The Truth About Columbus

[KeithE]

[William Thornton]

Boy, there's a surprise. Ol' Christoforo Colombo was the vanguard of brutality, exploitation, and devastating diseases. Rocket science happening here once again. Back when I worked a real job, Columbus Day was like MLK Day, President's Day, and Confederate Memorial Day...a day off. Nothing more. Nothing less.

His voyages were noteworthy in that they initiated one of the great (as in large or significant) population movements in world history, even more significant than the westward movement of vicious and brutal Mongols, Goths, et al. The scale was much smaller but it would be hard to outdo the human sacrifices practiced by some of the indigenous Americans pre-Columbus.

The story of the Americas before and after Columbus and other europeans is better researched and documented than previously, I enjoyed reading Charles Mann's two books 1491 and 1493.

As for substituting indigenous peoples' day for Colombus Day, I'm ambivalent. How far back does one go and how does one pick a point at which we call the inhabitants indigenous?

Or...we could just have a Noble Savage Day for all.

[As an aside, I visited for the first time last week the National Museum of the American Indian in DC. It was interesting, perhaps not as interesting to me as the Air and Space and Natural History museums. The NMAI had one extraordinary item on display, a , one of only a few extant. I had read about them but never seen one.]

[KeithE]

[Dave Roberts]

We might as well face the facts. Columbus set out not knowing where he was going, and when he got back to Europe, couldn't tell people exactly where he had been.

[Tim Bonney]

Given the brutality of Columbus and his crew, I hardly think the day should be a national holiday. Should we study his voyage here and know the significant history behind it? Sure. But that doesn't mean the guy deserves a holiday named after him.

[Tim Bonney]

[Tim Bonney]

It is also kind of interesting that Columbus never actually landed on the main part of continental North America in what would now be the USA.

I've also read that Columbus would never admit to anyone that he had not landed in India. LOL

[Sandy]

[Dave Roberts]

[Tim Bonney]

I know that Italian and Catholic heritage are a big part of why Columbus Day was chosen as a holiday. But given what we now know about Columbus I'm not sure as many of our Catholic sisters and brothers would be thrilled that he is representing them.

[Sandy]

[William Thornton]

Mann uses a lot of de las Casas and other primary sources.

[Tim Bonney]

[David Flick]

[Dave Roberts]

David, your comments make sense. Columbus was the first to land from Europeans who documented their coming, but he is hardly to blame for a pope who created a line giving all lands to the Spanish on one side and to the Portuguese on the other. This set the stage for colonization, and since the French, Dutch, and English were excluded, they naturally wanted to jump aboard. If it had not been Columbus who discovered the West Indies, there were plenty of others waiting in the wings to make a voyage. He just got the money first.

[William Thornton]

As a part of exploring my own genealogy, my brothers and I had DNA tests done, a technique that gives some general information about migration patterns and some specific information about relationships between two individuals who lack the genealogical proof of relationship.

It also can identify genetic traces of Neanderthal lineage. Mine is a few percent; therefore, I'm adopting Neanderthal victim status and claiming harm from any and all forms of homo saipens. I will live the rest of my life resenting the fact that my people were completely wiped out. With certified victim status I am immune from criticism and can assail any and all other groups with impunity. I should be in line for reparations from the rest of the world, my own Smithsonian museum in DC, along with a holiday and the right to open a casino.

[KeithE]

[KeithE]

[David Flick]

[Haruo]

The big question is, should we rename the District of Columbia "District of Lenni Lenapea" or would it be better to call it "District of Powhatania"?

[ET]

I find quite a bit of goofiness in Keith's original linked article. Start "celebrating the native cultures his arrival in the Americas began the process of displacing"? Sure, as soon as you start celebrating the cultures that the Romans displaced or the ones displaced by the Greeks or the Persians or the Babylonians.

Flick wrote a good post. I appreciate his heritage. I enjoy reading about his Native American heritage, but I'm not so naive as to believe the myth that is often implied that somehow such people lived peacefully among themselves and were one with "Nature" and their Utopian lives were ruined by the encroachment of the evil white European.

All of human history has been a story of one civilization eclipsing another or coming into conflict with another one, with one often being on the "losing" side and either assimilating into the "winning" side or becoming extinct. To condemn European civilization - for instance - for spreading disease among people in America long before people understood diseases and microbes is typical of the shallowness of much of leftist thinking.

As William said, all Columbus Day has ever been for me is a day that I don't get mail and the banks are closed. I never recall "celebrating" it much even in my elementary school days.

[Dave Roberts]

The only reason I ever celebrated Columbus Day is that my dad and Columbus discovered America on the same date (but not the same year).

[KeithE]

Since we do not celebrate Columbus Day and probably shouldn’t (imo), why don’t we become more productive as a country and eliminate it? But no I’m not about to champion its removal (especially since I’m retired now ). I just wanted to inform BL about Columbus’s alleged brutality and tweek reactions from those that are bothered by “liberal” sensitivities.

As for the District of Powhatannia, stick with tradition, I’m not that into PCness.

[Dave Roberts]

It seems that the Federal Monday Holidays included Columbus Day in 1970. It was the way to create an additional holiday between Labor Day and Thanksgiving. Believe that was signed by Richard Nixon.

[Haruo]

I blame Columbus for my paycheck being late. Every time he gets a holiday, my Wednesday payday is postponed to Thursday. Dr. King is guilty of the same anti-Labor practice. Jesus only does this to me once every seven years (which is of course a holy number, a Sabbath of years, so I cut Him some slack.)