"He had three ships and left from Spain/ He sailed through sunshine, wind and rain."
-- Source Unknown
Posted on 10/08/2012 4:11:00 PM PDT by Starman417
"He had three ships and left from Spain/ He sailed through sunshine, wind and rain."
-- Source Unknown
I'm old enough to remember a time when Christopher Columbus Day was a national holiday that was widely celebrated rather than shamefully downplayed and derided. Columbus has become the symbolic white devil harbinger of all that is evil about America's founding: genocide and manifest destiny imperialism; slavery and racism; annihilation and exploitation of peaceful, "noble savages" living in harmony with the environment.
President Obama seems to echo the sentiments of multiculturalist leftists and Howard Zinn liberals in perceiving this holiday as an occasion more in tune for mourning rather than celebrating:
President Obama marked Columbus Day by issuing a proclamation that reflects “on the tragic burdens tribal communities bore” in the years that followed the discovery of the New World by Christopher Columbus.“When the explorers laid anchor in the Bahamas, they met indigenous peoples who had inhabited the Western hemisphere for millennia,” Obama wrote. “As we reflect on the tragic burdens tribal communities bore in the years that followed, let us commemorate the many contributions they have made to the American experience, and let us continue to strengthen the ties that bind us today.”
On this anniversary, Charles C. W. Cooke criticizes the imposition of "modern morality on the past" as "a form of historical illiteracy".
The explosion of certain parts of the Columbus myth, along with some more recent discoveries about his less noble proclivities, has led many to disown the man and a few more to protest against the national holiday in his honor. Berkeley, Brown, and — ironically — Columbia universities have abolished recognition of Columbus Day entirely, while others have substituted nebulous celebrations of “diversity” on that day. Journey into any trendy progressive enclave and you will find that Christopher Columbus is persona non grata.This, like most political correctness, is a grievous mistake. As the historian William J. Connell argues, Columbus may not have been the first of the voyagers to discover America, but he was undoubtedly the most important. “His arrival,” Connell argues, “marks where we as a country and a hemisphere began our identity.” Unlike previous landings, Columbus’s mattered. It was the first to lead to a permanent settlement and the first enduring landing from a civilization that boasted modern ideas such as a belief in science, reason, individual achievement, and Christianity. Ultimately, Columbus’s story serves as the introduction to a story of immeasurable historical importance. To dismiss celebration of the man because he didn’t make it to America first would be akin to declaring that we must scorn Isaac Newton’s contribution to science because he wasn’t actually hit by an apple.
Of the charge that he brought smallpox to the New World and is thus guilty of wiping out untold numbers of the native people, Columbus must be exonerated. The vast majority of the devastation inflicted upon the Indian tribes was inadvertent: As he did not propose that the world was round, he also did not propose germ theory — that would not be proffered until after the invention of the telephone — and it is simply preposterous to postulate that he should have known what would happen when two hitherto unfamiliar worlds collided. If one is to lay the blame at Columbus’s feet for the collapse of the Indian population, one also must blame the Indians for unwittingly giving the visitors syphilis, which they took back with them and which subsequently wiped out upwards of 5 million Europeans. It was an unfortunate quid pro quo, to be sure, but not one for which either side should feel much guilt.
(excerpt) Read more at floppingaces.net...
In 1493 Columbus sailed the deep blue sea.
Columbus was geographically challenged. And, at least according to the older generations in my family, the Vikings knew exactly where the were long before Columbus was thought of. (Yes, I know that is off topic.)
obama is so devoid of historical knowledge it is laughable.
He has zero idea why Columbus, came, what he did and what he took back with him.
It is amazing that obama did not celebrate the 500 year terror of syphilis that the natives bestowed on the men who came which took all those 500 years to get under control, or the tobacco that has still not been conquered.
The origin of syphilis is debated. I tend to agree with the American side, but there is evidence the other way.
wiped out upwards of 5 million Europeans
The people that fallowed Columbus may have wipe out more than 100 million Native Americans.
Obama’s education on American history is from Howard Zinn’s “A People’s History of the United States”, where the nation was founded by rich racist slaveholding white oppressors of people of color. I’ve read that book, pure marxist bovine scat.
(Old forgotten novelty song from the late 19th Century.)
“Christopher Columbo” (very NSFW lyrics)
http://www.saltydick.com/lyrics/15-christopher-columbo.htm
I am sick to death of political correctness. Some of my folks got a real raw deal. Others’ lives were blessed by western civilization.
History is history. Columbus was an amazing person with great qualities and some not so great. He reflected his times.
He deserves his due one day a year and should be honored for what he accomplished in some very small boats.
That's just my opinion.
Oldplayer
Your number is (more or less) accurate, your causation is not.
90%+ of those who died never saw a white man. They were wiped out by Eurasian diseases to which they had no immunity.
Exactly the same die-off in America would have occurred had the native Americans been technologically superior and sailed into the Mediterranean to “discover” Europe.
It was the merging of two disease ecosystems that did the damage. Nobody at the time had a clue what was happening, much less how to stop it.
The only way to prevent it would be for nobody to ever cross the Atlantic, which doesn’t seem a particularly practical strategy.
It is worth getting and reading?
Growing up in the ‘50s regardless of what people think was taught, there where not blinders on when people talked about Columbus but it was taught why he came and what he did when he was here.
About 20 years ago a friend who has since passed into the Arms of Jesus gave me a book, it was old. Anyway, it was copies (translated of course) of Columbus’ diary which he wrote on his trip, when he came, the trip back and his returns.
There were parts that made me weep about his intentions.
He was not who is he is now being portrayed.
Oh, back to the question, do you recommend the book or is it as we would suspect based on obama’s own words, worthless revisionist history.
Pure liberal BS - there weren’t no where near 100 million Indians. There is no such thing as Native Americans. I am a native American. I was born in Brooklyn, NYC so that makes me native to this country. Indians came across some land bridge from Asia several thousand years ago. So big deal. The best estimate of people living in what is now called the USA was somewhere between 20-30 million. Maybe, if that. If someone challenges me on my native roots saying my ancestors came from Europe then the same argument goes to those who came here from Asia. There are 125 tribes in the US. None of them claim to be Native Americans. There were none until the Dept. of the Interior started classifying Americans. - the only country in the world to classify their own citizens.
“obama is so devoid of historical knowledge it is laughable.
He has zero idea why Columbus, came, what he did and what he took back with him.”
And neither does his speech writer. That’s what happens with affirmative action hirings. The man just reads what is put in front of him.
I learnt in school about Lief Erickson and Eric the Red ...circa 1000AD or so...
Today on the radio, Marc Lamont Hill (Bill O’Reilly’s favorite black racist) called Columbus one of the ten most overrated white people in history.
I’d love to read that diary you described.
Hmmmmmmmmmmmm
The 400th for the Mayflower ...2020...
The 400th for the Neiuw Netherlandt..2023-24 (first settlers from Europe to NYC)
Are they going to object to those big cerebrations ???
NYC partied big for their 300th...
Hmmmmmmmmmmmm
The 400th for the Mayflower ...2020...
The 400th for the Neiuw Netherlandt..2023-24 (first settlers from Europe to NYC)
Are they going to object to those big cerebrations ???
NYC partied big for their 300th...
It is worthless revisionist history, and I would not call it any kind of history. It is first and formost anti-Western propaganda.
I read it mostly for the intel value. The same reason why I read the Communist Manifesto (where Karl Marx admits that the capitalists have to build the industries before the communists take over - an admission that the communist ideology can not build anything and is doomed to eventual decline).
” ...circa 1000AD or so...”
Wow, you were in school a looong time ago
;•)
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