2021 Life Logs, Day 329: A Day of Mourning
Date: Thursday, November 25, 2021
Weather: Beautiful Day, Warmer Than Yesterday; High Temp 54, Low Temp 43 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
Instead of observing the traditional Thanksgiving Day, the Goldstones, the Handley-Hunts, and I spent our day in Plymouth standing in solidarity with the indigenous people of Massachusetts who hold a Day of Mourning on this day. 
This Day of Mourning was first declared in 1970. I read one account where a modern day Wampanoag man said, “Thanksgiving is the one day where everyone in America bows their head and gives thanks for everything they took from us.” It is hard to argue with that statement. When you start by acknowledging that the Pilgrims settled, certainly uninvited, on the land that had been inhabited the Wampanoag Tribe for more than 12,000 years, it is easy to understand why they have declared this a National Day of Mourning.
My family will have a ‘feast’ tomorrow and reflect on those things for which we are grateful. But I doubt that any of us will ever again celebrate a traditional Thanksgiving feast on Thanksgiving Day. There is a lot to process from today’s experience, but it certainly set us all on a new path of investigation into the true history of this country.
