Et tu, Thanksgiving?

"We'd love to get the platter back when this is over.  That, and our land."

With college presidents resigning under pressure from angry students protesting historic racism and myriad grievances, one could look forward to the peace and equanimity of Thanksgiving.

PBS dashed those hopes with its broadcast of The Pilgrims, a searing documentary by seasonal West Tisbury resident Ric Burns, which obliterates any quaint notions of Thanksgiving. "It's not just buckled shoes, pointed hats and turkeys," explains Burns, adding "We take the Pilgrims away from the myth. The darkness of the story is shocking."

The adversity the Pilgrims faced that first winter in Plymouth makes the grievances of today's campus crybullies a disgrace, to say nothing of the plagues and death visited on the local Wampanoags, before and after, and the tragic yet divinely inspired example set by Squanto.

The First Thanksgiving - Jean Leon Gerome Ferris,