Here in the United States it’s Thanksgiving. When the Pilgrims celebrated their first Thanksgiving (not the actual first Thanksgiving in North America, the Spanish beat the Pilgrims in that by over 20 years), they were being thankful for their move to a new land (despite its numerous hardships). Furthermore, it was a celebration attended by immigrants and natives alike (the problem of later conflicts between the two groups I’ve discussed previously).
As is traditional, I’ll be taking the chance to be thankful for a few things enabled by immigration.
– I’m thankful that the early United States maintained open immigration so that my own ancestors could move here.
– I’m thankful for immigrants who come to this country and help strike blows for individual liberty.
– I’m thankful for immigrants who pick the foods I’m about to devour.
– I’m thankful for non-Americans crossing the borders of the United States, who give me the chance to blog about important issues.
– I’m thankful for the immigrants who start search engines that let me get all these neat links.
– And finally, I’m thankful for the internet that allows dialog and communication across the world as if there were no borders at all.
Happy Thanksgiving everybody!
