Editorial: The mixed legacy of Columbus and his day

Santa Cruz Sentinel ^ | 10/07/17 | Editor

[artichokegrower]

Perhaps lost in the post-Charlottesville furor over Confederate monuments has been a new move to banish or repurpose Columbus Day.

And that day is upon us Monday, where some will still parade and gather to honor the intrepid explorer — while others will use the holiday to lament the European assault on unsuspecting indigenous peoples

[artichokegrower]

For this country, with the scars and moral stains of slavery still resonating amid current cries about white supremacy and police killings of black people, it seems almost presumptuous to celebrate the act of introducing, by force, a foreign civilization into someone else’s world.

To the editor of the Santa Cruz Sentinel. That foreign civilization included a written language, the printed word, the English language, and other cultural benefits lacking in the native American cultures. Maybe instead of a newspaper you should spread the word by beating a drum.

[nickcarraway]

It’s interesting that they say mixed, because usually they make him out to ne much worse.

[GrandJediMasterYoda]

Yes, that evil white supremacy because countries where whites are a minority are doing so well.

[I want the USA back]

There’s no mixed legacy. They hate the Christianity that Columbus brought. Anything else that they say is a lie.

[DesertRhino]

Yeah, he was a jerk. And by today’s standards everyone else in 1492 was...including Indians who were still conducting mass murders, cannibalism, slavery, and cutting peoples hearts out on top of pyramids.

[KC_Lion]

I am just going to keep saying it, what happened to the Native Americans after Columbus landed would have been no different if say The Moroccans, Chinese, Koreans, or any other civilization would have came instead.

Why? Because they rode horses, wore armor and had guns.

Going up against a stone age people who didn't even work in metals or the wheel.

The Aztecs may have been as advanced as the ancient Romans, but the ancient Romans by 1492 in European history were well, ancient history.

By then they had become more advanced than The Romans, with things like the Compass, Eyeglasses and Guns.

Chief Sitting Bull and Colonel Nelson Miles

[ClearCase_guy]

Such a shame that America no longer lives in the Stone Age. Thanks Columbus. Thanks a lot.

[editor-surveyor]

.
Christopher Colunbus was a crypto-Jew who became a Christian evangelist.

Evangelism was the reason he stated for his voyage.
.

[A_Former_Democrat]

How bout an “editorial” on the “Mixed Legacy of MLK and His Day?”

You know, the plagiarism, adultery and whore mongering

Or the same with any one of the Kennedys? The Clintons?
The Schumers?

[SkyPilot]

Trust me, I am not on the side of the revisionist Libs.

Columbus did amazing things, and his skills as a seaman were almost remarkable, even by today's standards. Even in his day, people marveled at his abilities on the ocean.

But as an administrator, he was terrible. Even his brothers and friends had to admit that he committed atrocities.

King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella had him removed as Governor and thrown in prison because of his cruelties and his incompetence. After Columbus, Portugal and Spain tried to pass laws against maltreatment of the natives.

I am not making this up, you can research it for yourself.

Now, there are Libs who want to tell us that everything was Utopia before Columbus and the Europeans, which is a bald face lie. The natives were sinful people, and quite savage themselves.

[a fool in paradise]

Europe is heading towards a white minority populace.

So much for celebrating the indigenous peoples of Europe and preserving their cultural traditions.

[hanamizu]

What people fail to realize is that America was going to be discovered by Europe even if Columbus had never been born. Cabral on his way to India got blown by a hurricane to the coast of what is now Brazil in 1500. There is no way the natives of the Americas could resist the Europeans once the discovery was made. I cannot even imagine a scenario where the Indians aren’t doomed.

The Europeans just had too many technological advantages over people who were still living in the stone age.

[lightman]

If you are of European descent and have ever enjoyed potatoes, tomatoes, or a fine cigar, thank Columbus!

[mairdie]

1792 Article on the Arrival of Europeans to NY

Henry Livingston (1748-1928) wrote a number of imaginative pieces of fiction. In one, he took the point of view of a Pine Tree telling of its growth from a cone and the changes it saw along the Hudson River as the Europeans replaced the Native Americans. His dating is completely wrong but, given the depth of his reading, it's likely those were the dates believed at the time he wrote.

[C210N]

I thought the left was all for multiculturalism?

What, mixing natives and Europeans in 1492 is no good, but today it is?

[mairdie]

(1748-1828) sigh. otherwise, probably a long-lived vampire.

[dfwgator]

“Other than the potatoes, tomatoes and the fine cigars, what has Columbus EVER done for us?”

[JBW1949]

Also corn (maize)...

[JBW1949]

I am part Ani Yun Wiya and I have no problem with Columbus, Columbus Day, or Europeans...

[onedoug]

And had the aborigines the political unity, will, the means and the methods, they would have sailed east and attempted an even more vicious conquest then they received.