Rethinking Columbus Day

TWENTY SIX Columbus Days ago, it was widely anticipated that the five hundredth anniversary of the discovery of the United States of America, or more accurately the accidental discovery by a Spanish financed Italian explorer of an island in the Caribbean that had already been discovered and was quite well known by its inhabitants, who happily and peacefully resided there, would be met with universal acclaim and sensational ceremony, pomp, and festivities. And yet, the pomp never precipitated. Why not? the answer is that at about the same time progressive minded historians began pointing out in earnest the fact that Christopher Columbus was not only a competent and intrepid explorer and navigator, he was also a murdering, blood thirsty monster and genocidal killer. And the only requirement for proving this to anyone's satisfaction is to rad the first paragraph of Columbus's journal upon his setting foot on the shores of Hispanola, which we today call the Dominican Republic. There is, despite the persistence of pandering, hyper patriotic, hagiographic conservative scholarship and attitudes, an increasing, belated willingness for the American people to teach, tell, and learn the truth about their country's history and culture. It is far from the pretty picture traditionalists have painted. I used to lose teaching jobs for merely pointing out to students that Thomas Jefferson was not a Christian, that he in fact considered much of the Christian faith's dogma superstitious nonsense, that the Untied States was founded upon enlightenment, not Judeo-christian principle, and that the United Stats has from the beginning been an ever expanding empire, whose expansion has manifested mostly by illegal, immoral means. hence we are now willing to take a look at what Columbus wrote, which, paraphrased, goes something like: "we walked up on the shore, and the natives came to greet us. they are beautiful, healthy, wholesome people happy, smiling, friendly, without weapons, docile, willing to give up whatever we want. they are going to make excellent slaves." He and his men then extorted the gold and silver these peace loving people obviously had stored away, as indicated by the trinkets with which they adorned themselves, by cutting off thousands of hands and feet, and killing hundreds of thousands of them. And so Columbus Day is being replace by "Indigenous People Day, I believe its called. Christopher Columbus believed in turning all native people's he encounter into hard working, enslaved Christians, gold miners for the glory of Spain and Christ, even if he had to kill everyone in sight to accomplish it. His own priest kept a diary, in which the father wrote that he cannot possibly imagine how future generations will be able to comprehend to extent of the murderous butchery he was witnessing every day in the "new world". He was right. We have never been able to comprehend it, because we have refused to do so. We prefer a more self congratulatory version of our own history and heritage, as all humans do. The salvation of humanity is that there are always among us those unwilling to live iiiiin lies, adn, even if only belatedly, these pioneering people eventually lead the rest of us a bit more into the light of truth. Happy Indigenous people Day.