Get off your politically correct soap boxes. Appreciate our heritage this Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving will soon be here. Traditionally, it has long been a day dedicated to family, feasting and giving thanks for our very numerous blessings. Recently however, it has become increasingly popular to indulge in practices of self-hate and national guilt.

More and more each year we are lectured by celebrities, politicians and social justice warriors, on the “villainous” ways of our forefathers. This type of rhetoric is regressive at best. Our children are no longer taught pride and inspiration from our ancestor’s great accomplishments, but instead shame and indignation.

How did all of this come to be? Misinformation, historical inaccuracies and a lack of national pride are all to blame. The main contributor however, is the common mistake of placing our 21st-century morals onto peoples of the past. Naturally, the world is a hard, unfair and unforgiving place. Nations and people needed to expand or they would be left behind and swallowed up by other rivals. The early settlers were no exception. They didn’t have the safety and comforts that we so often take for granted today. There were no police departments, help groups or “safe places.” Instead, disease, famine and violence were everyday realities. Tribal warfare, slavery, head hunting and even human sacrifice were all here long before the first Europeans arrived. For the pilgrims, life and death decisions were made on a near-constant basis.

A great injustice is being done when we tarnish the names of our ancestors this way. Ripping down their memorials only shows a lack of progress in our understanding of history. Are modern Egyptians to feel shame over the pyramids? Should Italians clamber to tear down the Roman Colosseum? Absolutely not. While there are always lessons to be to learned from the past, Thanksgiving is a time for appreciation, not political soap-boxing.

This story was originally published November 17, 2017 at 5:37 PM with the headline "Get off your politically correct soap boxes. Appreciate our heritage this Thanksgiving."