Grumpy wrote: >I especially like the part where early settlers >and native indians feasted together in peace and harmony - where and when >did it go all wrong? While making mashed potatoes (embelllished with roasted garlic, and cream cheese instead of milk or cream), I listened to the radio and heard the Thanksgiving story from the Indians' side. Here is part of it: the Pilgrim Fathers settled in the area now called Plymouth which was a big open space, open because the people who lived there up to a year or so before had all died in an epidemic of some European disease brought in by traders. Supposedly the P. F.s said that the land was "divinely cleared" for their use. It is always difficult for me, whose ancestors have been part of this country since the late 17th century, and have fought in every war that has a name (from the "French and Indian Wars" to the current dismaying troubles in Iraq), to reconcile the bounty that has proceeded from the exploitation of the land (exploitation is not necessarily a bad word) with the horrendous treatment of the native peoples and of the Africans brought as slaves. Which is why my church and its social justice projects are so dear to me: one way of giving back..... Anne, en route to a feast