This entire thread is getting overblown. There is no issur on getting together with family on a day when most people are off from work, and eating a nice dinner together. SO WHAT if it’s turkey??? Our mesorah is that turkey is kosher, and if we follow the mesorah for everything else, this too should be accepted without further discussion. You don’t want to eat it? Don’t. Mesorah/halacha says that giraffe is also a kosher animal. But if someone was stupid enough to try to shecht one (or could not care less about wild life conservation), I still would not eat it, no matter how it was prepared.
As to the celebration aspect, we give thanks every day to H”KBH for everything in our lives. We have every right and CHIYUV to give Him thanks for allowing us to live in a country that extends religious freedom to us, a freedom we clearly take for granted, if we even have to discuss this issue. Even if it is a secular holiday, meaning it is not a HOLY day, it is a day that has meaning for us all, and is a reminder to stop and smell the roses along the way, and not take everything we have here for granted. How many of us DO that every day, even as we say Modeh Ani?
There is nothing wrong with Thanksgiving. It’s not Oso Ish-related
or a church celebration, either, in nature. I wish people who object could just look at it a little more objectively.