American children are taught in grade school that the Pilgrims came to North America seeking religious freedom.  In actuality, they had disembarked  for America from a life in the Netherlands, where they had  religious freedom  to worship as they wished. This wasn’t enough; they wanted to establish a theocracy. Landing near Plymouth Rock in what is modern-day Massachusetts, in 1620, the illegal  immigrants were ill-prepared to start a life in the wilderness. Despite the abundance of game, fish, plants, and medicines around them, they slowly began to starve as well as die of disease brought with them. They chose for their settlement a cleared area belonging to the Wampanoag, the first people of this area, in their summer village. The Wampanoag leader Ousamequin (known as Massasoit to the Pilgrims) brokered a treaty with them, and an escaped Wampanoag slave, who was called by the English Squanto, helped teach them to plant crops suitable for the area.

The following fall, 1621, the Pilgrim settlers –not inviting their hosts the native people, as we were all taught — gathered together for a feast consisting of New World foods. Was turkey included as it is today? No one knows for sure. Most likely that first feast consisted of venison, berries, ducks, geese, perhaps corn as well and plenty of  thanks for their God and his bounty. By then, the Wampanoag and the Pequot people had begun to fall ill and die from disease brought by the Pilgrims, a fine repayment for their aid and for allowing the ungrateful Pilgrims to take over their summer village.  This is the idyllic event school children are taught about, but it was not the first official Thanksgiving.

That date belongs in the year 1637. “On that day (May 26)  the Massachusetts Colony Governor, John Winthrop, proclaimed such a “Thanksgiving” to celebrate the safe return of a band of heavily armed hunters, all colonial volunteers. They had just returned from their journey to what is now Mystic, Connecticut where they massacred 700 Pequot Indians. Seven hundred Indians — men, women and children — all murdered.” (Huffington Post).  According to another source: “In 1637 near present day  Groton, Connecticut, over 700 men, women and children of the Pequot Tribe had gathered for their annual Green Corn Festival which is our Thanksgiving celebration. In the predawn hours the sleeping Indians were surrounded by English and Dutch mercenaries who ordered them to come outside.  Those who came out were shot or clubbed to death while the terrified women and children who huddled inside the longhouse were burned alive. The next day the governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony declared “A Day Of Thanksgiving” because 700 unarmed men, women and children had been murdered.” (Manataka American Indian Council).

Why were these people slaughtered? Their land was valuable and desired by the influx of Old World settlers. Although even as early as the late 1490s, native populations were being decimated by the invaders, this sad chapter marks the  beginning of the end for native people in what would later  be known as the United States of America, land of the free and the brave.

Thanksgiving as a modern holiday came into being in 1863, as a proclamation by President Lincoln. Since then its origins have been sanitized for generations of school children, finally codified in textbooks in the early 20^th century. It’s said  that history  is written by the winners. If so, we “winners” have little to be thankful for or proud of.

Sources:

The true story behind Thanksgiving is a bloody struggle that decimated the population and ended with a head on a stick
https://www.businessinsider.com/history-of-thanksgiving-2017-11

The True Story of Thanksgiving
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/richard-greener/the-true-story-of-thanksg_b_788436.html

The History of the First Thanksgiving
http://historyofmassachusetts.org/the-first-thanksgiving/

Native History: It’s Memorial Day—In 1637, the Pequot Massacre Happened
https://newsmaven.io/indiancountrytoday/archive/native-history-it-s-memorial-day-in-1637-the-pequot-massacre-happened-CPEC3BR9hkm5SoXp3X9uFg/

THE REAL STORY OF THANKSGIVING
https://www.manataka.org/page269.html

The post The true story of Thanksgiving: Not what we learned in school appeared first on Occasional Planet.

“If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.”  U.S. Representative Todd Akin (R-MO).

“If it’s inevitable, just relax and enjoy it.” Texas gubernatorial candidate Clayton Williams (R-TX), March 1990.

“I think the right approach is to accept this horribly created — in the sense of rape — but nevertheless a gift in a very broken way, the gift of human life, and accept what God has given to you.” – 2012 Presidential candidate Rick Santorum (R-PA).

Republican Vice Presidential candidate Paul Ryan, Rep. Todd Akin, and 214 other Republicans co-sponsored the “No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act” which would prohibit federal funding of abortions except in instances of “an act of forcible rape or, if a minor, an act of incest.” (H.R. 3, 112^th Congress, January 20, 2011)

I have a friend who is one of the strongest — yet most gentle and loving — souls I have ever known. She asked me to bring you her story. She doesn’t ask for your pity. She asks only for understanding. According to the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network, there are over 207,000 sexual assaults in the United States each year. Here is my friend’s story, in her own words.

Catherine’s story

I am a rape survivor.  I cannot speak for every rape survivor; I can only describe my own experience.  It is nothing like some of the recent politicians would like us to believe.

My name is Catherine Mary Redfern. I was 24 years old that day. I waited at the bus stop in my baggy sweats with my backpack, just having finished a long hike.  An approaching pickup truck slowed down. The driver asked me if I needed a ride. I said no. He continued down the road, then he turned around. He was out of the truck and dragging me into the bushes before I could react.

For me, this is what rape is:

It was screaming so hard and for so long for help that didn’t come.  Screaming that made me lose my voice for four days.

It was fighting so hard for myself, that when I was finally alone and could see, I saw that I had no fingernails left – just bloody nail beds where my nails had been from fighting and scratching to fight off my rapist.

It was tears running down my bloody face because I wasn’t strong enough to fight him anymore as he held me down and beat me into submission.

It was whimpering while praying as he thrust and pushed so hard against an unwilling participant, and calling on God to help me, wondering why he had abandoned me when I needed him the most.

I was raped – I did not experience the rapture of God’s intention to bless me with a child.

I was raped – it was not consensual, it was not legitimate, and my body certainly did not start working to shut down a conception process – it was too busy fighting for its own life.

I was raped – I am unable to categorize it as honest or dishonest rape.  I can categorize as violent, painful and cruel.  It was physically and psychologically scarring.

I was raped – it was unexpected; I did not ask for it; it certainly wasn’t planned.  Does that make it an emergency rape?

I was raped – for hours I fought for my life and the right to control who touches my body.  Although I lost that fight, I did not rape easy.

I was raped – I felt a lot of things when it became clear that it was inevitable.  I hated my rapist.  I hated myself.  I hated God.  There was no desire to relax, lie back and enjoy it.

Regardless of whether you are a man or a woman, if you think men and women in this country are overreacting to a few comments taken out of context, sit for a moment and think some more.  Think hard about what your real, visceral reaction would be if your wife, mother, sister or daughter called you from the hospital to tell you she had just been raped.

Unfortunately, if your wife, mother, sister, or daughter were raped, you may never have the opportunity to feel a reaction, offer comfort or give support.  You may notice some intangible change in the vitality of the woman you love, but to spare you the pain and anger of knowing what happened to her without being able to do anything about it, she may not tell you.  Even if she wanted to, she may be afraid of what her family, friends, coworkers and society would think of her — because on some level, our society still blames a woman in part for being raped.  Why else are words like “honest rape,” “legitimate rape” and “forcible rape” being tolerated as part of our lexicon about this crime? My rape was thirteen years ago. I have not yet told my parents.

I have always considered the United States to be one of the most progressive countries in the world when it comes to women’s rights.

That is why it angers me to see the word “rape” being used without thought and bandied about as a political ideological concept, rather than a word to describe a violent, abhorrent crime against women. I was raped. I am a survivor. I was fortunate enough to live in an age when I did not have to worry about bearing the child of the man who brutalized me. There are some in America who would force me to bear that child, in the name of some warped God-directed concept of respect for life

I ask you this: What god deserves worship who would “bless” a violent, soul-destroying act with an unwanted living reminder? What nation would allow a religion to write law that dehumanizes a woman into nothing but a vessel, as my rapist saw me?

I ask you this: Think of the women you love as you choose your lawmakers.

Thank you for reading my story.

The post A rape survivor tells her story. Think about it when you vote. appeared first on Occasional Planet.

Unless you’ve been living in a cave, you are familiar with first lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move program to combat childhood obesity. You are probably also aware of the flak she has received from conservative pundits, who claim that the program is an effort by the government to tell Americans what to eat. With an epidemic of obesity in the U.S., it is difficult for most of us to believe that low-income people often suffer from malnutrition despite the relative low cost of food compared to other countries.

I’ll use the St. Louis area, where I live, as an example. But what I’m describing could probably apply to many American urban areas.

Anyone who has driven through parts of the city of St. Louis has noticed the neglected and dilapidated homes; the abundance of fast food restaurants, chop suey joints, and liquor stores; and the lack of full-service grocery stores within walking distance of residential neighborhoods.  Even with this reminder of class and social status, many St. Louisans have difficulty understanding that in our community, people suffer from hunger and malnutrition.

Cynthia Davis (R), former state representative from St. Charles, Missouri says, “People who are struggling with lack of food usually do not have an obesity problem.” An informal poll taken by this author recently showed that ten out of eleven respondents have heard the following statement spoken by acquaintances: “I don’t believe that poor people are really malnourished, because so many of them are overweight.”  This attitude seems to be a pervasive myth particularly among political conservatives.

 Myths

Most people, when they hear the word “hunger,” form a mental picture of a skin-and-bones person living in Sudan or India. Perhaps a more precise term to use would be “malnutrition.” As defined by Merriam-Webster, malnutrition means “faulty nutrition due to inadequate or unbalanced intake of nutrients or their impaired assimilation or utilization.”  By this criteria, a person can be well-fed calorically, yet suffer from malnutrition because of what he eats, rather than how much he eats.

Research has shown that malnourishment causes a host of physical ailments, and can predispose one to infections like tuberculosis.   A common form of malnutrition, called “overnutrition,” is often seen in countries where there is an abundance of rich, fatty foods — like those found on a typical American fast food menu.  Metabolic syndrome, the increasing inability to process glucose, leads to the onset of Type II (adult-onset) diabetes and is closely associated with the consumption of sugars such as corn syrup, the largest ingredient in soft drinks like Coke.  Such a diet can lead to hypertension, coronary artery disease, and stroke. Overnutrition frequently causes obesity.

Stats

According to a 2010 report, Missouri is  the 12th most obese state in the country. The state’s adult obesity rate is 29.3 percent, and in Missouri. men are more obese than women, at 29.9 percent. More than two-thirds of states have adult obesity rates above 25 percent.

The same report states that Mississippi leads the nation in obesity, at 33.8%.  Mississippi also has the highest poverty rate in the United States at 21.3%, according to U.S. Census data.

In contrast, St. Louis City has a 26% poverty rate, per the most recent available data from 2010.  Obesity, poor nutrition, and the resulting diseases carry a high cost both to the individual and to the individual’s society as a whole, in increased utilization of scarce medical resources, morbidity, and mortality.

A dangerous combination

How can obesity, malnutrition/over-nutrition, and poverty possibly be related? The answers are many.  It begins with education and knowledge of nutrition. Children in the St. Louis City school district have only a 60% graduation rate (2011 statistics). High school is typically when students take health classes and learn about nutrition. A lack of knowledge about nutrition often leads to poor dietary choices. Parents of these children often do not understand nutritional labels on foods and thus are unable to teach them how to choose between a high-calorie, low-value food and one that provides essential vitamins and minerals at a lower calorie cost. Recent data shows that the rate of diabetes in the U.S. is directly proportional to both the educational and income level of the population.

Access to affordable food supermarkets offering healthy food choices is essential. There are few large chain grocery stores in low-income city areas. These stores offer a wide variety of healthy food selections such as fruits, vegetables, low-fat dairy products and meats, and alternatives to high-sodium and high-fat snacks.  Most grocery stores available to residents in these regions carry few perishables and instead rely upon prepared and frozen foods with low nutritional value.  Most of these stores accept food stamps for what is considered by health experts to be “junk food.”

The few restaurants in these areas typically tend to be of the fast-food type, which feature high-fat and high-calorie choices.  Even the ubiquitous Chinese take-out places feature breaded and fried meats with heavy sauces and high sodium content – rather than the vegetables and plain rice that the Asians themselves eat—because this is what Americans demand.

St. Louis has many fine food pantries that distribute, for free, canned and packaged goods to low-income citizens. Unfortunately, the food pantries often have limited storage space for perishables such as fresh produce and meats, so are unable to offer them to their clients.

Breaking the cycle

All of society has a stake in providing every one of its citizens with the tools to maintain a healthy lifestyle. It does no good to provide food vouchers and food stamps if the low-income residents have no access to quality food sources.  Politicians must find ways to provide incentives, perhaps in the form of lowered taxes, to induce large chain grocery stores like Schnucks or Shop-and-Save to locate more facilities in low-income residential neighborhoods.

Further, education on nutrition must be provided to both younger children and to their parents.  Schools can play an important part both by offering nutritious meals on campus, and by teaching students how to make wise choices.  These measures are far less expensive, in the long run, than treating the diseases caused by modern malnutrition. Closing the national dialogue on the topic by stating nonsense such as, “What she is telling us is she cannot trust parents to make decisions for their own children, for their own families in what we should eat…” (Sarah Palin, 2010) does no one a favor.

The post Poverty, obesity and malnutrition: myth vs. reality appeared first on Occasional Planet.