All I can think about are Indians. Indians with painted faces and feathers and moccasins and big ridged noses. "How!" is their greeting. They always sit on the ground with their legs crossed. They also eat with their fingers and smoke long wooden pipes. "Aw wa wa wa!" They say this too when they are high on peyote possessed by the flames of big fire.

Indians gave the Pilgrims corn and turkey. The Pilgrims gave them Jesus Christ.

In Spanish they call Thanksgiving El dia de Accion de Gracias. I think of that action, that grand feast of thanks to God, with the corn bread, cranberry sauce, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy and big wet Turkey dripping with grease straight from the oven. We eat like pigs to thank God or is it to thank Indians? But why would we eat like gluttons to thank Indians? They didn't give us anything that wasn't already rightfully ours. Right? No, I guess they gave us corn. Oh and Casinos in places where we can't legally gamble. So corn and casinos.

And God, he gave us the great land of liberty. The home of the free and brave. Purple mountain majesties. Slavery, but also Abraham Lincoln. Segregation, but also Martin Luther King. The New York Yankees. Microsoft. Wal-Mart. Kraft.

So Happy Thanksgiving.