Giving Thanks

A SMALL CARAVAN OF poor, homeless, hungry, desperate immigrants, among them some criminals and other undesirables, with only their dreams and the clothes on their backs, approaches the land, and enters, without permission from the inhabitants. The rightful owners of the land, the natives, see this happening and disagree among themselves what to do about it. Some of them want to kill the intruders, while others want to drive merely them out of the land. Others want to continue to observe them, and keep deciding what to do. A small group wants to welcome the intruders, offer to help them, and try to get to know them. After much arguing, the native inhabitants did a little of all of these things, but, for the most part, they allowed the newcomers to enter the country, welcomed them, and helped them. it is surprising how often that scenario has played out in human history, and amazing how often the response has been welcoming, rather than turning away or killing the refugees. Maybe there is hope for humanity after all. Human history is the history of migrants and refugees. We humans spent millions of years living in paleolithic culture, mobile, always moving, in small groups. Now, in our permanent settlements, we can't stop moving. American history is the history of caravans of poor, helpless, desperate people coming to America, giving thanks when they got there, and working hard to survive. Whether its 1607, 1620, or 2018, its basically the same thing, even though they are all different. For instance, the 1607 Jamestown gang came for one reason only; to get rich by stealing. So, technically, they were all criminals. There are about a million reasons why it is wonderful to be an American, and today is a great day to list them. At the top it should say "my (ancestor's) successful immigration".