I have heard that Thanksgiving is a day of mourning for Native People. This seems likely, since any honest recognition of the lasting injustice and institutional racism in the inheritance of land and wealth in the United States speaks volume of the extent of suffering over 500 years of European invasions have caused. For years, my wife and I gave money to support Native Americans and their traditional culture through an organization created by sensitive-seeker activists. Likewise, we have bought sculptures from a Cherokee artist and have learned the heart-wrenching stories of their survival through centuries of European invasions and ethnic cleansing.

Sensitive people and activists often reach out and make sacrifices to promote peace and justice. Recently my wife saw a concert pianist who is an international human rights activist; a couple of months earlier we attended an art reception for a ceramic and glass artist who was donating 30% of income from her art to Doctors Without Borders and other international aid charities. In another instance, I worked with a former violent man who reacted into becoming a Christian Pacifist who fasted for 42 days in 1992 during the period that Columbus’s ships sailed to begin the invasion of this land as a commemoration of 500 years of struggle and resistance by Native People.

In our personal circles, sensitive people and artists who have had romantic relationships, marriages, children or adopted children from other ethnic groups, including Native Americans, Africans, Arabs, African-Americans, Latin Americans and others. These choices change our lives, giving us a life history and personal knowledge that is more empathetic and concerned about peace, harmony and justice with other ethnic and religious groups. Our communities and families cross the lines of traditional hatreds and we see our own ethnic origins and privilege through that much more complex lens.

This contrasts with some white money-chasers I’ve known who were slumlords and/or racists and white violent men who encounter people of color mainly through their work as policemen. I’ve known white puritans who travel to other countries to proselytize people of color whose history has been marked by invasion and exploitation by Europeans and puritan white women who used the Bible to justify not dating men of color. Through these actions, white people who have these traditional aspects perpetuate traditional hatreds with a triple punch of violence, economic power-over-others and religious proselytizing, benefiting from injustices that prior generations of Europeans brought about.

I recently attended an art discussion by an international Arab woman artist who said that as politicians in the United States had grown more hostile to others that she was receiving more requests for shows and discussions in the United States by artists here. As the traditional and politically conservative alliance of white money-chasers, violent men and puritans perpetuate traditional hatreds and gain power-over-others, wealth and followers from the current situation, sensitive people, artists, activists, thinkers, and others reach across ethnic, religious, national and other traditional boundaries to work for peace and justice. Likewise, the gender gap showing women—who tend to be more sensitive—voting much more than men for policies and politicians who are seeking to improve relationships between traditionally conflicting groups.

Supporting sensitive people and the more liberal allies of thinkers, activists and others is a way to support the movement towards peace and justice. As sensitive people support ourselves and seek, by our own natures, to reach out, get to know and help those who have been or are being oppressed by white money-chasers, violent men and puritans, we seek to make the world better and counteract the harm people with more exploitive aspects do.

I am deeply thankful this year for the bounty my family and community receives, but this gratitude combines with a consideration the importance of compassion and good works toward those who suffer. This is especially important towards those who my ancestors took land and wealth from, directly and indirectly, using the traditional triple assault of violence, economic power-over-others and proselytizing. I am also thankful that I can work and have enough time and abundance that I can do good works and receive the blessings of the Covenant of Good Works through my acts. I remain a deeply fortunate person; my good fortune is a responsibility as well as profound luck in this tragically hard and wonderful world.