11/26/2020

Friend, DJT,

            I just read your 2020 Thanksgiving Proclamation & appreciated your expression of gratitude to our medical professionals for the sacrifices that they are making in this time of CV. I especially liked the line, “we reaffirm our everlasting gratitude for all that we enjoy, and we commemorate the legacy of generosity bestowed upon us by our forbearers.” I was disappointed that you did not take the opportunity to request that folks avoid congregating in large groups & that they avoid travel. I hope that was an oversight.

            I urge you to correct a misstatement in your proclamation, which noted, “The Mayflower’s arrival to the New World in 1620 marks the arrival of the first seeds of democracy to our land.” Your writers neglected to consider the Iroquois Confederacy, founded by the Great Peacemaker in 1142, to unite Six Nations as the Haudenosaunee. According to Orin Lyons, faithkeeper of the Turtle Clan of the Seneca Nations, “Each nation maintained its own leadership, but they all agreed that common causes would be decided in the Grand Council of Chiefs. The concept was based on peace and consensus rather than fighting." A 2018 PBS article indicates that “In 1744, the Onondaga leader Canassatego gave a speech urging the contentious 13 colonies to unite” & “establish Union and Amity…He used a metaphor that many arrows cannot be broken as easily as one. This inspired the bundle of 13 arrows held by an eagle in the Great Seal of the United States.” The Great Council members of the Iroquois were invited to address the Continental Congress in 1776. So the seeds of the US democracy were in the soil long before the Mayflower arrived. I trust you will correct yourself. A Tweet will suffice.

We owe a great deal to the Native Americans so I hope you will do whatever you can to ease the suffering they are enduring due to CV. The Navajo Nation is in a state of emergency & requires all kinds of help. Please attend to their needs ASAP.

BYBS,