Letters to the Editor – The first Thanksgiving, column by Joshua Whitfield on our American character, column – The Dallas Morning News

Thanksgiving in Texas

Re: Thanksgiving feast revised for balance Teachers serving students a more fact-filled menu this year, Tuesday news story.

I read in this story about a teacher in Massachusetts who is now teaching the story of the Thanksgiving feast revised for balance. She is including the Wampanoags, the tribe sharing in the first big dinner with the Pilgrims in 1621. But, even with revision, that story is incorrect.

The first Thanksgiving feast was in Texas. Gen. Juan de Oate gained permission from the king of Spain in 1597 to lead 500 people colonists, soldiers, priests, wives, children with 7,000 head of livestock northward through the Chihuahuan desert to the Rio Grande. They made it!

Oate ordered a day of Thanksgiving. Joining the Spanish folk were the native Comanches of the region. They ate veggies that did not grow in Europe corn, chiles, tomatoes and potatoes. They also enjoyed barbecued goat. So the real Thanksgiving dinner is a cabrito burrito!

Rose-Mary Rumbley, Dallas/M Streets

Re: 2020 revealed our true character Our current social failure is the result of a hedonism that eclipses the sense of obligation to others, by Joshua J. Whitfield, Monday Opinion.

Whitfield makes excellent points about aspects of the American character and its origins. Yet our peculiar ritual: repeatedly to judge others and yet absolve ourselves and others like us, and to change nothing. Which allows us to feel atoned for sins we refuse to quit while still enjoying the judgment of others could as easily describe Christian churches on a Sunday morning.

We derive our national character, not least its thrall to hucksters and celebrities, as much from Christians peddling miracles and pie-in-the-sky while bishops deign to let their flocks kiss their rings as from cynical advertisers and attention-seeking celebrities. How much, for those of us who are Christians, does the shame sting? The answer has not been much. We might attend to that instead of the mote in our neighbors eye.

Robert Hunt, Dallas/Lake Highlands

Joshua Whitfield imputes guilt to the good citizens of Dallas and this country. He echoes the hyperbolic claim that no one is listening to medical professionals. He decries the small risks we take, the little things we do in our attempt to flourish amid social upheaval. In his judgment, we consciously commit the sin of irresponsibility towards the collective. He quotes Camus, our shame stings hardly at all. He wishes we had more.

He paints with the broad brushstroke of condemnation, masking the sacrifices and adaptations made by the citizenry. Weve endured a shutdown. Some of us have lost jobs while others work from home. Mental health is suffering. Relationships are strained. Suicides abound.

Yet Whitfield tells us of Camus Clamence, an attorney known for serving noble causes, like aiding the blind. But when Clamence was actually faced with an opportunity to genuinely care for another, he lacked compassion.

I ask Whitfield: As the prophet Nathan told King David, you are that man, I challenge you to provide a single example of a thriving collective motivated by guilt and shame.

Martyn Evans, Dallas

Re: Listen to one another, not to the pundits Many small town Trump backers want the same things from democracy as city residents, by David Thomason, Sunday Opinion.

Thomasons column on why rural Texans support President Donald Trump was chilling. He says they believe Trump is on a crusade to affirm were a nation that will do Gods will. Often when someone says they want others to do Gods will it means they think they know what God wants and are eager to force everyone else to obey. Which God are we talking about? The God who supported slavery, segregation and white supremacy? The God who condemns homosexuals? The God who says women are inferior to men and must obey them?

That God has loomed large in our nations past and is still trotted out today. Is this the God who says Muslims and Jews are going to hell, or the God who says Christians are infidels? Our founding fathers made sure we were not a nation based on doing Gods will. They knew there were many conflicting ideas of what that would be.

Instead, the Founding Fathers set us up as a secular nation which values equality, justice and individual freedoms rather than religious dogma and servitude. We dont need a crusade. We need to reinforce the wall between church and state.

Joel Hale, Dallas

David Thomason suggests that we need to listen to one another. He notes that rural Texans his group interviewed believe President Donald Trump is on a crusade to re-establish a democracy built on the will of the people (except for voters, I guess), civic virtues and doing Gods will. Yes, he has moral flaws, they allow, but so did Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, James Madison and Ben Franklin. Yes, these four had flaws, but morally bankrupt, no.

I would like to know on what basis I might have a conversation with people who plainly do not deal in reality. The Trump I have watched cares nothing about the truth, our democracy or the health and well-being of the American people. In fact, he has shown time and again that he will tear down the whole house if it serves him personally. His divisive rhetoric on COVID-19 resulted in half the people not taking it seriously, leading to the overwhelming crisis we are now facing.

If these people cannot discern his blatant dishonesty and are willing to accept his conspiracy theories without a shred of evidence, what can I talk with them about? Nice weather were having?

Donna S. Gregory, Dallas

Re: Encouraged by also discouraged, by Fred. R. Neary, Nov. 18 Letters.

This letter expresses dismay that 73 million Trump voters did not believe that character, decency, empathy and compassion are important qualities in our president. Were those the only issues we were considering with our votes? Perhaps many of those 73 million Trump voters voted against defunding the police, stacking the Supreme Court, giving Medicare to all, etc.

Tom Hopkins, Garland

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Letters to the Editor - The first Thanksgiving, column by Joshua Whitfield on our American character, column - The Dallas Morning News