Different Needs.

[Editorial]

We are victims of our generations… Boomers, Gen X, Millennials (Gen Y), etc.

Oh man… Lawrence Welk. The old folks are watching Lawrence Welk!

Now the new generations are seeing us go to a Rolling Stones concert or watching PBS with all the old groups from the sixties and seventies, alongside old clips from the fifties.

I grew up with the PC and dial-up, and now the kids are cursing gigabyte internet for being slow.

A couple of days ago, I asked whether crossdressing was going the way of the dinosaur. But in reality, we are all aging out! The Rolling Stones are our generation’s Lawrence Welk. What we grew up with, we hid in closets; we were in steamy mob dives that the police raided regularly during elections. You’d see us in the papers with our faces covered by our hands, and newspapers would even print our names. They held congressional hearings on us!

At the same time, on the evening news, Black Americans were sitting at lunch counters getting their heads bashed in or walking across a bridge being attacked by dogs.

People said, "Enough! Enough!" and passed non-discrimination laws, saying, "Let's get together right now and end this hate!" The haters crawled back into the swamps to stew and foment their anger.

New generations grew up, the alphabet continued through Gens X, Y, and Z, and they forgot.

Oh, they remembered Stonewall, but to them, it became an excuse to party.

Meanwhile, in the swamps, a brew was fermenting: “I believe it is my constitutional right to discriminate!" "Oh, we aren’t gerrymandering because of race… just politics… oh, that’s all right then.” The courts are whittling away at the protections of the 2000s.

We've seen this in the seventies, in the fifties, and in Europe in the thirties—pick on a minority and make them your scapegoats. And now the swamp creatures have become emboldened.

Now it is time for the new generations to pick up the torch. What we have learned is to go to the core… yes, immigration rights matter, our rights matter, but what we learned from Saul Alinsky, the focus has to be on the elections—not just our rights, no matter how hard or exhausting that seems. We need to overthrow the Republican grip; we have to free up the pendulum to swing back.

[/Editorial]

We Seen This Before

I was watching PBS when the program American Experience came on and the title caught my attention form an article that I had read about a Connecticut town that said "No" to the American Nazi Movement here in Connecticut. The name of the show is Nazi Town, USA.

Back in the late 1930s there was a movement that was strikingly similar to toady's MAGA movement.

Nazi Town, USA

The untold story of Nazi sympathizers on American soil

In February 1939, more than 20,000 Americans filled Madison Square Garden for an event billed as a “Pro-American Rally.” Images of George Washington hung next to swastikas and speakers railed against the “Jewish controlled media” and called for a return to a racially “pure” America. The keynote speaker was Fritz Kuhn, head of the German American Bund. Nazi Town, USA tells the largely unknown story of the Bund, which had scores of chapters in suburbs and big cities across the country and represented what many believe was a real threat of fascist subversion in the United States. The Bund held joint rallies with the Ku Klux Klan [Note: Trump's father was arrested at one of them.] and ran dozens of summer camps for children centered around Nazi ideology and imagery. Its melding of patriotic values with virulent anti-Semitism raised thorny issues that we continue to wrestle with today.

 *****

Arnie Bernstein, Writer: It looked like any summer camp in America. It looked normal but it wasn't normal, it was Nazi camp. In the 1930s there were these camps all across the country. 

Sarah Churchwell, Cultural Historian: They were indoctrinating centers, that’s what they were for. As well as for protecting the purity and the health of your superior breed.

Bradley Hart, Historian: The camps were the creation of something called the German-American Bund. The Bund's vision was an America ruled by white Christians, and they thought that Nazism was entirely consistent with American ideals.

Rally speech: My fellow Americans, what would George Washington think and do were he alive today? Would he not plead with the thinking, the loyal and law-abiding people, the true Christian Americans?

Leah Wright Rigueur, Historian:  The German-American Bund is after power, they’re after influence, within the very fabric of the United States. They want their ideas to become mainstream and they want people to embrace those ideas.

William Hitchcock, Historian: They were against democracy. And thought that America would be a kind star in a constellation of pro-Nazi governments around the world.

Leah Wright Rigueur, Historian: We assume that Democracy is something that all Americans embrace. But in the 1930s, there were people in the United States who were ready to try something different.

Beverly Gage, Historian: In the 1930s, lots of Americans thought the whole social order was about to collapse. Capitalism, democracy, they were done for, and something else was going to have to come along to take its place. And a lot of people thought that was going to be Fascism.

Does any of this sound familiar? "...white Christian nationalism combined with family values, which was a message that was appealing to millions of people...."

Beverly Gage, Historian: in the 1920s, one of the biggest organizations in the United States was the Ku Klux Klan, which was not only anti-Black, it was anti-Jew, it was anti-immigrant. And those weren't marginal ideas.

William Hitchcock, Historian: In 1924, 4 to 5 million people were in the Ku Klux Klan, including a couple of dozen senators and congressmen. The Klan's basic message was a combination of white Christian nationalism combined with family values, which was a message that was appealing to millions of people.

Steven Ross, Historian: Father Coughlin, Charles Coughlin, known as the radio priest, every week went on the air to 14 million listeners basically warning the country that Jews were destroying it.

Coughlin: We are Christian in so far as we believe in Christ's principle of love your neighbor as yourself. And with that principle, I challenge every Jew in this nation to tell me that he does not believe in it.

Back then, we were also on the German-American Bund's hit list... including trans people and gay people!

What we are seeing now makes it feel almost as if they are using the German-American Bund as their playbook.

If you compare MAGA and the German-American Bund, you can see clear similarities between the two:

• Strong appeals to patriotism and national renewal.
• Large political rallies emphasizing loyalty to a leader.
• Populist rhetoric portraying elites as disconnected from ordinary citizens.
• Skepticism toward established institutions and the mainstream press.

The German American Bund and the MAGA movement share some broad features common to various nationalist or populist political movements, such as appeals to national identity and leader-centered politics.

They also share economic similarities, both were in times of economic stress, Germany was in a the grips of the "Great Depression" while we are in the straights of economic stagnation that are putting millions at risk of an economic disaster, living from pay check to pay check. We share where the "industrialist" want to conserve  their wealth. In the 1930s out of fear of communism/socialism taking they wealth they backed Hitler. Now it is fear of anti-monopolies laws, and high taxes on the ultra-wealthy. 

Yes, Today Is The Anniversary Of Stonewall

[Editorial]

But Stonewall wasn't the first time we stood up for our rights. There were many other times dating back years earlier:

• Cooper Do-nuts Riot — 1959
• Dewey's Restaurant sit-ins — 1965
• Compton's Cafeteria riot — 1966
• Black Cat Tavern protest — 1967

There is a great debate about whether or not these events should be called “riots” or “uprisings.” I will explain my distinction between the two. A “riot” is a violent outbreak, like after the Knicks win. An “uprising” can be a peaceful or violent act meant to shake off the yoke of oppression.

Why did the police raid these bars? (Besides the fact that they didn’t get their payoff that month—or due to political pressure from city leadership.)

Because of trans people. Gay men and lesbians were harder to prove in court when they were simply present. But for trans people, there were laws. In many places, we were required to wear a certain number of items of “male clothing”—in some cases, absurd rules like socks counting as one item.

We were the bedrock of the Stonewall movement.

But something happened on the way to the first NYC Pride parade: we were told not to come. However, we were not alone in being excluded. They also didn’t want “wimpy” gay men or “butch” lesbians. They wanted only white, “respectable” gays and lesbians—those who could assimilate into society. And thus, “Gay Inc.” was born, where the “Holy Grail” became marriage.

Back before the turn of the century, the professional organization began to shift away from the more rigid Harry Benjamin Standards toward what would become the WPATH standards of care. Under the old standards, I would likely not have been allowed to transition for two reasons.

As I like to say: “If you can’t tell I’m trans, you need glasses and a hearing aid!”

The second reason is that I am attracted to women. Under earlier standards, I would have been told I couldn’t be a “true transsexual” because of that attraction.

Now we are visible—and that visibility has also made us targets of conservatives.

So on this anniversary of the Stonewall uprising, let us remember our roots.

[/Editorial]

Connecting the Dots

[Editorial]

School vouchers.

Dismantling the Department of Education.

Warehousing the homeless.

Institutionalization of the disabled.

Pogroms against trans people.

Cuts to SNAP.

Cuts to WIC.

New work regulations for Medicaid.

Tax cuts for billionaires.

Weakening environmental laws.

Trump campaigned on smaller government. But if you connect the dots, an interesting pattern can be seen. It is a model of the “K-shaped” economy.

Take education: they have cut back on funding for public schools, but the reality is that schools have fixed costs. They must heat the building, keep the lights on, and handle maintenance. Vouchers are causing public schools to delay these needed repairs.

Meanwhile, private schools can take the “cream of the crop!” The best scholars! The best athletes! At the same time, they can keep out "undesirables" like the LGBTQ+ community, people with disabilities, and people of other faiths, like Jewish people and Muslims.

Then we have the tax cuts for Trump’s billionaire friends. He dismissed at least 17 inspectors general from federal departments and agencies. He appointed former CEOs to run the very regulatory agencies that oversaw the industries they came from. Now, regulatory agencies are looking the other way as xAI centers run gas turbines without environmental permits, leaving neighbors to complain of a constant hum 24/7.

Meanwhile, the federal minimum wage hasn't changed since July 24, 2009, when it increased to $7.25 per hour. They made the ACA (Obamacare) unfavorable to the middle class. He has cut federal assistance programs and added burdens to those receiving benefits, leaving them struggling to get by.

When have these indicators happened in the past? In modern times, it has happened twice.

The first time, we called the elite “Robber Barons” in the 1890s. The second time was during the ostentatious display of wealth in the Roaring Twenties, which crashed into the 1930s.

In the mid-1800s, Charles Dickens wrote A Tale of Two Cities (1859):

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief…”

Does that sound familiar now?

Back in the 1890s, there were a number of revolutions around the world: the Brazilian Revolution of 1893, the Philippine Revolution (1896–1898), and the Cuban War of Independence, which led into the Spanish–American War.

And don’t forget WWI, sparked by the assassination of the Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand in 1914. Then, in the 1940s, we had WWII. How did Hitler and Mussolini get into power? On the shoulders of wealthy industrialists.

How did we break the cycle in the past? We need to look back at the administration of Theodore Roosevelt… the “Trustbuster!”

When I was growing up in the 50s and 60s, my father was a teacher. The neighbors were all hardworking factory workers, office workers, store owners, and store clerks. Yet, we could afford cottages, boats, and vacations. The mothers were stay-at-home moms; we only needed one income for a family of four to live comfortably. My summer job even paid my college tuition.

But now, people in those exact same positions are struggling to make ends meet. What we also share with those past eras is discrimination. First, it was the Irish and the Italians. But what really set conservatives off were the Chinese, which is when they started passing exclusionary laws. In Germany, Japan, and other Axis powers, xenophobia ran rampant, using minorities as scapegoats.

Have I connected the dots?

[/Editorial]

Driving The Wedge!

The Republicans are driving the wedge deeper and deeper, splitting the country right down the middle!

They know what they are doing, and they don't care who they hurt as long as it gets them votes.

Republican support for marriage equality, LGBTQ+ rights sinks: poll
Axios
Avery Lotz

June 3, 2026

 

 

 Republican support for marriage equality has continued to plummet with fewer than 4 in 10 saying same-sex marriages should be valid under the law, according to new polling.

The big picture: The Supreme Court signaled that its landmark decision recognizing same-sex marriage nationwide remains settled law when it turned away a long-shot challenge last year. But the lead plaintiff in the 2015 case and other LGBTQ+ advocates warn the fight is far from over.

Driving the news: While a majority of Americans still back the validity of same-sex marriages, Republican support has slipped sharply — from 55% in 2021 and 2022 to just 37%, per Gallup findings out Wednesday.

• Two decades ago, just around 42% of Americans supported same-sex marriages according to Gallup polling, compared to 65% today. But that's down from early 2020s peaks of around 7 in 10.
• Meanwhile, the supportive share of Republicans has slipped back to where it was in 2015.

The Republicans are following the playbook of Joseph Goebbels, the Propaganda Minister of Nazi Germany: "If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it."

 

As LGBTQ Nation reported that;

The main culprit was Republicans. Thirty-seven percent agreed that marriage equality should remain legal, while 67% of independents and 87% of Democrats agreed. When it came to the moral acceptability of homosexuality, 35% of Republicans agreed, compared to 65% of independents and 81% of Democrats.

 

The partisan divide was the most stark for the “changing one’s gender” question: 5% of Republicans agreed that it is morally acceptable to be transgender, compared to 42% of independents and 60% of Democrats.

The decline comes after Republicans across the country started attacking transgender equality in the early 2020s, following their electoral defeat in the 2020 elections. Rights that barely drew attention in the past – like the few trans girls participating in school sports, as they had for decades – became the center of a national conversation.

I don't know about you, but I know Pastor Martin Niemöller's poem. Trump's MAGA support comes from White Christian Nationalists, and that is the audience Trump is playing for. He is willing to trade morality for votes. He started with us, and we could see the handwriting on the wall... that marriage equality would be next.

 

We have seen this before, in the 1930s when Hitler used it against the Jew and gay. We have seen this with Viktor Orbán in Hungery use it against us, and new Trump is scapgoating our community just like it was done in the past. It is used in times of great economic stress, But scapgoating can only go so far, people begin to see through the lies.

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it,

A Different View

[Editorial]
 

I just took one of those online quizzes about U.S. history. The quiz was created by the same people who put together “Freedom 250.”
 

Conservatives don't believe that the Civil War was about slavery...

 

Question: Why was the Civil War fought?

Their answer: States' rights. Not slavery.
 

Why do they claim it was about "states' rights"? It actually traces back to the Fugitive Slave Acts. To provide a little historical context: the Fugitive Slave Acts required that runaway slaves who escaped to free states be captured and returned to their owners.
 

The logic of the Southern states was that escaped slaves were stolen property and had to be returned. Northern states said no, they are human beings and refused to return them.
 

The Southern states refused to recognize that the underlying issue was, in fact, slavery.
“Freedom 250” claims we are a “Christian nation” and completely whitewashes history. That is where the controversy lies. Through this lens, the accomplishments and struggles of minorities are minimized.

 

---

Now, think about this…
 

Texas currently wants data on Texans who have traveled to states where abortion is legal. Texas also wants the healthcare records of transgender children who received treatment in states where that care is legal.
 

[/Editorial]

Fifteen Years Ago!

Fifteen years ago I wrote this...

Connecticut Will Become The 15th State To Offer Protection To Transgender People

Every day for the past two weeks since the House passed the gender inclusive anti-discrimination bill, HB6599, we thought that today going to be the day. Every day I checked the Connecticut General Assembly website looking for clues if today was going to be the day. Every day I watched the Connecticut Public Affairs Network’s Senate channel. Last night was no different, I was reading and I had C-TN on in the background and the Senate was in caucus so they were playing classical music. Around ten o’clock I heard the Senate clerk announce that the Senate will convene! Then I heard the clerk read the agenda… House Bill 6599. WHOA!!! That is us! I watched the debate begin, sent out some emails and posted on Facebook while I was getting dress. I drove up to the Capitol.

When I got there Jerimarie from Connecticut TransAdvocacy Coalition (CTAC), Sally from ctEQUALITY, and Gretchen from Planned Parenthood were there already and a few minutes later Jennifer from the Gay Lesbian Advocate and Defenders (GLAD) arrived. I had been involved with the legislation since 2006, and Jerimarie and Jennifer were there from the beginning when the Hate Crime bill was first introduced and now we were there at the end.

The first amendment that was offered was about sex-segregated facilities and would have required everyone to use the facility of their birth gender. Sen. Beth Bye (D) asked the amendment’s author if he had ever to have to use the women’s bathroom because men’s room was too crowded, Sen. Welch (R) said no. Sen. Bye then went on to say that women do it all the time when the lines are too long in the women’s room and she said that the amendment would now make that illegal. Also speaking against the amendment was Sens. Cassano (D) and Coleman (D). The amendment was defeated, Yeas 15, Nays 21.

The next amendment offered was the teacher amendment, which would have allowed schools to transfer a teacher out of the classroom while they were transitioning. The amendment was introduced by Sen. Kissel (R) and once against Sen. Bye spoke passionately against the amendment, she said that when sexual orientation was being added to the anti-discrimination statutes back in the 90’s the opposition used the same arguments about gays in the classroom. The amendment was defeated, Yeas 16, Nays 20.

During all the debates on the amendments in the Senate, only two or three spoke in favor of or against the bill, the whole debate on the bill went rather quickly as opposed to the House where it seemed that everyone want to have their say on the bill. In the Senate, there was actually more backroom discussion on the bill that allowed for each side to have their say and then they voted on the bill. The House voted on three amendments and it took around five hours, while in the Senate they voted on four amendments and it took around two and a half hours.

The next amendment was introduced by Sen. Kissel and it was,

Any person who falsely exhibits a gender identity or expression, either through appearance or behavior, that is different from that traditionally associated with the person's physiology or assigned sex at birth, solely for the purpose of committing or facilitating the commission of a crime, shall, in lieu of the sentence of imprisonment authorized by section 53a-35a of the general statutes for the crime of which such person stands convicted, be subject to the sentence of imprisonment authorized by said section for the next more serious degree of misdemeanor or felony, as the case may be, except that if the crime is a class A misdemeanor, such person shall be subject to the sentence of imprisonment authorized by said section for a class D felony.

After a short debate, it was also defeated, Yeas 14, Nays 20.

Then they started to bring the bill to a vote, but they were interrupted by Sen. Roraback (R) who introduced an amendment that would limit the bill to an employer with 15 employees or more. That was also defeated 15 – 19 after a very short debate.

They then started to talk about the bill when once again they were interrupted by the introduction of an amendment, Sen. Witkos (R). The amendment was…

Any person holding a motor vehicle operator's license whose gender-related identity is different from that traditionally associated with the person's physiology or assigned sex at birth shall notify the Commissioner of Motor Vehicles of such identity and the commissioner shall indicate such identity in the electronic record maintained by the commissioner pertaining to such person's operator's license.

When he was introducing the bill he got a strong stare by the Senate Minority Leader Sen. Kissel, you could tell he was displeased with the senator. The amendment was defeated Yeas 8, Nays 26 with many of the Republicans voting against the amendment. During the debate Sen. Sunzio (R) asked Sen. Witkos police procedures if he (Sen. Witkos is an Avon police officer) was called to a disturbance with a man dressed as a woman in a bathroom. Sen. Witkos explained that this amendment who help us because it would allow police officers to better assess the situation and it was not meant to be a “Scarlet Letter”. Well Senator, maybe you don’t see it as a “Scarlet Letter” coming from a place of power, but I see it a branding us for life.

Finally, the bill came up for debate. While it was being debated, Andrew McDoanld came up to the Senate Gallery to talk to us; Andrew is the former co-chair of the Judiciary Committee along with Mike Lawlor, both of whom now work for the governor. Andrew is now the governor’s chief legal counsel. I remember back when I first met him, Mike and the Governor in 2005, it was at a fundraiser for GenderPAC and they were still legislators and the governor was the mayor of Stamford. We were also joined by Andrew from the CT chapter of the ACLU. The bill was only debated for about 15 – 20 minutes and when the vote came it was 20 Yeas, 16 Nays, the vote was along party lines. We all started clapping and jumping up and down and hugging and just creating merriment.

We all went out into the hallway where the celebration continued; meanwhile the opposition sneaked by us and slither off. So far they have remained quiet and have not issued a statement.

The governor has been behind this bill all the way and he has been the driving force that kept the bill moving and he issued a statement…

This bill is another step forward in the fight for equal rights for all of Connecticut’s citizens, and it’s the right thing to do. It’s difficult enough for people who are grappling with the issue of their gender identity, and discrimination against them has no place in our society. Connecticut has lead the way in other civil rights issues and I’m proud to be able to support and sign this bill.

I just wanted to say that was not one person’s effort, nor an organization effort, but was a grassroots effort with many people from many organizations, and individuals who all helped.


Photo: Diana (CTAC), Sally (ctEQUALITY) Jennifer (GLAD) Betty (Gallo & Co.) and Gretchen (Planned Parenthood) Missing from photo Jerimarie (CTAC) who was being interviewed and Andrew (ACLU/CT)

These are just some of the organizations that have helped…

CT TransAdvocacy Coalition
CT Women's Education and Legal Fund
Planned Parenthood of Southern New England
Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders
CT AFL-CIO
Anti-Defamation League CT
New Haven Pride Center
CT Sexual Assault Crisis Services
Transitioning and Loving Life (TaLL)
True Colors Sexual Minority Youth and Family Services
CT American Civil Liberties Union
CT Outreach Society
NARAL Pro-Choice CT
The Connecticut Alliance for Business Opportunities
UConn Rainbow Center
UConn Women's Center
Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund
National Gay and Lesbian Task Force
Unitarian Universalist Society: East
Permanent Commission on the Status of Women
New England Healthcare Employees Union SEIU 1199NE
CT Citizen Action Group
National Council of Jewish Women (CT)
CT Chapter of the National Organization for Women
Triangle Community Center
CT Coalition Against Domestic Violence
CT Clergy for Full Equality
CT Latina/os Achieving Rights & Opportunities
Human Rights Campaign CT
PFLAG Southeastern CT
PFLAG Hartford
City of Hartford Commission on LGBT Issues
National Association of Social Workers (CT Chapter)
City of Norwalk, Human Relations Commission
GLSEN CT

Thank you all! <3 br="">
Tomorrow night I celebrated with a lobster dinner.

---

Today:

When the bill was being debated in the House, there was a long delay, a lot of huddles by the Democrats and then Governor Malloy walked on on the floor of the House which is against the the rules. The Speaker of the House was banging his gavel saying "Will the governor get off the floor of the House!"

After a few minutes they had a vote on the bill, voting Yea 77, Nay 62, and absent and not voting 12.

Stonewall: Writing Us Out of History

We all know the story of Stonewall, of Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P. Johnson. But what about the following year, when the first Pride parade was held in 1970 and we were told… "Don’t attend!"

NYC Pride March

NYC LGBTQ Historic Sites Project

Overview

New York City’s first ever Pride March was held on Sunday, June 28, 1970 (the one-year anniversary of the Stonewall uprising), and, much to the organizers’ surprise, attracted thousands of participants.

Known at the time as the Christopher Street Liberation Day March, the route began on Washington Place between Sheridan Square and Sixth Avenue in Greenwich Village, moved north up Sixth Avenue, and ended with a “Gay-In” in Central Park’s Sheep Meadow.

But there were some who were not invited to march… trans people, butch lesbians, and flaming gays.

They only wanted those who could assimilate into society. They only wanted those who were "respectable" to mainstream America.

"Y'all better quiet down!... You all tell me, go and hide my tail between my legs, from the gay liberation, because you're tired of seeing drag queens and street people... I have been beaten. I have had my nose broken. I have been thrown in jail. I have lost my job. I have lost my apartment for gay liberation, and you all treat me this way? What the fuck's wrong with you all?"

— Sylvia Rivera, June 1973

They tried to shout her down… but she would have none of it. They tried to take the microphone back… but she held on tight. As the National Women’s History Museum notes:

The Stonewall Inn uprising was also a turning point in the visibility of the gay rights movement. The first pride parades started in 1970, but Rivera and other transgender people were discriminated against and discouraged from participating. In 1973, Rivera participated in the Gay Pride Parade but was not allowed to speak, despite the amount of work and advocacy she had done. She grabbed the microphone anyway, telling the spectators and other marchers, “If it wasn’t for the drag queen, there would be no gay liberation movement. We’re the front-liners.” She was booed off the stage.

And now, Trump has had us taken off the National Historical Landmark plaque at Stonewall.

Park Service erases 'transgender' on Stonewall website, uses the term 'LGB' movement

NPR News

Juliana Kim

February 14, 2025

The National Park Service website exploring the history and significance of the Stonewall Uprising has been stripped of any mention of transgender people.

The page was also updated to remove the "T" from the previously used acronym "LGBTQ+" — now, referring to the community as either "LGB" or "LGBQ." References to the word "queer" have also been removed.

When describing the Stonewall Uprising, the website now reads: "Before the 1960s, almost everything about living openly as a lesbian, gay, bisexual (LGB) person was illegal, but the events at the Stonewall Inn sparked fresh momentum for the LGB civil rights movement!"

Two steps forward, three steps backward.

 

---

 

Updated: 6/4

  

Chowdah

I am old enough to know how clam chowder has changed just in the time that I’ve been alive. In the last decade alone, it seems like there has been a race to see who can make the thickest chowdah!

Set your Way-Back Machine to the year of the Revolution… 1776! What was in their bowls back then looked more like Manhattan Clam Chowder. Brace yourself: the recipe consisted of clams, salt pork, onions, potatoes, and tomatoes in a clear broth.

Jumping forward to the 1830s and the recipe has morphed to…

CHOWDER RECIPE (1830)

The Frugal Housewife (1830)

Lydia Maria Child

TO MAKE A CHOWDER

Four pounds of fish are enough to make a chowder, for four or five people,—half dozen slices of salt pork in the bottom of the pot,—hang it high, so that the pork may not burn,—take it out when done very brown,—put in a layer of fish, cut in lengthwise slices,—then a layer formed of crackers, small or sliced onions, and potatoes sliced as thin as a four-pence, mixed with pieces of pork you have fried; then a layer of fish again, and so on. Six crackers are enough. Strew a little salt and pepper over each layer; over the whole pour a bowl full of flour and water, enough to come up even with the surface of what you have in the pot. A sliced lemon adds to the flavor. A cup of Tomato catsup is very excellent. Some people put in a cup of beer. A few clams are a pleasant addition. It should be covered so as not to let a particle of steam escape, if possible. Do not open it, except when nearly done, to taste if it be well seasoned.

OMG! There’s the tomatoes again!

In the 1920s, a lightning bolt split the chowder world apart. Those who worshipped New England called it Boston Clam Chowder, while those who still swore their allegiance to the tomato called it Rhode Island Red Chowder

Things got so heated that by 1939, a Maine politician actually tried to make putting tomatoes in chowder illegal! According to the New England Historical Society, the proposed law would have sentenced anti-creamy offenders to the impossible task of digging a barrel of clams at high tide.

It wasn't until the middle of the century that we saw chowder change from something resembling a clam stew into a true chowder.

Now, in the new century, we see chowdah get heavily thickened. It seems like a spoon needs to stand straight up in the bowl for it to even be called clam chowder anymore!

I prefer mine with milk or cream and no thickeners. One of the reasons I don’t like it thick is because the added starch spikes my blood sugar! When I'm on the Cape, I love going to Mac’s On The Pier—their chowdah is the perfect, traditional thin style.

I Was All Alone...

... I used to feel like I was the only one who felt the way I did. Then, this song came on the radio one Saturday morning while I was washing my car for a date.

Girls will be boys and boys will be girls

It's a mixed up, muddled up, shook up world, except for Lola

La-la-la-la Lola

At the time, whenever I encountered the word "transsexual," I researched it, but what I found never seemed to apply to me. No way could I be trans—the definitions back then only used words like "pervert" and "sexual deviant."

Then I heard about Lola, and my world changed.

Recently, however, the lens has shifted. The Guardian reported this week (March 23, 2026) that,

Kinks guitarist Dave Davies hits back at Moby for calling 1970 single Lola ‘gross and transphobic’

The band’s co-founder responded to the US musician’s comments, defending the song and saying they are ‘not transphobic’

by Laura Snapes

Mon 23 Mar 2026

The Kinks co-founder and guitarist Dave Davies hit back at Moby after the US electronic musician said that he could no longer listen to the band’s 1970 hit Lola on the grounds that he found it “gross and transphobic”.

Moby told the Guardian Saturday magazine’s Honest Playlist feature that he was repulsed by the song after it came up on a Spotify playlist. “I like their early music, but I was really taken aback at how unevolved the lyrics are,” he said.

The song details a young man in a nightclub falling for a figure who “walked like a woman but talked like a man”. It concludes: “Girls will be boys and boys will be girls / It’s a mixed up, muddled up, shook up world / Except for Lola.”

Davies responded on X: “I am highly insulted that Moby would accuse my brother” – Kinks songwriter Ray Davies – “of being ‘unevolved’ or transphobic in any way.” In another post, he continued: “I don’t wanna show the guy up, but Moby should be careful what he says.”

It’s a strange conflict of eras. As Bob Dylan wrote, "The Times They Are A-Changin'." They were changing in the seventies, and they are still changing today—and so is our vocabulary. Back then, the community was amazed that a song like "Lola" would even be played on the radio. It was avant-garde; it broke the ice. As punk icon Jayne County once wrote,

In the letter, County described herself as “thrilled and amazed” that the Kinks would write such a song, and wondered if other listeners had clocked its subject. “Lola will always be one of those songs that for me ‘broke the ice’ so to speak! A song that breaks down barriers and brings a used to be, hush, hush subject to the forefront and makes it sound perfectly natural to be singing a song about a ‘girl’ named Lola!”

She said that the song had propelled the Kinks into “the modern world. The REAL world! A world full of all kinds of people! Bisexual, gay, trans, not just a world full of straight heterosexuals!”

The LGBTQ+ subject matter of Lola was not without precedent for the Kinks. In 1965, their song See My Friends centred on a man unsure of his sexual orientation. Dave Davies also wrote in his 1996 autobiography Kink about having had affairs with musician Long John Baldry and producer Michael Aldred.

And sometime our lens change color!

Women History Month!

I don’t know about you but I had some preconceived ideas about traveling in colonial times and when I read about her journey it was amazing! I don’t think were many woman can do that today! I can across her journal and I asked ChatGPT to write about it and recommend other stories about women traveling!

In 1704, a Boston businesswoman did something almost unthinkable for her time: she set out alone on horseback, traveling south through Connecticut to New York City. Her name was Sarah Kemble Knight, and her journey would become one of the earliest known travel diaries by a woman in colonial America.

Knight wasn’t traveling for leisure. She was handling legal business for a friend’s estate. But the story she left behind shows a woman bold, clever, and unafraid of the risks of the road. She navigated muddy post roads, crossed rivers with no bridges, and stayed in inns where the beds were often crowded, uncomfortable, or infested. Along the way, she observed townspeople, inns, and local customs, recording everything with sharp wit and humor.

Her diary, later published as The Private Journal of a Journey from Boston to New York in the Year 1704, reveals a woman actively shaping her own experience. Knight complains, jokes, and critiques the people she meets, showing intelligence and independence that defied the norms of her era.

What makes her story extraordinary isn’t just the physical journey — it’s her determination to live life on her own terms, traveling through spaces most women of her social class would never enter. For a brief glimpse, you can imagine her riding through forests, dodging poor roads and the occasional rude traveler, notebook in hand, documenting the world in her own voice.

Sarah Kemble Knight reminds us that even in the early 18th century, women could step outside prescribed roles, pursue work and adventure, and leave a record of courage and curiosity that still inspires today.

---

## 1. Isabella Bird – adventures in the American West

One of the most entertaining travel writers.

    • Book: A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains

    • Written in the 1870s as letters during her travels in Colorado.

    • She rode horses through mountain wilderness and frontier towns.

The book describes frontier life, landscapes, and colorful characters she met along the way. ([Wikipedia][1])

Her style is very similar to Knight’s—personal observations, humor, and everyday details.

---

## 2. Isabella Bird again – traveling across America

Another free book:

    • The Englishwoman in America

It describes her journey through Canada and the United States and her impressions of American society. ([Project Gutenberg][2])

---

## 3. Stories about many women travelers

There’s also a collection called:

    • Celebrated Women Travellers of the Nineteenth Century

It tells the stories of multiple women explorers and travelers who wrote journals about their journeys around the world. ([Project Gutenberg][3])

---

## 4. Other colonial-era travel journals

Historians often group several early American travel diaries together, including:

    • Sarah Kemble Knight

    • William Byrd II

    • Alexander Hamilton

Their writings describe the difficult roads, taverns, and daily life in colonial America. ([Samson Historical][4])

---

💡 Why these are great blog material

Travel diaries are fascinating because they show:

    • what roads and towns were like

    • how people ate and slept while traveling

    • social customs and regional differences

They often feel surprisingly modern and personal, even though they were written centuries ago.

---

✅ 

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Lady%27s_Life_in_the_Rocky_Mountains? "A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains"

[2]: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/7526? "The Englishwoman in America by Isabella L. Bird | Project Gutenberg"

[3]: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/31479? "Celebrated Women Travellers of the Nineteenth Century by W. H. Davenport Adams | Project Gutenberg"

[4]: https://www.samsonhistorical.com/products/colonial-american-travel-narratives? "Colonial American Travel Narratives - Samson Historical"

We Are New, There Has Never Been A Trans People...

If you listen to modern conservative rhetoric, you would think trans people didn't exist until political parties "created" us. Opponents use clinical-sounding terms like "Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria" to make it seem like our existence is a recent phenomenon or a social fad. But we have been here since the beginning of history; the proof is written in our languages and buried in our earth.

Our ancestors didn't just tolerate us; they named us. In the Americas, we are the Two-Spirit, the Nádleehí (Navajo), the Winkté (Lakota), the Muxe (Zapotec), and the Machi (Mapuche). In Asia and the Pacific, we are known as the Hijra of India, the Māhū of Hawaii, the Fa'afafine of Samoa, and the Bissu of Indonesia. Across Africa and Europe, history remembers the Sekrata of Madagascar, the Ashtime of Ethiopia, and the Burrnesha of the Balkans. These aren't new labels; they are ancient titles of respect. Then the religious fanatics came!

Science is finally catching up to our stories. From the Code of Hammurabi in Babylon to 7,000-year-old graves where individuals were buried according to their lived identity rather than their biological sex, the "clues" are everywhere. As recent studies of Neolithic cemeteries show, ancient societies were already experiencing the complexity of identities long before the modern world tried to simplify them. 

Medium writes that,

Somewhere along the way, we forgot that queer identities were never foreign to us. They were woven into our culture long before anyone imagined the modern world. The Hijra were being written out of history...

[...]

The rewriting of this acceptance did not originate within India.

It arrived with colonialism.

In my view, the British brought a strict, Victorian sense of morality to India, uncomfortable with sexuality. I feel some colonial translators let this shape their interpretations of Sanskrit texts, turning nuanced ideas into rigid binaries.

This colonial filter turned indigenous acceptance into taboo. It replaced thousands of years of cultural complexity with shame.

This colonial "cleansing" continues today. It is not just conservative Christians in the U.S. using religious rhetoric to target us; we see the same patterns globally, such as the persecution of the Bissu by religious extremists in Indonesia. The draconian laws being passed across the United States today are part of a long, dark history of attempting to eradicate us from public life. But you cannot eradicate a people who have been a part of the human fabric for 7,000 years.

I am Just Sick & Tired

Of people saying Trump isn’t a racist: this whole “Woke” debate is just white supremacy masquerading as discrimination! Mississippi Today writes about how Trump & Company is whitewashing history.

Medgar Evers’ killer was a Klansman, but Trump administration says stop calling him a racist

by Jerry Mitchell

February 5, 2026

The National Park Service has removed visitor brochures from the Medgar & Myrlie Evers Home National Monument. Among the anticipated changes? No longer calling his murderer a “racist.”

Edits to the brochure have removed that reference to Byron De La Beckwith, according to Park Service officials, who asked not to be named for fear of retribution. Other edits include eliminating the reference to Medgar Evers lying in a pool of blood after being shot.

Reena Evers-Everette, executive director of the Medgar & Myrlie Evers Institute and daughter of the couple, said the family has been told the matter is under review, “but the final product has not been put out yet.”

Gone were trans people from Stonewall, slavery from Mount Vernon, and removed from the people… history being hidden or de-emphasized:

• CDC and HHS LGBTQ+ health resources – removed from public websites
• Department of Defense pages on Tuskegee Airmen – temporarily removed or edited
• National Park Service materials – systemic racism and Black contributions minimized
• Smithsonian exhibits – reviewed/edited for “divisive” content (slavery, civil rights)
• Federal DEI webpages – content about underrepresented groups deleted or reduced
• WhiteHouse.gov pages – LGBTQ+ rights and diversity content removed or rewritten
• Federal flag policies, monument signage, award recognitions – minority representation reduced

And the list keeps growing!

In another article Mississippi Today reported that the park service caved it and...

Hours after Mississippi Today reported Thursday that the National Park Service had removed brochures to the Medgar & Myrlie Evers Home National Monument that identified his murderer as a racist, the Park Service returned the brochures to the home.

On Thursday, Park Service officials told Mississippi Today that the reason they removed the brochures was they were “outdated.”

The Park Service had pulled the brochures in anticipation of replacing them with a new version, which would remove the word “racist” to describe the killer, Byron De La Beckwith, according to Park Service officials, who asked not to be named for fear of retribution. Other edits include eliminating the reference to Medgar Evers lying in a pool of blood after being shot.

Medgar Evers’ niece, Hinds County Supervisor Wanda Evers, said, “You can take away the brochures, but the one thing you can’t take away is history.”

I am reminded of the quote from 1984:

“Who controls the past controls the future.

Who controls the present controls the past." 

Now We Know Where They Got It From!

I don't know what they were thinking when they release this slogan, did they think no one would notice?

The Nazi Slogan: “Ein Volk, Ein Reich, Ein Führer” (One People, One Empire, One Leader).

The DOL Slogan: “One Homeland. One People. One Heritage.”

How dumb do they think we are? But that is the first time that they have borrowed slogans and tactics from them.

• JD Vance: ICE will be going door-to-door looking in Minneapolis
• Nazis: Going door-to-door looking for Jews.

• Now: Immigrants, journalists, political opponents framed as criminals, traitors, invaders
• Nazis: Jews, communists, “degenerates” portrayed as dangers to society.

• Now: Loyalty to the Trump
• Nazis: Courts, civil service, press labeled corrupt or disloyal

When you watch detective shows they always say "Look for patterns." 

You don’t have to believe history is repeating exactly to recognize when the same playbook keeps getting pulled off the shelf.

Have We Seen This Before?

[Editorial]

Are we on the verge of invading Venezuela?

If so, it would not be the first time we inserted ourselves into the affairs of Central and South America. You might think of the United Fruit Company and the “banana republics.” You might think of Teddy Roosevelt and the Marines in Nicaragua, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic.

And you might think even farther back to the Monroe Doctrine—remember that from your history classes? The policy that declared any attempt by European powers to influence or control countries in North or South America would be viewed as a hostile act against the United States.

Take a look at the long-term results of those actions: Cuba, decades of political unrest, guerrilla movements that morphed into drug cartels—much of it can be traced back to those presidents’ decisions.

Look back, to the period after World War I, when the victors divided up the Middle East—and consider where we are today.

When we couldn’t get oil from Iran, we helped engineer a revolution and installed the Shah. And now?

What will any new intervention mean for future generations? Will our great-grandchildren still be living with the consequences?

[/Editorial]

How Petty!

This administration is so petty, they would gleefully pour salt on a wound and their hatred of anything trans is even worst! You know that President Biden had a trans person as the head of the Commissioned Corps of the U.S. Public Health Service, well get a load at the petty thing that the Trump administration did to her!

HHS changed the name of transgender health leader on her official portrait

NPR News

By Selena Simmons-Duffin

December 5, 2025

As you walk down a particular hallway on the seventh floor of the Humphrey Building in Washington, D.C., you'll find a line of photographic portraits of all the people from years past who have led the Public Health Corps at the federal Department of Health and Human Services.

Only one of those portraits is of a transgender person: Adm. Rachel Levine, who served for four years as President Biden's assistant secretary for health. She was the first transgender person to win Senate confirmation, and her portrait has been displayed in the hallway since soon after she was confirmed in 2021. The role is a four-star admiral position in charge of the Commissioned Corps of the U.S. Public Health Service.

But what did the narrow-minded Trump administration do?

 Levine's official portrait was recently altered, a spokesperson for HHS confirmed to NPR. A digital photograph of the portrait in the hallway obtained by NPR shows that Levine's previous name is now typed below the portrait, under the glass of the frame.

They "dead-named" her! Like little bullies on a playground... they dead maned her. I'm surprised that they did paint a mustache on her, that is the infantile behavior that is expected from Trump's administration. Meanwhile, Admiral Levine takes the high ground!

Levine told NPR that it was an honor to serve the American people as the assistant secretary for health "and I'm not going to comment on this type of petty action."

While they crawl in the slop and mud...

NPR asked HHS who made the change and why. In response, HHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon wrote: "Our priority is ensuring that the information presented internally and externally by HHS reflects gold standard science. We remain committed to reversing harmful policies enacted by Levine and ensuring that biological reality guides our approach to public health."

They had to stick her in the back and twist the knife.

The Advocate put it this way,

Adrian Shanker, who served as Levine’s deputy and directed the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health Policy, said the move reflects a troubling misuse of institutional authority.

“During her entire time as assistant secretary for health and admiral of the United States Public Health Service, Admiral Levine was a dedicated public health servant,” Shanker told The Advocate. “She was working to end the HIV epidemic, respond to syphilis surges, improve mental health and nutrition, and really work for the health and well-being of all Americans. And it seems like what the folks that are there now are doing are small acts of pettiness and bigotry. It’s not only unfair to Admiral Levine, but it’s unfair to the American people that this is the level of seriousness of the current political appointees at HHS.”

This is what we expect from the current administration.

He added that the portrait alteration fits into the broader pattern of the administration seeking to erase transgender people from public life. “It does seem like they’re obsessed with trans people and with removing not only their legal rights and their access to health care, but even people’s basic existence,” he said.

405 Years Ago (Part II)

They say history is written by the victors, but sometimes it is rewritten, and rewritten. The latest rewrite occurred in the 1950s.

‘I Was Teaching a Lot of Misconceptions.’ The Way American Kids Are Learning About the 'First Thanksgiving' Is Changing

Time

By OLIVIA B. WAXMAN 

November 21, 2019

On a recent Saturday morning in Washington, D.C., about two dozen secondary-and-elementary-school teachers experienced a role reversal. This time, it was their turn to take a quiz: answer “true” or “false” for 14 statements about the famous meal known as the “First Thanksgiving.”

Did the people many of us know as pilgrims call themselves Separatists? Did the famous meal last three days? True and true, they shouted loudly in unison. Were the pilgrims originally heading for New Jersey? False.

But some of the other statements drew long pauses, or the soft murmurs of people nervous about saying the wrong thing in front of a group. Renée Gokey, Teacher Services Coordinator at the National Museum of the American Indian and a member of the Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma, waited patiently for them to respond. The teachers at this Nov. 9 workshop on “Rethinking Thanksgiving in Your Classroom” were there to learn a better way to teach the Thanksgiving story to their students, but first, they had some studying to do. When Gokey explained that early days of thanks celebrated the burning of a Pequot village in 1637, and the killing of Wampanoag leader Massasoit’s son, attendees gasped audibly.

[…]

But some of the other statements drew long pauses, or the soft murmurs of people nervous about saying the wrong thing in front of a group. Renée Gokey, Teacher Services Coordinator at the National Museum of the American Indian and a member of the Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma, waited patiently for them to respond. The teachers at this Nov. 9 workshop on “Rethinking Thanksgiving in Your Classroom” were there to learn a better way to teach the Thanksgiving story to their students, but first, they had some studying to do. When Gokey explained that early days of thanks celebrated the burning of a Pequot village in 1637, and the killing of Wampanoag leader Massasoit’s son, attendees gasped audibly.

But when you tread on history you have to walk lightly because some people hold on to tradition and don’t like the facts.

What really happened back in the fall of 1621 is documented in only two primary sources from colonists’ perspectives. Edward Winslow’s account of the bountiful harvest and the three-day feast with the Wampanoag people runs a measly six sentences, and Plymouth Colony Governor William Bradford’s later account is about the same length—evidence, argues historian Peter C. Mancall, that neither colonial leader considered the event worth more than a paragraph. As Plymouth became part of Massachusetts and Puritans gave way to the Founding Fathers, nobody thought much about that moment. When George Washington declared a national day of Thanksgiving in 1789, his proclamation of gratefulness made no mention of anything related to what happened in Plymouth. Then, around 1820, a Philadelphia antiquarian named Alexander Young found Winslow’s account. He republished it in his 1841 Chronicles of the Pilgrim Fathers, with a fateful footnote: “This was the first Thanksgiving, the harvest festival of New England.”

Let us wave the Red, White, and Blue… this is what makes us great! We have Thanksgiving! Lets have parades and marching bands dressed up like Yankee-doodle, pumpkin pie and turkey dinners with all the fixings!

But that’s not what was included in the classroom materials about Thanksgiving that began to be developed in the wake of Lincoln’s proclamation, especially between the 1890s and 1920s, according to former Plimoth Plantation historian James W. Baker’s Thanksgiving: The Biography of an American Holiday. The settlers were re-branded the “pilgrims.” An 1889 novel Standish of Standish: A Story of the Pilgrims by Jane G. Austin, which described “The First Thanksgiving of New England” as an outdoor feast, became a best-seller. In 1897, an illustration by W.L. Taylor of a meal like the one Austin described accompanied a piece in Ladies Home Journal that was presented as a factual article about the first Thanksgiving; thanks in part to the growth of the advertising industry at this time, variations of this image spread quickly.

In 1941 Thanksgiving was made a national holiday. Before then it was celebrated at different days in November. The National Archives writes;

To end the confusion, Congress decided to set a fixed-date for the Thanksgiving holiday. On October 6, 1941, the House passed a joint resolution declaring the last Thursday in November to be the legal Thanksgiving Day. 

The Senate amended the resolution establishing the holiday as the fourth Thursday, which would take into account those years when November has five Thursdays. The House agreed to the amendment, and President Roosevelt signed the resolution on December 26, 1941, establishing the fourth Thursday in November as the federal Thanksgiving Day holiday. The law went into effect the following year.

And so the Christmas shopping season was created!

*****

The Meaning of Thanksgiving, as Told Through Cold War Propaganda

A heartwarming 1950s holiday film about the virtues of capitalism

The Atlantic

By Kathy Gilsinan

November 26, 2014

The Johnsons, a fictional Midwestern family, are in for a letdown one Thanksgiving in the 1950s. Expenses were high the previous month, and while the kids are getting stoked for turkey, it falls to their mom to tell them the truth: There will be no turkey this year. Little Tommy is incredulous: "No turkey for Thanksgiving?" Dick, the oldest, notes that everyone else on the block will have a turkey. "A fat lot we're gonna have to be thankful for," he sulks.

[…]

A Day of Thanksgiving came out in 1951, in the context of the early Cold War, with American troops battling communists in Korea and Senator Joseph McCarthy kicking his investigations of suspected American communists into high gear. As such, the film extolls the virtues of capitalist democracy—even, as in the Johnsons' case, when you can't afford turkey. After all, Thanksgiving, as O. Henry pointed out at the turn of the 20th century, "is the one day of the year that is purely American." And America, per Mr. Johnson, is a set of freedoms and privileges that, by the 1950s, has produced abundance beyond the pilgrims' imaginings. "Do you know," Johnson asks his kids, "that there are some places in the world today where you have to get along without just about everything else" besides life itself?

Without Thanksgiving what would Norman Rockwell have to paint? Without Thanksgiving what would Macy's do?

Of all magazines to write about Thanksgiving, Science News had an interesting take on it.

Why the Thanksgiving myth persists, according to science

Memory often favors a tidy narrative over the messier reality of history

By Sujata Gupta

Social Sciences Writer

November 21, 2023

Ask someone in the United States to name five events important to the country’s foundation and there’s a good chance they’ll mention the Pilgrims.

That’s what researchers found a few years ago when they put that question to some 2,000 people. The Revolutionary War, Declaration of Independence, Christopher Columbus’ “discovery” of the Americas and the Civil War topped the list. But coming in seventh place were the Pilgrims, the team reported in 2022 in Memory Studies.

The “Thanksgiving myth” is part of that tale, says coauthor and cognitive psychologist Henry Roediger, also at Washington University. The shorthand for that story, he says, goes like this: In 1621, the Pilgrims and Native Americans “had this peaceful meal and powwow [while] singing kumbaya.”

The two groups did engage in a peaceful harvest celebration in the fall of 1621, history suggests. But historians are quick to point out that the tidy tale ignores context, particularly the deadly diseases and bloody wars that devastated Indigenous populations both before and after the occasion.

[…]

Origin stories like the Thanksgiving one are particularly sticky as they underpin a group’s raison d’être. Fixing or changing the story risks muddying the plot and tearing apart the group, says Van Engen. “The Pilgrims just become right for telling [the] stories … that we want to tell about ourselves.”

[...]

But scholars are starting to grapple with how nations should contend with difficult pasts. “How do you keep a strong national identity and patriotism while at the same time acknowledging the more negative aspects of your history?” Roediger asks. The answer, as evidenced by increasing calls for racial reckonings in the United States and elsewhere, is very much a work in progress.

We must learn from the past! Not only from our roots but from global history, especial from the events in Europe in the 1920s and 1930s.

For that 1621 Thanksgiving, the complex historic arc goes like this. Up to 90 percent of the Wampanoag population had died from an epidemic brought by a previous wave of European explorers by the time the Pilgrims arrived in December 1620 in what’s now Massachusetts. The weakened community faced threats from an encroaching neighboring tribe. Meanwhile, the Pilgrims, unaccustomed to the new environment and climate, were dying of starvation and disease.

That got the right-wingers howling and started this whole “Woke” business.

The right-wingers picture Thanksgiving as “over the river and through the woods to grandma’s house...” and anyone who tampers with their fantasies watch out.

My thoughts:

Thanksgiving is a rough holiday for some and we have to keep that in mind, for the “haves” it is family, a table overflowing with food, and laughter. For the “have-nots” it can be a lonely time, it can be a time famine and empty plates. We need to be aware of these two diametrical opposites.

Thanksgiving might have been created with an ulterior motive to unify the country and build patriotism but it has warped into something else a time to be with family. But the harvest celebrations are found throughout history and in all different cultures.

So enjoy your leftovers. (That is also part of the tradition)   

405 Years Ago! (Part I)

This is a reprint from last year; I figured it was fitting as I drive home today...

The Pilgrims landed on Cape Cod, and most of the history that we learned about it is wrong.

The New York Post has this article about the Pilgrims…

Pilgrims’ descendants defend their ancestors — and the history of America
By Peter W. Wood
November 21, 2020

Rebecca Locklear, 64, a 12th-generation Cape Codder, is a descendant of four of the families who arrived on the Mayflower in November 1620. She worries that society today, “is put into groups that are supposedly in a struggle against one another, rather than looking for commonality” — a view that opposes “the more open, inclusive society that the signers of the Mayflower Compact envisioned.”

[…]

Locklear and Whitaker both wrote to me after they read my recent New York Post essay, “This American Lie.” In it, I argued that The New York Times’ 1619 Project — which links the beginning of our country to the arrival of the first slaves on our shores in 1619 — is completely wrong. Instead, the Pilgrims’ signing of the Mayflower Compact in 1620 is a more accurate root of our nation, which is built on the idea that “all men are created equal.” Even before the Pilgrims and dozens of non-Pilgrims (or “Strangers” as the Pilgrims called them) stepped ashore in Plymouth, they set aside their deep divisions and voluntarily joined together to sign the Compact, agreeing to govern themselves with “just and equal laws.” After settling in Plymouth, this group lived in peace alongside their Native American neighbors, the Wampanoags, in a treaty that was unbroken for more than 50 years. In 1621, the autumn harvest meal between the Plymouth colonists and the Wampanoags marked the first ever Thanksgiving feast in America.

Yes, the Mayflower Compact was an important document, but they brought over slaves and indentured servants. And they didn’t live in peace with the indigenous population… Did you ever hear of King Philip’s War and the Pequot War?

First off, the Mayflower wasn’t just carrying Pilgrims; there were also Brownists or Separatists who were fleeing England on board the Mayflower.

The Mayflower compact is a significant historical document, the "wave-rocked cradle of our liberties", as one historian evocatively put it. Signed by the Pilgrims and the so-called Strangers, the craftsmen, merchants and indentured servants brought with them to establish a successful colony, it agreed to pass "just and equal laws for the good of the Colony" ¹

The Mayflower first stopped in the “New World” (which was really only the “New World” if you came from Europe because the indigenous peoples lived here for tens of thousands of years.) It wasn’t Provincetown; they first stopped in Newfoundland to resupply, probably at Renews in Newfoundland. And they were actually heading for the Hudson River, where they had a charter from the Virginia Colony to settle.

The Pilgrims had slaves and indentured servants (a fancy word for slaves).

Just as their brutality has traditionally been downplayed, the Puritans' embrace of slavery has been ignored. Not only did the colonists import African slaves, they exported Native Americans. By the 1660s, half of the ships in Boston Harbour were involved in the slave trade. At least hundreds of indigenous Americans were enslaved. ¹

Provincetown was a known harbor; fishing fleets from England, France, Portugal, and Spanish ships all stopped there to resupply and get fresh water. The Grand Banks are only a couple of hundred miles offshore.

In an article in the Cape Cod Times they write....

Myth: The Pilgrims were the first Europeans to land in Southern New England and to interact with the Native people.

The commonly told version of the 1620 Mayflower landing is that the Pilgrims were the first Europeans to step onto the shores of Massachusetts. According to historic accounts, however, Europeans had been visiting New England since at least the late 1400s. The Basques, English and French had a thriving fishing industry off the coast of Maine and New England. The first documented European to make contact with either the Narragansetts or the Wampanoags in Southern New England was Italian explorer Giovanni de Verrazano, who, in 1524, while sailing for the French, traveled up Narragansett Bay and traded with the Native people he found there. ⁶

The BBC article also mentioned earlier contacts with Europeans:

It's also a mistake to view the arrival of the Mayflower as the first interaction between white settlers and indigenous North Americans. Contact with Europeans had been going on for at least a century, partly because slave traders targeted Native Americans. When the pilgrims came ashore, a few members of the Wampanoag tribe could even speak English. ¹

While sitting out in Provincetown harbor for over a month, they realized that they didn’t have a charter to settle there and that there were no laws governing them. So they got this idea… the Mayflower Compact.

Quickly, the Pilgrim leadership drafted a rudimentary constitution to “combine our selves together into a civil body politick”—which would, through democratic process, enact “just and equal laws…for the general good of the Colony.”

[…]

In reality, the signing was probably more of an informal affair, Pickering says. “The document was carried from person to person: ‘Here—sign this!’ There was also a bit of coercion involved. You weren’t getting off the boat until you signed.” ²

And they were not good neighbors… They stole the Wampanoag food!

Oh look somebody buried corn in clay pots!

To narrow it down to the outermost areas of Cape Cod, the Nauset tribe, which was part of the Wampanoag Nation, would likely have been watching and wondering what the intentions of the Mayflower occupants were, Peters said.

[…]

“Certainly the Nausets didn’t write down (that) they were watching the Mayflower come ashore, but we absolutely know that they would have. You can’t pull that boat up to the coast and people not notice,” he said. “And for them, it must have been such an odd sight to all of a sudden see women and children step off the ship …”

[…]

The text also describes how the exploring party came across “heaps of sand” under which they found baskets of “fair Indian corn” and ears of corn of varying colors. The Englishmen dug up the food stores and stole them.

After stealing their food the Nausets said enough…

“I think they would have thought about that very carefully, and I think they were careful in how they responded,” he said. “Ultimately, they did respond in the ‘first encounter’... you know, shoot some arrows at them to say, ‘OK, time for you to move along. We don’t want to take the risk of having Europeans hanging around here.’ That ultimately pushed them over to Plymouth, which was just a short ride in the shallop for them to get there.” ³

The Wampanoag tells their story for the 400 anniversary of the Mayflower…

The Wampanoag have lived in southeastern Massachusetts for more than 12,000 years. They are the tribe first encountered by Mayflower Pilgrims when they landed in Provincetown harbor and explored the eastern coast of Cape Cod and when they continued on to Patuxet (Plymouth) to establish Plymouth Colony.

[…]

Chapter 1: Captured: 1614

In 1614, a European explorer kidnapped twenty Wampanoag men from Patuxet (now Plymouth) and seven more from Nauset on Cape Cod to sell them as slaves in Spain. Only one is known to have returned home: Tisquantum, who came to be known as Squanto. This tragic and compelling backstory to the colonization of Plymouth has been long overlooked comes to life in the exhibit’s dramatic images and video impact statements.

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Chapter 3: The Great Dying – 2016

God’s Will or Unfortunate Circumstance?

Between 1616 and 1619 Native villages of coastal New England from Maine to Cape Cod were stricken by a catastrophic plague that killed tens of thousands, weakening the Wampanoag nation politically, economically and militarily. ⁵

And then came the Mayflower.

As for the first "Thanksgiving" the indigenous peoples were not invited but can a running.

Myth: The Pilgrims and Wampanoags came together in November 1621 for a Thanksgiving feast.

There’s a lot to unpack with this one, and not just because it forms the basis of our country’s Thanksgiving Day story.

First, while the Puritans did have “days of Thanksgiving” they were literally the opposite of a big, fun, family feast. They were usually days of fasting and prayer that maybe would be broken with a larger meal.

Edward Winslow, in his writing about the first few years in Plymouth titled “Mourt’s Relation: A Journal of the Pilgrims in Plymouth,” does mention a celebration marking the settlement’s first successful harvest, probably held around October 1621. Given the context, it certainly wasn’t a huge deal but it would later become one in modern America.

According to Winslow, despite the fact that the Wampanoags had allowed the Pilgrims to live on their land, provided them with aid and taught them how to successfully grow native crops, the Wampanoags were not invited to this celebration. They arrived only after the Pilgrims started shooting their guns into the air. Believing themselves to be under attack, the Wampanoags head sachem, Massasoit, showed up at the settlement with about 90 warriors expecting war. Instead, they found a celebration and they decided to stay, with their hunters bringing in five deer as a contribution. Rather than a happy celebration of camaraderie and partnership, the feast that would serve as the basis of the traditional Thanksgiving myth was actually quite a tense affair, fraught with political implic

The Pilgrims and the Mayflower have been romanticized, and the truth has been swept under the rug and glossed over, and now on the 400th anniversary of their landing in the “New World,” history is still being whitewashed, and Trump’s creation of the 1776 Commission continues to whitewash history.

1. Mayflower at 400: What we all get wrong about the Pilgrim Fathers

2. 400 years on, the Pilgrims get a reality check

3. A nation created, a nation diminished: Pilgrims’ arrival in Provincetown 400 years ago spawned a clash of cultures

4. “OUR”STORY: 400 YEARS OF WAMPANOAG HISTORY

5. Pilgrim myths: Don’t believe everything your kindergarten teacher told you

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A new Part 2 will be posted this afternoon.