Television and the Actuality of the Pilgrams

Sarah Vowell was able to make significant connection to the past and near present. The connections made the reading easier to follow, and also more interesting. She shows how a the American history is of the first thanksgiving has a censorship like screen over it. 


To think back to my childhood many cartoons holiday specials had incorrect facts about Thanksgiving. The Pilgrims and Native Americans would always be friendly with one and other, but as I got older I wondered where did all of the Native Americans went.


When the Europeans met the Native Americans they spread disease. Nine out of ten of the Native Americans died. Just to imagine the severity of this, there are about three hundred million Americans today, and if ninety percent died that means that two hundred and seventy million died leaving about three milling people left in the united states.


When Vowell explains how television shows, like the Brady bunch or Happy Days made errors on facts, like that the Pilgrims invited the Native Americans to a feast, but they got correct fact on the hardships the pilgrims went through during their first winter in New England.


Vowell went to a replica of the Mayflower II wither her nephew. The people didn’t break their character and showed how hardy the time was even to her young nephew. Her personal experience made it apparent to me how difficult the situation was for not only the Native Americans, but also the Pilgrims.
On page 18 in A Wordy Shipmate “When Greg asks them if they know what to do Peter answers ‘Yeah, attack the fort.’ When Greg and their mother point out that these are friendly Indians, so there won’t be an attack, Bobby asks, ‘Then what do you need Indians for?’ ”


“ ‘Bobby, the Indians were friendly at first,’ Says Mr. Brady. ‘They didn’t start fighting until their land was taken away.’ ” The land we walk on in New England and in the rest of the United States was taken by the Natives that lived here before the Europeans, and I can understand where all of the Native Americans went that I sought for when I was younger.

The Shining City

Ronald Reagan said “ I’ve spoken of the shining city all my political life, but I don’t know if I ever quite communicated what I saw when I said it. But in my mind, it was a tall proud city built on rocks stranger than oceans, wind-swept, God- blessed, and teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace, a city with free ports that hummed with commerce and creativity, and there had to be city walls, the walls had doors and the doors were open to anyone with the will and the heart to get here, that’s how I saw it and still see it.”[ The wordy Shipmates p. 65]


The United States has been that sanctuary that anybody can go for help, or be safe within the countries wall. Living here may not always seem that great, because of going to school or work, but when the reality sets in that many children in the world don’t get and education and that many adults don’t have jobs. People come here for work and a better life, even if they have to sneak in. The United States is a safe haven.


“Winthrop said.” remarked Mondale, that “to be a shining city on the hill, we must strengthen, defend, preserve and comfort one another. We must rejoice together, mourn together, labor and suffer together. We must knit together by a bond of love.” [P63 The Wordy Shipmate]


We still want to be that idealized “shining city” that even the first Europeans who set foot on this country wanted it to be. Truly nothing can be perfect, but we rejoice together, mourn together, labor and suffer together. Sarah Vowell wrote about her experience in September 11, 2001, and how the entire country reacted. Everyone wanted to help as much as possible. 


When the flood happened and Waterbury, Vermont was destroyed the entire town, and even neighboring towns worked to rebuild and attain the peaceful balance that the town had once before. As I said, “nothing can be perfect” , but our towns, counties, states and country is knit together by a bond of  love.

Breaching the Religion of the Government

Winthrop felt strongly that the government shouldn’t be changed from an Aristocracy, government ruled by upper class, to a Democracy, a government run by the people living as citizens under the government, because it would be a “breach in the Fifth Commandment”[p.77 The Wordy Shipmates]


Martin Luther wrote an explanation on how the fifth commandment reaches beyond family life and how it connects to the power above the commonwealth.
“In this commandment belongs a further statement regarding all kinds of obedience to persons in authority who have to command and govern. For all authority flows and is propagated from the authority of parents…. They are all called fathers in the Scriptures, as those who in their government perform the functions of a father, and should have a paternal heart toward their subordinates.”


Weather the church and state are together or separated makes a society what it is. When a state is independent and not ruled by the church it has no limitations of what can be produced, no higher power restricting and creating boundaries, with the exception of laws. Laws are in place for the better good of a community as a whole. Religious view can be chosen now and that is what is so different today than it was when there was first settlement in America 


In the current American society we are a democratic republic. We have laws that are in place for the greater good, that way we don’t run around stealing and killing. I find it interesting that a purely Puritan society became our society today. There is an obvious heavy influence considering that most of our ancestors were Puritans.