Let’s give thanks for selective memories on Thanksgiving

Everyone knows that the United States was first settled in 1620.  Everyone is wrong.

We celebrate a wildly distorted history of Thanksgiving year after year.  On Thanksgiving, we solemnly give thanks that we have enough food to allow our families to overeat.  For the sake of holiday decorum, we avoid the thought that we could actually be doing something to help millions of people starving to death elsewhere in the world.  We could splurge a bit less on the big holiday meal, for instance, then send life-saving donations to relief agency to save some real lives.  But that would be such a downer on the holiday.  Instead, let’s spend time with those people we love and think happy thoughts about Thanksgiving.

After all, we celebrate holidays to be happy, to bond family and friends.  And it is a good thing to keep in touch with family and friends. To keep the room happy, though, we need to focus mostly on happy things and to avoid thinking about facts, memories or courses of conduct that might interfere with that happiness.  Other than watching our favorite football team lose the big game, what could possibly interfere with the flow of happiness on Thanksgiving?  Here’s one thing: the truth about Thanksgiving.

With Thanksgiving approaching, I decided that it would be good medicine to re-read the chapter on Thanksgiving in James Loewen’s iconoclastic classic, Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong (1995). It was well worth the …

Continue ReadingLet’s give thanks for selective memories on Thanksgiving

Are you happy? Is life meaningful for you? Take a test (or two) and see . . .

According to this site maintained by Dr. Martin Seligman, you can "develop insights into yourself and the world around you through these scientifically tested questionnaires, surveys, and scales." I took a few of these tests (some only a few minutes) and might have learned a thing or two.   The site…

Continue ReadingAre you happy? Is life meaningful for you? Take a test (or two) and see . . .

Incoming Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee: Bring Back the Draft

MSNBC reports that Americans would be required to sign up for the military draft after turning 18 under a bill that will be introduced by Charles Rangel, a Democrat, the incoming chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee.  Rangel states that bringing back the draft is a way to…

Continue ReadingIncoming Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee: Bring Back the Draft

Center for Inquiry Office of Public Policy committed to science, reason, and secularism as critical building blocks of American Democracy.

In an article entitled, "Think Tank Will Promote Thinking," the Washington Post informed its readers about the new wing of the Center for Inquiry: The goals of the new group are to establish relationships with sympathetic legislators, provide experts to give testimony before Congress, speak publicly on issues when they…

Continue ReadingCenter for Inquiry Office of Public Policy committed to science, reason, and secularism as critical building blocks of American Democracy.