Happy Needless Turkey Murder Day!

Despite my distaste for meat, holidays, and general traditionalism, I really do like Thanksgiving.  I think we can make the celebration about sharing a meal with family or friends (or I guess, giving Thanks) instead of a celebration of White Europeans pillaging the lands of Natives after sharing a meal with them in hopes of making them believe that they came in peace.

This is my second Thanksgiving away from my family, although the first that I've actually cooked and planned to share a meal with people other than my relatives.  Three years ago, I celebrated Thanksgiving in the Atlanta airport in a variety of bars (great selection of bars in that airport!), on my way to Vegas to celebrate my 21st birthday.  It was a looong plane ride from ATL to Vegas, as I believe my hangover started midflight.

This year I am sharing a meal with some friends in Columbus, and while I'm a little sad that I'm not seeing my family, I'm excited to celebrate a holiday in a somewhat nontraditional way - something my family doesn't allow too much room for.  Sure, we're still stuffing our faces today and likely being thankful for the people around us, but to my knowledge there won't be a turkey.

And, I never want to sound like a holier-than-thou non meat eater, on some level it seems a little ridiculous that sharing a meal with our family and friends requires the slaughtering of nearly every Turkey on the planet.  Anyone consider having pizza for thanksgiving?  Or even a burger - I'm not a huge advocate of meat but maybe we could spread the animal slaughtering and eat a few cows instead of wiping out the Turkey population for a single meal.

In middle school, my friend Andrea tried to institute, with little success, a day in May that was meant to counter the excessive November slaughtering of Turkeys.  I think it was called something straightforward like Don't Eat Turkey day, but I know for sure it was May 9th.   I was already a vegetarian at the time, and an avid supporter of Don't Eat Turkey day (to my recollection, Andrea was dealing with some meat-eaters guilt; she still consumed Turkey on Thanksgiving and wanted to make up for it by choosing a day where she refused to eat Turkey).  I'm sure neither of us understood at the time that Turkeys were bred specifically for consumption on Thanksgiving day, so avoiding eating them another day of the year didn't really save any Turkeys. 

This morning my mom emailed me a fake turkey recipe.  I'm not entirely sure what she thought I'd do with it the morning of Thanksgiving - as if I hadn't already planned and prepared for what I'd eat today, but it was nice to see she was thinking of me and possibly even recognizing that I could celebrate a holiday without meat (which, I've been doing for 12 years now, but apparently this only sinks in when I give up dairy and eggs too).

Anyway, in the words of Phoebe (from Friends), Happy Needless Turkey Murder Day!  I hope you find a way to celebrate it that's right for you.