The Front Page: Pilgrims, Past and Present

It’s Thanksgiving! This is The Front Page, your daily window into the world of The Free Press—and our take on the world at large. Today: Tales of pilgrims past and present to read once you have the turkey in the oven.

But first: Two journeys from tyranny to freedom.

In October 1960, Martin Gurri arrived from Cuba at Miami’s airport. He was 11 years old and had with him his family and only a few words of English—most of them relating to baseball. It was the start of his immigration story, one that would take him from a Communist-run island in the Caribbean to the most exclusive club in the country: the CIA.

Today in The Free Press, Martin writes about his journey and how “from sixth grade to this late season of my life, I have never once been insulted, attacked, sneered at, rejected, or discriminated against because I wasn’t born an American.”

Martin’s view? “This simply could not happen in any other country.” Read about his life, and what it says about America.

Masih Alinejad grew up in a tiny village in northern Iran and was taught to chant “death to America.” In fact, the country she had been told was “the Great Satan” would save her life. Masih was forced to leave Iran in 2009, after her journalism made her an enemy of the regime. And in 2021, the FBI told her that she was the target of a kidnapping plot. The next year, a hit man sent by Tehran was caught watching her at her Brooklyn home.

Last month, the men who orchestrated the attempt on Masih’s life were sentenced in a Manhattan courtroom. It was, for Masih, “a reminder of why I came to America: how the United States has given me a place to call home, freedom to express myself, and protection from those who wish to harm me.” Read Masih’s account of her journey from theocracy to democracy:

These stories are from the latest, immigration-themed installment of our America at 250 project. Catch up on the other articles in this series, and learn more about America at 250 here.

From present-day pilgrims to those who arrived hundreds of years ago. . .

It’s become fashionable to argue that Thanksgiving should really be a time for mourning—and maybe to issue a land acknowledgment or two before you carve the turkey. Don’t do it! urges Noah Smith. Land acknowledgments sound righteous, but they rely on an insidious idea, he argues: that territory belongs to races, not institutions. “Decolonization” pushed to its logical end means ethnic cleansing. Read Noah on why you are not on stolen land.

Stay tuned for our annual gratitude roundup later today, and dive in to more Thanksgiving-related work:

And catch up on some of our other stories this week:

Happy Thanksgiving, Free Pressers.