Are Syrian refugees like Thanksgiving Pilgrims?

Let me guess: Still eating leftovers today, right? Turkey sandwiches and mashed sweet potatoes? Yummy! I especially love the crusty pecan-sugar topping atop those yams.

Thanksgiving leftovers and the Sunday paper. . . it doesn't get more American than that, does it?

Speaking of newspapers and America, recent headlines center around our borders - how to protect them, whether to restrict them, who should be allowed to breach them. If you're reading today's paper, you're aware that immigration is right now a topic of primacy and passion.

With regard to illegal immigrants themselves, we're told both that they're stealing our jobs and that they're mooching off the system, too lazy to work.

Now that I've pointed out that bit of conservative doublespeak, you, dear reader, are probably sure that I'm a bleeding-heart liberal lover of illegal immigration. I'm not - I'm equally critical of each party, and of each party's immigration proposals.

Currently, the crisis regarding Syrian refugees is illuminating the lunacy of how we Americans - in both parties - perceive both our country's history and its future with regard to immigration.

To wit: We're all still enjoying leftovers from Thanksgiving, the history of which is fantastically ironic in the context of Syrian refugees. Government schools teach mainly about the holiday's more feel-good elements - turkey, togetherness - and leave out the part about the Pilgrims wiping out a whole race of people.

Yes, there's a reason why Native Americans are allowed to exclusively own bingo parlors and receive regular reparations payments. That reason is because the first Americans - those pioneering Pilgrims - stole the land and then the lives of the Indians.

(Come to think of it, I'm starting to see why schools have to lie to kids about Thanksgiving. . .it'd give little Billy and little Beth nightmares if they were taught the truth.)

Anyway, in this handy little Thanksgiving metaphor the Pilgrims are like the Syrian refugees, making the journey across the pond to escape tyranny. Instead of finding welcome among the Native Americans, though, the Syrians are facing resistance from the New Americans.

And, well, it makes sense, I guess, in terms of self-preservation. I mean, being kind and welcoming didn't end up well for the Indians, did it? The road to hell, and all of that.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying we should let in the Syrians, and I'm not saying we shouldn't. Intellectually I'm still so stuck on the irony of the timing that I'm having trouble staking out a position.

That's why I'm focusing on the historical element - Pilgrims and Syrians, Native Americans and New. The metaphor is apt, and timely, and strikingly parallel. The Indians' generosity acts both as a cautionary tale - they were slaughtered! - and an exemplar of humanity.

While a country is compelled to be smart about risk, it's compelled also to be motivated not by fear. Tyrants love terrified people - scare citizens enough and they'll give away all their rights.

Unfortunately that's what happening right now. Especially after the attacks in Paris, Americans are rightfully fearful of the possibility that those we have welcomed will turn against us.

How ironic, then, that that's exactly how America was founded, all those centuries ago. Just a little “food for thought” as we eat our Thanksgiving leftovers. . .

Mande Wilkes is a local cultural critic. Contact her at M@mandewilkes.com.

This story was originally published November 30, 2015 at 8:34 AM with the headline "Are Syrian refugees like Thanksgiving Pilgrims?."