This country, as in other ones, will always have a squawker looking to abuse history to whinge about something. There are often some collateral issues to make such claims. Christmas was a pagan holiday. Columbus massacred Native Americans. The list goes on if one wants to reinvent a negative spin on such things. And indeed, it's often by some government office of no value put there for patronage purposes or some lobbyist group looking for attention and power.

Thanksgiving was actually a New England thing that other Americans found unique to that area and not part of their own local culture. When Lincoln first adopted it, it didn't really get off the ground for awhile. It was actually business--with federal support to help the economy--in the early part of the 1900s who marketed and promoted it on a national level where it finally got national public traction as a nice thing to do plus help business. Holidays are awesome for business and good for the national mindset and need to take time out for themselves and their family and friends, and placing enough of them strategically throughout the year helps the economy. But, it's a nice holiday with a nice theme (the current understanding is all that matters, not some old one) as well as good business and that what's important. Even the Canadians adopted Thanksgiving Day although on another day.

That lady is a crock and she'll be dismissed as such. Those claims have been made before and people know such things have one sided, parsed and selected historical truths to craft the spin but the spin isn't really relevant to the holiday today and people won't let them spoil it.

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