As Americans, we’ve had our fair share of problems with English kings.”

History is our legacy. Those who ignore it seem to have captured the fancy of millions of younger Americans with their socialist dreams. 
We do not mean this unkindly but that is a shame. Young people are our nation’s future.
Here at Thanksgiving, we offer a brief history as recounted by William Bradford. He was the governor who saw the Pilgrims through a harsh 1st winter in the new world and their harvest festival celebration of survival in the fall of 1621. 
Bradford’s history of the Mayflower voyagers was lost for nearly a century. His record began in 1608 when the Pilgrims escaped religious persecution in England for refuge in Holland. 
It continued with the voyage to the New World in 1620 until his death in 1657. The manuscript, Of Plymouth Plantation, disappeared during the Revolutionary War and was finally found in London in 1855 and returned to Boston in 1897. 
The Plymouth settlers’ 1st year in the New World was one of great human suffering.
November was too late for them to plant crops. Many settlers died of scurvy and malnutrition during that 1st winter. 
Of 102 original Mayflower passengers, only 44 survived. 
The kindness of local Native Americans saved them. They taught them to plant and grow crops for nutrition and hunt wild game for protein.
The Pilgrims showed amazing courage in the spring. When the Mayflower returned to Europe, not a single Pilgrim was on it.
By the fall of 1621, the Pilgrims had much for which to be thankful. Chief Massasoit and about 90 other Indians joined them for traditional harvest festival meals of venison, goose, duck, fish, vegetables and corn bread but probably not turkey, some historians say.
We inherited that tradition from our ancestors who sought freedom to worship denied them by the English king.
We had trouble with him and his successors for years until we waged a risky rebellion.
Be thankful today that we are free to worship as we need.
– JerryBellune@ yahoo.com