Posted on 10/14/2024 3:15:25 PM PDT by T Ruth
[C]olumbus Day is worth keeping and honoring as a great American holiday because it remains foundational to the establishment of a new nation by people who largely shared his qualities of character: self-made, adventurous, and reverent toward God. …
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Columbus left voluminous writings that reveal what motivated him to do what he did. Born and raised in Genoa, Italy, he was the consummate self-made man who went to sea crewing on various ships at an early age. As an inspired Christian, Columbus was deeply affected by the militant face of Islam at the eastern end of the Mediterranean that created a blockade to Europe’s important trade with the Orient. It was then that he felt God’s conviction to find a western sea route, knowing it would have far-reaching benefits.
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In his first voyage of three ships -- the Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria -- after being at sea for two months Columbus faced an anxious crew, who believed landfall should already have been made weeks before. When they became mutinous and threatened to heave Columbus overboard if he did not agree to turn back, Columbus turned to God. In his personal diary that has been preserved, Columbus recorded that God inspired him to make a deal with his Spanish crew and stake his life on it. He asked for three more days, and if land was not sighted, the crew could do with him as they wished.
As Providence would have it, in the early morning hours of the third day on October 12, under the light of the moon and the stars, the lookout from the ship Pinta, shouted out the siting of land. ...
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In short, Columbus Day commemorates the qualities of character and spirit of freedom and adventure that is unique to America.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
Gotta respectfully disagree. And it has nothing to do with Indian gripes. Columbus sailed in service of Spain. He had next to nothing to do with the foundation of the United States.
American national holidays should celebrate American achievements.
I’d put Columbus Day in the same category as St Patrick’s Day. If you want to celebrate it, go right ahead. But a national holiday? No.
Columbus bump
As a kid, I remember singing the following song in school with the other kids:
“Three tiny ships sailed out from Spain, yo ho my lads yo ho,
They sailed in sun they sailed in rain, yo ho my lads yo ho.”
Columbus was a symbol(?), or a harbinger of a much bigger thing.
The European “explosion” of the 16th century was the single most significant event in world history of the last 500 years. Europe took over the entire world, by one means or another, to some degree or another, by about 1900. It created countries and empires. It created the very concept of a country, as we understand it today.
When one digs into the mass of what we consider global default norms - concepts, laws, ethics, technology, customs in every field - it can be a revelation to understand where they came from - the outcome of some European idea, or a compromise of some European dispute, fundamentally European Christian ethics, etc.
The US, arguably, was the greatest creation of this “explosion”. The rest of Europe later followed along behind Columbus and created their own empires, one of them being British North America.
“...Born and raised in Genoa, Italy...”
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The country of “Italy” did not exist at that time.
Its not just the US. Columbus is big in Spain and its old empire.
I used to play this at work every year on Columbus day. I never got called out, even in San Francisco, because it was in Spanish and obviously “ethnic”, but....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gewWwwFSbRE
Genoa was a city-state, its own “country” at the time.
False. Patently false.
Columbus founded the first permanent European settlement in the New World. It's the beginning of recorded history in our nation and began relations between America and the rest of the world.
So Columbus Day celebrates the beginning of cultural exchange between America and Europe. After Columbus' discovery of America, millions of European immigrants brought their science, art, medicine, music, philosophy and religious principles to America.
All those contributions helped shape the United States and those contributions include Greek democracy, Roman law, Judeo-Christian ethics and the belief that "all men are created equal." Columbus' bold discovery led the way.
I never understood why Columbus sailed west to find the Orient when he could have gone south through the Suez canal right into the Indian Ocean.
Magellan & Drake chose not to use the Panama Canal either...
> Columbus was a symbol(?), or a harbinger of a much bigger thing. <
Agreed. But would the United States have been much different if Columbus had decided to stay in Genoa, and become a shoemaker? I think not. Someone else would have sailed to the east, and bumped into the New World.
Don’t get me wrong. Columbus ushered in an era of great European expansion, as you noted. That’s very significant, historically. But it’s not something the United States needs to go out of its way to honor. It’s just not specific enough to our history.
Heck, I would argue that Jefferson’s Louisiana Purchase impacted our country much more. Yet there is no national holiday to mark that event.
No disrespect meant to you, or anyone else who disagrees with me. It’s just one of my pet peeves. I never got why we honor Columbus the way we do.
Columbus bought western civilization to the new world! The Progressives want to eat away at our foundations....stand up to them. They could care a less about columbus, its our way of life that is on the menu and they want to replace it with them
> Columbus founded the first permanent European settlement in the New World. <
Okay. And that’s significant, historically. But it has little to do with the United States. Let’s suppose that this settlement failed. Would the United States be at all different today? Most probably not.
Please see my post #12.
Ugh. Correction to my post #12. Columbus of course sailed west, not east. This is last time I will let my cat proofread my comments before posting.
But would the United States have been much different if Columbus had decided to stay in Genoa, and become a shoemaker?
It is also interesting, at least to me, that the Americas, despite the riches found by Spain, were looked upon as a barrier to the real treasure, the East Indies. Lots of exploration was done to try to find a way through or around North and South America. Even Jefferson hoped that Lewis & Clark would find a water route to get to the Orient.
CHAG SAMACH!🤣🤣🤣
"Columbus was deeply affected by the militant face of [Mohammedanism] at the eastern end of the Mediterranean that created a blockade to Europe’s important trade with the Orient."
“As Providence would have it, in the early morning hours of the third day on October 12..”
Columbus discovered Rhode Island?
“I never understood why Columbus sailed west to find the Orient when he could have gone south through the Suez canal right into the Indian Ocean.”
Especially when Cathay Pacific has a Daily nonstop to Hong Kong.
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