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***Rush To Tell The Thanksgiving Story On Today's Show***
Stardate: 0211.27

Posted on 11/27/2002 9:11:11 AM PST by The Wizard

Just announced, very worth while......


TOPICS: Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: homeschoollist
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1 posted on 11/27/2002 9:11:11 AM PST by The Wizard
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To: The Wizard
You mean the story about how it just wasn't Thanksgiving until the Indians showed up with marshmallows to top the Pilgrims' baked yams?
2 posted on 11/27/2002 9:15:59 AM PST by Cinnamon Girl
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To: The Wizard
I hope this does not provoke another attack of the disabled (hearing) by the Honorable Senator from South Dakota, Tom Daschle. ;^)
3 posted on 11/27/2002 9:16:00 AM PST by elbucko
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To: Cinnamon Girl
marshmallows m m m mm

baked yams m m m m

4 posted on 11/27/2002 9:17:05 AM PST by ChadGore
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To: The Wizard
Probably the one where the pilgrams had a socilaist society that did not work very well. They then went to a capitalist model with much better results.
5 posted on 11/27/2002 9:17:52 AM PST by 2banana
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To: The Wizard
This is a great story to tape and play for your kids when they are of the appropriate age to understand. Also great for school teachers to play for their history students.
6 posted on 11/27/2002 9:26:40 AM PST by heckler
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To: *Homeschool_list; 2Jedismom; homeschool mama; BallandPowder; ffrancone; WhyisaTexasgirlinPA; ...
Homeschool bump
7 posted on 11/27/2002 9:28:49 AM PST by TxBec
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To: heckler; The Wizard
You gotta love this time of year!!
8 posted on 11/27/2002 9:32:58 AM PST by Mainah
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To: Mainah
coming soon bump
9 posted on 11/27/2002 9:52:27 AM PST by The Wizard
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To: The Wizard
Ayuh -
10 posted on 11/27/2002 9:54:13 AM PST by Mainah
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To: The Wizard
has it already been told? Did I miss it?
11 posted on 11/27/2002 9:54:58 AM PST by LaceyLev
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To: The Wizard
Here's a preview:

Limbaugh offers some insight to listeners

Richard Swanson

Rush Limbaugh, that boogeyman of the radio waves, has an interesting take on the first Thanksgiving story. I read his interpretation of the historical record in “See, I Told You So,” which I purchased with some spare change at a used book sale.

I would like to share his Thanksgiving story with you because I think his interpretation is original, plausible and worthy of discussion.

Also, I just want to irk my grad school colleagues who either roll their eyes or emit foul oaths at the mention of this conservative pundit who hosts a radio talk show with an estimated 8 million listeners.

Limbaugh refers to the journal of Pilgrim leader William Bradford, who described the New England of November 1620 as a cold, barren, desolate wilderness, with no friends to greet the Pilgrims.

During that first winter, half of the 40 Pilgrims, including Bradford’s wife, died of starvation, sickness or exposure. Limbaugh notes that “when spring finally came, Indians taught the settlers how to plant corn, fish for cod and skin beavers for coats.

“Life improved for the Pilgrims, but they did not prosper!” Limbaugh asserts. He says this last point is important to understand, because it’s where modern American history lessons often end.

Limbaugh writes that Thanksgiving should not be explained as a holiday where the Pilgrims “gave thanks to the Indians for saving their lives,” but rather that it should be recognized as the day the Pilgrims expressed devout thanks to God for essentially showing them the virtues of the free enterprise system.

Now, wait. Before you laugh and call Limbaugh’s conclusion tawdry, Eurocentric, or worse, Republican, listen to his logic. According to Limbaugh, the Pilgrims had originally entered into a contract that called for everything they produced to go into a common store, and each member of the community was entitled to one common share.

And all of the land they learned and houses they built belonged to the community as well. Limbaugh quotes Bradford’s own journal in denouncing this early experiment in socialism.

“For this community was found to breed much confusion and discontent, and retard much employment that would have been to their benefit and comfort,” wrote Bradford. “For young men that were most able and fit for labor and service did repine that they should spend their time and strength to work for other men’s wives and children without recompense … that was thought injustice.”

According to Limbaugh, Bradford saved the colony by unleashing the power of the marketplace and private ownership when he assigned every family its own plot of land and permitted them to market their own crops and products.

The result was crops aplenty and feasting the following November.

Now it’s no surprise that Limbaugh, champion of capitalism, should take this spin on the Thanksgiving story. And his insistence that this version of the story be taught to every schoolchild instead of “liberal social studies claptrap” is kind of funny. But nevertheless, Limbaugh makes a perfectly lucid argument, and one that deserves consideration.

Limbaugh’s hyperbole and comical conceit don’t bother me. What bothers me is the closed-mindedness of people who I know have neither listened to his radio show, nor read his books. I’m annoyed by a hypocrisy that allows people who say they’re open-minded academics to pass blind judgment.

I disagree with Limbaugh’s cultural conservatism and I disapprove of his belittling stance on the environment, but I recognize that if a guy has 16 million ears tuned to him daily, he should be taken seriously. When I’ve listened to his radio show I’ve never heard him say anything racist or bigoted (qualities he’s been tagged with).

What one will discover is that he’s extremely knowledgeable about Washington, D.C., politics, U.S. foreign policy and world economy. He’s fascinating to listen to because he is able to spin anything to favor his conservative agenda.

If you’re aware that he’s doing this and of how he’s doing it, you’re likely to enjoy the experience and perhaps learn something at the same time.

As Limbaugh says in his introduction to “See, I Told You So”: “Prepare your mind to be challenged as it has never been challenged before. Don’t be surprised if your brain is stimulated to the point that genuine human thought takes place. This is normal for non-liberals. You are making progress

12 posted on 11/27/2002 9:55:18 AM PST by Jalapeno
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To: LaceyLev
probably the "they may not have even eaten turkey, more likely venison of whatever sort they could get their hands on, combined with whatever roots they could dig up and whatever they could harvest from their meager crop" story. And they were glad to be alive to eat it at all.
13 posted on 11/27/2002 9:56:39 AM PST by seams2me
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To: Jalapeno
Cultural conservatism?
14 posted on 11/27/2002 10:05:15 AM PST by Mainah
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To: Jalapeno
Actually, this is in no way original with Rush. For many years now (don't know if they still do it) the WSJ has had an annual Thanksgiving editorial which tells essentially the same story.
15 posted on 11/27/2002 10:20:36 AM PST by Doodle
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To: All
Political Cartoon of Rush

16 posted on 11/27/2002 10:26:11 AM PST by Sungirl
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To: Sungirl
Thanks for sharing!
17 posted on 11/27/2002 10:33:29 AM PST by Mainah
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To: heckler
Speaking of history, the first Thanksgiving occurred in Virginia at Berkeley Plantation (commemorated in a pageant otherwise known as "the Berkely Turkey").
18 posted on 11/27/2002 10:36:20 AM PST by talleyman
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To: The Wizard
I was blessed to be born in America - every day is Thanksgiving!!
Have a happy Thanksgiving fellow Freepers, and say extra prayers for our service men and women.
19 posted on 11/27/2002 11:02:38 AM PST by Psalm 73
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To: The Wizard
Rush will tell the story now
20 posted on 11/27/2002 11:08:38 AM PST by The Wizard
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