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Anyone who finds "Columbus Day" something to celebrate is either ignorant of history or a rotten person. Upon first encountering the Arawak people, Columbus wrote in his log: "They have no iron. Their spears are made of cane... They would make fine servants... With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want." Sounds like the kind of guy who would make men cut their hair, too. Click the link below and educate yourself.
--Val
Hi Val,
Thanks for the link and certainly "war and peace" to read. We don't celebrate it over on this side of the pond. Some history I do know about, rotten no, carcastic yes :-)!
Cheers,
John.B
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butcher's day. I have known of the atrocities of Columbus for a number of years now. Up until now, I had thought that he and his men had killed thousands, not millions. That is 3 full orders of magnitude more than I had previously heard. This man was truly evil, a 15th century Hitler. He claimed to be a man of God, and yet, he had no conscience. To be politically correct, we need to stop celebrating Columbus Day. Also, the truth shold be printed in our history books as well.
Scott
Influenced by that best selling novel in two parts perhaps!
To be politically correct
You want the members of this board to be politically correct?? If that label fit here we'd all be a bunch of short-haired, doing-whatever-society/fashion-told-us-to drones, like far too much of the population at large.
Frodo
It was the beginning of a long shameful stretch in the history of the Americas. On a lighter note, if it weren't for the discovery of the new world Europe wouldn't have tomatoes. at first they thought they were poison until some Italians discovered they make great sauce. Something like that.
(grin)
Kevin
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I can fully understand why they were thought to be toxic. Tomatoes are in the nightshade family.
Scott
The genus of the tomato plant Lycopersicum literally translates to "wolf peach".
- Oren
Shameful history oh really..nothings changed then! Oh yes we like a bit of the red sauce for sure :-)
No nothing's changed, same old same old
Imagine no Heinz 57 varieties.....Beans and tomato sauce would be just beans, how boring.
My office does not celebrate Columbus day. For these reasons that have been mentioned. What happened to the American civilizations happened to my ancestors more than 1000 years earlier, when the Judeo-Christian mediteranean "Civilization" having invaded the Celtic lands centuries before. Britons, Gaels, and Gauls were all celtic peoples, They had commerce, schools and religious beliefs. The were also unforunate to be among the 1st people to succumb to the invaders from Rome. Maascred outright, or taken into slavery, what they knew totally dismembered. Celts were not a warrior prople, but, they would defend themselves, and defend themselves they did. Beating back Caesars army a number of times. History is, as always, written by the victors. What happened in the Americas (that name also a European convention) has happened throughout history. How would history have changed if the great Chinese fleet had made it to Europe in the 500's A.D. What if native cultures of the "Americas" had known the actual richness of their lands and had developed a stronger, unified culture. Would Columbus 3 wooden ships be met by the Iriquois Coast Guard? We can commiserate all we want and imagine alternative historie. Let the truth be known of this our own history. It is not a thing to bring pride. but, perhaps we can, and should learn from it. Too long have we repeated these mistakes. If we maintain our tribal fears and attitudes, and somehow make it into space. I am afraid it is Terrans that will be the "Horrible Invaders from the Stars"
Well "The Sopranos" always liked Columbus Day so I guess it goes with the territory;)Happy C Day all?Cheers
Mark
Another point to consider is just how many U.S. holidays actually "celebrate" anything anymore. How many public ceremonies or announcements say much of anything about whatever the holiday is about? It's at the point where most of our holidays are not much more than an excuse for a three-day weekend and for a bunch of commercial sales.
While in some cases, such as your points about Columbus Day, that may be a good thing, for others it's a bit of a shame, and a sorrowful comment on our current society and it's inability to see the importance of recognizing and celebrating our history and the accomplishments of those who built, led and defended our country and culture.
Frodo
What blows my mind is that he wasn't even the first European to cross the Atlantic. The Vikings were in Canada five centuries before Columbus was even a twinkle in his father's eye. They also did it with much less sophisticated ships and navigational equipment. But the clergy wrote all the history books in that period so I guess they wanted to sweep those bad, nasty pagans under the rug.
Well, maybe if he lived today. But 1492, TBH, was one of the best times for long hair (on dudes, anyway) in the Western world. Funny sometimes what some people are and aren't prejudiced about...
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