I would say this is the best meal of the year..Seriously great food, great family, great fun.. Great thanks.

Sure, we have this silly notion that Thanksgiving is about Pilgrims and Natives sitting at a table enjoying a meal. That may have happened but it wasn’t until Abraham Lincoln that this whole thing even became a national holiday, and that was after a big social campaign to have him do it during the Civil War. And yes, some even think there is a much darker and more sordid history of Thanksgiving than one portrayed in history books. We do know there is a pretty rough section of history large not told to young aspiring students in school. America’s government often (and still often does) treated Native Americans with contempt.. White landowners didn’t have their land until a trail of tears forced original settlers off of it. That is the dark history of this nation. One that cannot be ignored.

But we really cannot change much of that now. can we?

At this point we can only make sure the turkey is cooked and the filling isn’t raw. I don’t mind lumpy potatoes.

History is something open for debate often..

So all debate aside, all untold history of sketchy pilgrim and Native American dinners ignored, why is it really that Americans eat like gluttons and sit for hours watching large men in stretch pants knock into each other?? Well, it’s all because of Sarah Hale. She wrote the letter than saved Thanksgiving and convinced Honest Abe to name it a day. There must have been a big brain in that large forehead, Sarah.

Without it, today would just be Thursday and most Americans would be stuck in the weekly grind .. Instead now we will gain 10 pounds, pass out in our sloth, and wake up early to be rude to each other at stores at 3am. The American way.

A snapshot in time:

President Lincoln and Gen. George McClellan at Antietam in 1862. (Library of Congress / April 12, 2011)

This image should have been attached to my thoughts on Abe Lincoln.. Somewhat fitting. 

The Lincoln history books neglect to mention

New book sheds new light on Lincoln’s racial

views

He wanted to send free blacks to Central America.. While that fact has been tossed around for generations, few took hold to it and spoke about it. And the new book by Philip Magness and Sebastian Page, they write about newly uncovered documents found in London on America’s hero president.

According to AP’s reporting on the new Lincoln book, Magness and Page’s book offers evidence that Lincoln continued to support colonization, engaging in secret diplomacy with the British to establish a colony in British Honduras, now Belize

It’s a history lesson few know.. and one most history teachers aren’t comfortable telling.

But we should face facts of American history more often. 

History is interesting, filled with complexities, and must (MUST) be viewed in the prism of then, and reflected on now with the knowledge of today.

After all, does anyone really think Dwight Eisenhower opened-armed loved African Americans enough to send forces in to help desegregate a school? No. He was just enforcing a Supreme Court decision. And in doing so, IKE accidentally became one of the most important presidents in history concern racial desegregation.

As far as honest Abe? He probably could tell a lie. He most likely was a typical politician. He probably did the 1800s version of Dick Morris type triangulation. And he was really successful.

And he, just like Ike, also accidentally did something wonderful: He spoke the Emancipation Proclamation as leverage against the South during the Civil War, held strong, and ended up freeing slaves, though Radical Republicans in the aftermath of his assassination would undue his successes through their punishments.

And yes, racial intolerance continues today.. Racial segregation continued for generations. Horrible racial crimes took place within the North and South of the United States. And even today, a few places proudly fly a confederate flag without abandonment.

So while Lincoln helped push the nation into the future, it is more than worthwhile to know the full history of the man who the 21st century feels to be a saint. He was not a saint, most likely a sinner, and a complex man who shaped history in ways he most likely never knew he would.

And since we’re talking about real history, he also declared Martial Law, suspended freedoms of press, fired lots of generals, mismanaged and micomanaged the Civil War, and had a really high pitched voice. But people said he knew how to tell a joke. Unless people were just laughing at how he sounded…. Those things don’t make history books.