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The history of Thanksgiving goes much further back than Plymouth and 1621. In fact, people across the world from every culture have been celebrating and giving thanks for thousands of years. In this country, long before English colonists arrived, Native People celebrated many different days of thanksgiving. “Strawberry Thanksgiving” and “Green Corn Thanksgiving” are just two of kinds of celebrations for the Wampanoag and other Native People. In 1621, the English colonists at Plymouth (some people call them “Pilgrims” today) had a three-day feast to celebrate their first harvest. More than 90 native Wampanoag People joined the 50 English colonists in the festivities. Historians don­t know for sure why the Wampanoag joined the gathering or what activities went on for those three days. Form the one short paragraph that was written about the celebration at the time, we know that they ate, drank, and played games. Back in England, English people celebrated the harvest by feasting and playing games in much the same way. The English did not call the 1621 event a “thanksgiving.” A day of “thanksgiving” was very different for the colonists. It was a day of prayer to thank God when something really good happened. The English actually had their first thanksgiving in the summer of 1623. On this day they gave thanks for the rain that ended a long drought.

he Pilgrims, fleeing religious persecution, sailed from England to the New World aboard the Mayflower. They stepped ashore on Plymouth Rock and began a new colony. In unfamiliar territory, they came near starvation, but the Indian Squanto appeared and taught them to plant corn and make their living from the land. Led by William Bradford and Miles Standish, they survived these difficult early days, and when they brought in the first rich harvest, they set aside a day to give thanks to God for their good fortune. The chief Massasoit and their other Native American neighbors came bringing deer and wild turkeys, and together the Indians and the Pilgrims celebrated the first Thanksgiving. The vague history (more myth, really) of the first Thanksgiving presents a scenario of the encounter of New World and Old World people that existed for only a moment, if it existed at all. It involves one of the least typical, and least successful, groups of European colonizers of the North American continent. Yet Thanksgiving is an important celebration throughout the United States, and like most things central to American culture, it is complicated and multilayered.

On December 13, 2007, former Senate majority leader George Mitchell (D-Maine) released a report to the commissioner of baseball stating that the New York Yankees' starting pitcher, Roger Clemens, and others, had illegally used performance enhancing substances during their major league baseball careers. Clemens, also known as "The Rocket," is a seven-time Cy Young Award winner and has been strongly considered for the Baseball Hall of Fame; however, Mitchell's report has damaged his reputation. The report has also hurt the careers of those around him, including his then-fitness trainer, Brian McNamee. McNamee testified against Clemens and reported that he had personally injected Clemens with steroids, testosterone, and human growth hormone. Clemens has vehemently denied these allegations, stating that he has never tested positive for these substances and is merely a victim of slander and attack. While Clemens's alleged use of steroids has garnered a high level of media attention, it is only a small part of the performance enhancing drug controversy.

Johnny Campbell,