{"id":15687,"date":"2018-10-08T09:15:27","date_gmt":"2018-10-08T13:15:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/?p=15687"},"modified":"2018-10-08T09:15:27","modified_gmt":"2018-10-08T13:15:27","slug":"columbus-day-u-s-a","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/columbus-day-u-s-a\/","title":{"rendered":"Columbus Day U.S.A."},"content":{"rendered":"

Columbus Day U.S.A.<\/span><\/h1>\n

Why don\u2019t we have a Joseph Stalin day? Or an Adolf Hitler day? Or an Osama bin Laden day? Because it would be ridiculous, right?. We\u2019d never honor these historical villains as\u00a0 heroes would we? Why most of today\u2019s heroes aren\u2019t worthy.<\/span><\/p>\n

We all want our heroes to be real heroes \u2013 people we can emulate and respect; people worthy of our honor. We would never honor a human being who committed unfathomable atrocities.\u00a0 Right. We are careful of who our heroes are and we want to be certain that they represent the best, not the worst, in all of us.<\/span><\/p>\n

Today, Americans celebrate Columbus Day – well “celebrate” may not be the right word.\u00a0 I don\u2019t work for the local, state, or federal government. I don\u2019t teach school and I\u2019m not a student. So, today is not a day off for me. Columbus Day is just another Monday for me and probably you as well.<\/span><\/p>\n

Maybe we should celebrate the man who \u201cdiscovered\u201d America. Maybe we should bake a Columbus Day cake with \u201cThank You Christopher Columbus\u201d written on it in lovely green-mint icing. Or shot off fireworks. Or maybe we should invite our friends and family to a party where we could all drink, frolic, eat cake and really celebrate and honor this notorious Italian.<\/span><\/p>\n

Who is this man that we honor? Who is Christopher Columbus? Why is he only one of two private citizens we honor with a federal holiday? If you said he\u2019s the man who discovered America you\u2019d be dead wrong. If you said he was a great explorer you\u2019d be even more wrong. If you think he was even a great man, you be as wrong as you could be.<\/span><\/p>\n

Many of you, like me, went to public elementary school in the United States during the 50\u2019s, 60\u2019s or 70\u2019s, (I have no idea what they\u2019ve been teaching since the 70\u2019s in elementary school) and your first impression of Christopher Columbus, like mine, probably came from those cute little textbook pictures showing a smiling, elegantly-dressed, Christopher Columbus, looking aristocratic as he was welcomed ashore by an eager but backward bunch of child-like natives wearing little more than banana leaves and seashell necklaces.<\/span><\/p>\n

Good old Christopher Columbus, standing triumphantly on the shores of this brave new world, handing out all manner European goodies to poor, uneducated, natives, who danced around him in giddy thankfulness. These poor savages, so happy that Columbus happened to stumble upon their pitiful, uncivilized world to save them. You can almost hear the beat of Tainos\u2019 beating their rudimentary drums in delighted frenzy. Finally, someone had come to civilize them and rescues this pathetic race from their own ignorance.<\/span><\/p>\n

Until recently, history has been very kind to Christopher Columbus. Now we know that Columbus was no more the discoverer of the Americas than Neil Armstrong was the discoverer of the moon. All those memories and history lessons we were taught in grade school strewn about us now in tiny shards of broken bits of truth. All debunked by the harsh light of the truth.<\/span><\/p>\n

So, what\u2019s the truth about our hero, a man we\u2019ve honored with a federal holiday? What kind of man was Christopher Columbus. Does he deserve the federal holiday we\u2019ve given him? Should he be revered as the discoverer of America? Should he be revered at all?<\/span><\/p>\n

First, Christopher Columbus was not his real name.\u00a0His name in Italian is Cristoforo Colombo and, in Spanish, it is Crist\u00f3bal Col\u00f3n.\u00a0 But here, we’ll acquiesce and call him by his anglicized name.<\/span><\/p>\n

To picture Columbus as a brave explorer setting sail into the unknown with discovery and exploration as his reward is wrong. Columbus sought power and wealth at the expense of others. Sounds a bit modern – almost like some people in today’s world doesn\u2019t it?<\/span><\/p>\n

It sure flies in the face of those happy little pictures we saw of Columbus in grade school.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026Columbus did not sally forth upon the Atlantic for reasons of \u201cneutral science\u201d or altruism. He went, as his own diaries, reports, and letters make clear, fully expecting to encounter wealth belonging to others. It was his stated purpose to seize this wealth, by whatever means necessary and available, in order to enrich both his sponsors and himself. Plainly, he pre-figured, both in design and by intent, what came next. To this extent, he not only symbolizes the process of conquest and genocide which eventually consumed the indigenous peoples of America, but bears the personal responsibility of having participated in it. Still, if this were all there was to it, the defendants would be inclined to dismiss him as a mere thug along the lines of Al Capone rather than viewing him as a counterpart to Himmler\u2026.\u201d (Read more…<\/span><\/a>)\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Did our hero even discover North America? No so much…<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026Columbus\u2019 voyage has even less meaning for North Americans than for South Americans because Columbus never set foot on our continent, nor did he open it to European trade. Scandinavian Vikings already had settlements here in the eleventh century, and British fisherman probably fished the shores of Canada for decades before Columbus. The first European explorer to thoroughly document his visit to North America was the Italian explorer Giovanni Caboto, who sailed for England\u2019s King Henry VII and became known by his anglicized name, John Cabot. Caboto arrived in 1497 and claimed North America for the English sovereign while Columbus was still searching for India in the Caribbean. After three voyages to America and more than a decade of study, Columbus still believed that Cuba was a part of Asia, South America was only an island, and the coast of Central America was near the Ganges River.<\/span><\/p>\n

Unable to celebrate Columbus\u2019 exploration as a great discovery, some apologists now want to commemorate it as a great \u201ccultural encounter.\u201d Under this interpretation, Columbus becomes a sensitive genius thinking beyond his time in the passionate pursuit of knowledge and understanding. The historical record refutes this, too\u2026.\u201d ( Read more…<\/a><\/span> )<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

What is Columbus\u2019 legacy besides being a bumbling explorer who happened to land in the Caribbean by accident and thinking he was in India? Well, he was a slave trader and a very brutal man who played a role in the near extermination of an entire race of human beings. Raping, pillaging, enslaving and murdering as he forced his European values on a pacifist race of human being known as the Taino . Columbus mistakenly referred to the Taino as Indians because, after all, he thought he had found a short route to India.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026Columbus decided to pay for his voyage in the one important commodity he had found in ample supply \u2014 human lives. He seized 1,200 Taino Indians from the island of Hispaniola, crammed as many onto his ships as he could pack in, and sent them to Spain, where they were paraded naked through the streets of Seville and sold as slaves in 1495. Columbus tore children from their parents, husbands from wives. O<\/span>n board Columbus\u2019 slave ships, hundreds died; the sailors tossed the bodies into the Atlantic like so much trash.<\/span><\/p>\n

Because Columbus captured more Indian slaves than he could transport to Spain in his small ships, he put them to work in mines and plantations which he, his family, and followers established throughout the Caribbean. <\/span><\/p>\n

His marauding band hunted Indians for sport and profit \u2014 beating, raping, torturing, killing, and then using the Indian bodies as food for their hunting dogs. Within four years of Columbus\u2019 arrival on Hispaniola, his men had killed or exported one-third of the original Indian population of 300,000\u2026.\u201d (Read more…<\/a> <\/span>)<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There are only two private citizens who have earned the honor of a federal holiday: Martin Luther King, Jr. and Christopher Columbus. Martin Luther King, Jr. although certainly not a saint, worked for equality and justice and to correct many social injustices. <\/span><\/p>\n

Christopher Columbus opened the Atlantic slave trade, pillaged, plundered, and raped the pacifist Taino -while leading one of the most tragic and prolific campaigns of genocide in human history.<\/span><\/p>\n

Today is Columbus Day. It is a federal holiday in the U.S.A. It is day honoring Christopher Columbus. And who was he? Columbus was an adventurer no doubt. But he was also a conniving, bumbling, cruel man who killed millions and enslaved hundreds of thousands. Columbus brought forth upon the “new world” enormous suffering, while nearly wiping out an entire race of people.<\/span><\/p>\n

But Columbus actually\u00a0discovered nothing.<\/span><\/p>\n

Why don\u2019t we have a George Washington Carver Day? Or a Thomas Edison Day?\u00a0 Or a Nikola Tesla day?\u00a0 Many people of more recent times are a whole lot more deserving of the honor bestowed upon Christopher Columbus, the mass murderer and enslaver.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I wonder what that tells the rest of the world thinks? Well, there’s not much we can do it about it now. The United States is replete with cities, parks and streets named “Columbus” and I really don’t see any way of cleaning Columbus out of our country.\u00a0 Currently there are 54 communities in the U.S.A<\/a>. whose names carry on the legacy. or Christopher Columbus.<\/span><\/p>\n

After reading much about this \u201chero\u201d of the past, I\u2019ve made a little \u201cdiscovery\u201d of my own. And, it\u2019s good news! Our world today isn\u2019t nearly as bad as I thought it was. Even the worst of our modern day so-called heroes seems to be a lot better than Christopher Columbus.<\/span><\/p>\n

I wonder how many other men and women of the past, who we revere as heroes, are not worthy of our honor? But maybe we\u2019ll never learn the truth about them. Maybe that\u2019s a good thing too. We might not have very many heroes left if we did.<\/span><\/p>\n

Happy Columbus Day!<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Columbus Day U.S.A. Why don\u2019t we have a Joseph Stalin day? Or an Adolf Hitler day? Or an Osama bin Laden day? Because it would be ridiculous, right?. We\u2019d never honor these historical villains as\u00a0 heroes would we? Why most of today\u2019s heroes aren\u2019t worthy. We all want our heroes to be real heroes \u2013 people we can\u2026 Read More »<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[228,1],"tags":[2707,2706,2708],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15687"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15687"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15687\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15688,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15687\/revisions\/15688"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}