The Thanksgiving vision pushed by the ACLU and its local Alaska chapter is a far cry from what President George Washington had in mind when, in 1789, he recommended that Americans set aside a “day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness.”

Instead of thanking God for “the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty,” as Washington saw it, the ACLU of Alaska believes the holiday should be “a time of mourning, reflection, truth telling and resistance.”

In lieu of grateful prayers, the ACLU suggests starting the meal with a land acknowledgment, followed by “decolonizing Thanksgiving,” and what it calls the “false and harmful Thanksgiving origin story,” of an “amicable feast between ‘pilgrims and Indians.'”

Despite all of the negativity directed towards the holiday, the ACLU doesn’t once suggest Alaskans forego the feast entirely, but rather “consider what foods on your table are Indigenous and learn about Alaska Native food systems.”

They also think it’s a prime time to commit one’s financial support to radical leftist organizations that promote LGBTQ dogma, critical race theory and climate alarmism.

At the national level, the ACLU is urging Americans to show up to Thanksgiving wearing bold politically charged t-shirts – armed with a laundry list of divisive talking points aimed at convincing their table guests about the virtues of transgender surgeries and open borders, while condemning systemic racism and other issues that are dear to the far left.

The ACLU also has some disparaging comments for family members who might not agree with them.

“We know many of us will find ourselves gathering around tables this holiday season with a wide range of folks in our lives — loved ones, friends, chosen family, and the family you’d only choose to spend one day a year with,” the ACLU stated in a national talking point sheet. “We also know not everyone in our lives will agree on the issues that we so firmly believe in. Trust us, we get how challenging those conversations can be.”

Washington certainly had none of this in mind when urging his fellow Americans to express gratitude to God for “the peaceable and rational manner, in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national One now lately instituted – for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed; and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and in general for all the great and various favors which he hath been pleased to confer upon us.”

But America’s first president also acknowledged that such a great nation should “unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech him to pardon our national and other transgressions – to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually.”

He added that Americans should “render our national government a blessing to all the people, by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed” and “promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase of science.”

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