Of which I am aware of, thank you. But ‘recognizing the fact’ and misconstruing the holiday are two separate things, however. I am very aware of the fact that we committed genocide, enslavement, and a plethora of other atrocities to Native Americans not long after the first thanksgiving occurred between the original pilgrims and them. But the major point being that this is the one thing we can celebrate in good times where we didn’t fuck up. Where we had an actual celebratory dinner with Native Americans in peaceful tidings. What happened in the future was devastating and awful—but please don’t twist this Holiday into something it’s not. I recognize what our forefathers did, I recognize that it will be a permanent blackspot in our history forever, and I recognize that our Country caused a lot of bloodshed.

But Thanksgiving is about much more than that. It’s about coming together as family and friends, eating together in the peace one has so they can be happy that they have each other. Some people don’t have that. Some people are homeless or no longer have a family to call their own. But maybe on today—on this holiday, people will lend them a hand and invite them into their homes, or spare them food or some other act of kindness—because that’s what this holiday is about. Giving thanks. Why would you want to twist this day into something that it isn’t? What do you have to gain by it? We have enough days in the month and across the year to recount the mistakes our ancestors did. We have enough people telling us how horrible of a Country we are.

So just let this day be what it is, please. There’s too much suffering in the world to let a holiday become an affliction because of society.