Perhaps, condemnation and anger is not what is needed, perhaps forgiveness, for a world of white, black, christian, muslim, athiest, folks who are all in desperate need of forgiveness for the stupid things they have done.
No, Ill be thankfull, becuase I know where that forgiveness comes form, and I have been freed by the ability to forgive and be forgiven.
I got to much going to be angry all the time!
I thought this article was well-written and well worth posting each Thanksgiving. The comments attached to the article, however, do it little justice. I would like to think most who read it achieve a more rational balance. Since, indeed, history is quite full of barbarism on the part of nearly all societies, is it not reasonable that we should both better acknowledge the atrocities in our past and learn how to celebrate our present and future? I abhor the history behind Thanksgiving, but I see nothing so terrible about celebrating the love of friends and family around the dinner table and over a good meal.
Commentators seem to fall only on two major sides: one which believes the article is written by socialist progressives who deserve to starve and die and one which believes history white-washing conservatives ought to starve and to die. The common theme here holds within it the same problem thinking that underlies the history of Thanksgiving: “Fuck the other guy.” As long as humanity remains convinced the perfect society will come from ridding ourselves of this type, that type, or the other type, we will continue to suffer under our own cruelties.