In view of recent events plus the fact that American Thanksgiving Day will be on the fourth Thursday of this month, can I make the point that if we question the sale of Turkeys in supermarkets using this American celebration as good justification, Pilgrim Fathers who were Puritan settlers and founders of the colony of Plymouth, Mas-sachusetts who left Plymouth in England in 1620.

We hear plenty about Irish/Americans. Hear that 'ad nauseum' and we hear of Afro/Americans, those souls taken to the New World in Chains. We also hear about the Hispanics whose language is used in a few of the American States, i.e. California although as far as I understand the film industry in Hollywood makes its films in Eng-lish and not Spanish.

So what of English/Americans of whom we hear nothing. Their first President, George Washington was English in descent and President George W Bush now in the White House (The Hwit Hus. Anglo-Saxon) has ancestry from Essex in the form of a certain John Bush who left the little village of Messing in the 17th century to set-tle in America.

The first words spoken by Neil Armstrong when setting foot on the moon were plain English. "One small step for man". A crude trans-lation and probably quite grammatically incorrect "an smoel stoepe for mann", Anglo-Saxon again.

Don't let us forget such facts which might be unpalatable to some but nevertheless are historical truths and should be recognised as such.

Jean Fothergill

Village Way

Beckenham

December 5, 2001 14:17