Host Allen Ruff opens today’s program with a quotation from Mark Twain: “Thanksgiving Day, a function which originated in New England two or three centuries ago when those people recognized that they really had something to be thankful for–annually, not oftener–if they had succeeded in exterminating their neighbors, the Indians, during the previous twelve months instead of getting exterminated by their neighbors, the Indians. Thanksgiving Day became a habit, for the reason that in the course of time, as the years drifted on, it was perceived that the exterminating had ceased to be mutual and was all on the white man’s side, consequently on the Lord’s side, consequently it was proper to thank the Lord for it.”

On this Thanksgiving Day edition of A Public Affair, Ruff is joined by our traditional Thanksgiving guest, Will Williams, to reflect on perennial issues like colonialism, militarism, and racism–issues that stretch from the Pequot Massacre to the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. Ruff and Williams discuss the low-intensity war the US is now waging against Venezuela and the paramilitary role that ICE is now playing domestically. Williams reminds listeners that US imperialism is ongoing.

Will Williams is a Vietnam veteran, a local peace veteran activist, and a long time friend of the show.

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