Columbus just a few hundred years late!
And then there are those who think nobody outside America knew about the New World until Columbus’ voyage even though several countries/kingdoms, including some in Europe, already had lively trade with the NW.
Before Indians were running casinos and selling cigarettes tax-free in North America, they were a stone-age people before the “pale face” came. They had not learned to domesticate animals (except dogs and lamas), they had no written language, they used only stone tools and they had not even yet invented the wheel.
They had never seen a horse, a metal knife, a cart or a plow.
They also commonly practiced slavery, genocide and cannibalism against other tribes. No matter how many times you watch “Dances with Wolves” and “Pocahontas,” it will not change these facts. The vast majority of Missionaries wanted to spread the gospel of Christ and raise these new converts out of their stone-age way of life. What should they have done? Ignore them?
In terms of population percentage loss, the worst war we ever fought was King Philip’s War in 1675-76. King Philip was an indian chief (also known as Metacomet) who attacked to oust white settlers from New England. The Indians burned down/destroyed twelve of ninety Puritan towns and attacked forty others (including Providence). The Colonists’ population was small in 1675 and a good percentage of that population was killed in the war (with about 1000 slain out of a population of 52,000, this death rate was nearly twice that of the Civil War and more than seven times that of World War II). The Indians lost the war.
The vast majority of Indians sided with the French in the French And Indian War (1753). The indians lost the war.
The vast majority of Indians sided with the British in the Revolution. The Indians lost the war. Think about that - the Freedoms we have today and the Freedoms the Indians use without shame are the same Freedoms their ancestors fought against.
The vast majority of Indians sided with the British again in the War of 1812. The Indians lost the war.
As the Americans moved west, fighting was constant on both sides. The Indians lost every time.
The judgment of history is merciless.
It has absolutely no basis in historical reality.
"I can't believe my teacher made me write an essay about the good things that Columbus did when they spent the whole year saying how bad he was. How am I supposed to write something good about him?"-My gov't school-propagandized neice from snooty MA town, yesterday
One of the anti-Columbus Day parade people interviewed on FoxNews said that the parade ‘tramatized the children.’
Two phrases for the "multiculturists" -
Deal with it!!
and
Grow up!!
Catholics and Christians moreso. Remember reading Columbus' diary in school? Neither do I.
Christopher Columbus: Extracts from JournalI deeply resent the crappy method of teaching history that I was subjected to in the schoolag archipelago.IN THE NAME OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST
Whereas, Most Christian, High, Excellent, and Powerful Princes, King and Queen of Spain and of the Islands of the Sea, our Sovereigns, this present year 1492, after your Highnesses had terminated the war with the Moors reigning in Europe, the same having been brought to an end in the great city of Granada, where on the second day of January, this present year, I saw the royal banners of your Highnesses planted by force of arms upon the towers of the Alhambra, which is the fortress of that city, and saw the Moorish king come out at the gate of the city and kiss the hands of your Highnesses, and of the Prince my Sovereign; and in the present month, in consequence of the information which I had given your Highnesses respecting the countries of India and of a Prince, called Great Can, which in our language signifies King of Kings, how, at many times he, and his predecessors had sent to Rome soliciting instructors who might teach him our holy faith, and the holy Father had never granted his request, whereby great numbers of people were lost, believing in idolatry and doctrines of perdition. Your Highnesses, as Catholic Christians, and princes who love and promote the holy Christian faith, and are enemies of the doctrine of Mahomet, and of all idolatry and heresy, determined to send me, Christopher Columbus, to the above-mentioned countries of India, to see the said princes, people, and territories, and to learn their disposition and the proper method of converting them to our holy faith; and furthermore directed that I should not proceed by land to the East, as is customary, but by a Westerly route, in which direction we have hitherto no certain evidence that any one has gone. So after having expelled the Jews from your dominions, your Highnesses, in the same month of January, ordered me to proceed with a sufficient armament to the said regions of India, and for that purpose granted me great favors, and ennobled me that thenceforth I might call myself Don, and be High Admiral of the Sea, and perpetual Viceroy and Governor in all the islands and continents which I might discover and acquire, or which may hereafter he discovered and acquired in the ocean; and that this dignity should be inherited by my eldest son, and thus descend from degree to degree forever. Hereupon I left the city of Granada, on Saturday, the twelfth day of May, 1492, and proceeded to Palos, a seaport, where I armed three vessels, very fit for such an enterprise, and having provided myself with abundance of stores and seamen, I set sail from the port, on Friday, the third of August, half an hour before sunrise, and steered for the Canary Islands of your Highnesses which are in the said ocean, thence to take my departure and proceed till I arrived at the Indies, and perform the embassy of your Highnesses to the Princes there, and discharge the orders given me. For this purpose I determined to keep an account of the voyage, and to write down punctually every thing we performed or saw from day to day, as will hereafter appear...
Here follow the precise words of the Admiral: "As I saw that they were very friendly to us, and perceived that they could be much more easily converted to our holy faith by gentle means than by force, I presented them with some red caps, and strings of beads to wear upon the neck, and many other trifles of small value, wherewith they were much delighted, and became wonderfully attached to us. Afterwards they came swimming to the boats, bringing parrots, balls of cotton thread, javelins, and many other things which they exchanged for articles we gave them, such as glass beads, and hawk's bells; which trade was carried on with the utmost good will. But they seemed on the whole to me, to be a very poor people. They all go completely naked, even the women, though I saw but one girl. All whom I saw were young, not above thirty years of age, well made, with fine shapes and faces; their hair short, and coarse like that of a horse's tail, combed toward the forehead, except a small portion which they suffer to hang down behind, and never cut. Some paint themselves with black, which makes them appear like those of the Canaries, neither black nor white; others with white, others with red, and others with such colors as they can find. Some paint the face, and some the whole body; others only the eyes, and others the nose. Weapons they have none, nor are acquainted with them, for I showed them swords which they grasped by the blades, and cut themselves through ignorance. They have no iron, their javelins being without it, and nothing more than sticks, though some have fish-bones or other things at the ends. They are all of a good size and stature, and handsomely formed.
Tuesday, 16 October... The island is verdant, level and fertile to a high degree; and I doubt not that grain is sowed and reaped the whole year round, as well as all other productions of the place. I saw many trees, very dissimilar to those of our country, and many of them had branches of different sorts upon the same trunk; and such a diversity was among them that it was the greatest wonder in the world to behold. Thus, for instance, one branch of a tree bore leaves like those of a cane, another branch of the same tree, leaves similar to those of the lentisk. In this manner a single tree bears five or six different kinds. Nor is this done by grafting, for that is a work of art, whereas these trees grow wild, and the natives take no care about them. They have no religion, and I believe that they would very readily become Christians, as they have a good understanding. Here the fish are so dissimilar to ours that it is wonderful. Some are shaped like dories, of the finest hues in the world, blue, yellow, red, and every other color, some variegated with a thousand different tints, so beautiful that no one on beholding them could fail to express the highest wonder and admiration. Here are also whales. Beasts, we saw none, nor any creatures on land save parrots and lizards, but a boy told me he saw a large snake. No sheep nor goats were seen, and although our stay here has been short, it being now noon, yet were there any, I could hardly have failed of seeing them. The circumnavigation of the island I shall describe afterward.Journal of Christopher Columbus, bad, evil, dead white male
bmflr
I'm a native American and I have no problem with Columbus at all. In fact, 1992 is the only time that I ever attended the parade though I have to admit, I was working a block away and only spent my lunch hour there.
As for the Aboriginal Americans go, I don't care what they think. I don't take offense when they invade Floyd Bennett Field to have their powwows or anything so don't rain on my parade. (Well, it's more my wife's parade -- my parade is in March when it's the Gay Lobby instead of the Aborigines).
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Note: this topic is from December 2007. |
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Mostly by Sicilian and Neopolitan Americans whose ancestors were culturally and linguistically distinct from the Genoese Colombo.
Columbus Day was pushed by Italian Americans largely to show the larger North American community that they "played a part" in the American narrative.
As for myself, I would prefer celebrating Cortes, but that would REALLY piss off the dimestore Indians and the white liberals.