Monday, October 12, 2015

Columbus Day Revisited

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When two people start out at opposite ends of the forest and traipse around until the come face-to-face, it is only a matter of perspective as for who discovered whom. Even as Christopher Columbus sailed home to Europe to proclaim his discovery of the New World to Queen Isabella of Spain, the indigenous people whom he met spread the work of their discovery of some really weird people who talked gibberish and wore metal and leather clothes. The chroniclers of the times were far more prolific in the written languages of Europe than were the indigenous peoples who resided on the lands that were summarily claimed by European Crowns.



This is not a treatise on the voyages of sailing men nor of the facts of exactly where they landed, but is one of how one group of men treated others groups of men to reach the conditions of today. One must keep in mind that the Columbus explorations were entirely economic and he expected to have high position bestowed on him and be paid profits and royalties for his efforts. Everything else paled in comparison.

Columbus and all his successors viewed the resources of this new continent as belonging to them and their benefactors. Even the people were considered as property of the Crown to be bought and sold for their ability to provide labor.

The very idea that Columbus discovered ANYTHING is negated by the fact that he was met by people who had lived there for hundreds if not thousands of years. Columbus merely tripped over an island on his way elsewhere. His voyages were Johnny-come-lately events at best. The ancestors of the indigenous either sailed across the Atlantic from most likely Africa; or sailed across the Pacific from Asia or any of the rim regions; or walked up the eastern Asian coast into (now) Russia and across the Bering Straits, across Alaska and Canada to the American Northwest, all the way across the continent and then across the Gulf of Mexico, et al, to (now) Cuba, The Bahamas and Santo Domingo, et al. Whichever route(s) they took, they did it long before Columbus or his parents and grandparents were born. His glory is unwarranted and a total historical fabrication from the first American History textbook published here to honor that man.

His holiday is a travesty to all the millions of people who were subjugated, tortured, enslaved and killed by these explorers and their followers. In these recent days of heightened social awareness we have reconsidered the esteemed recognition of Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis and the Confederate Battle Flag and their place in contemporary public display. The Columbus Day holiday needs to be deprecated and replaced with something more universal for this nation of America. Suggestions welcome.

There will be stubbornly defensive support for keeping the holiday just as it is. But there are any number of historical figures who would not be welcome as a hero of the American people. We don't glorify them either.
Author's Note: The book cover images in the side margins of this blog are my own publications of eBooks available at both Amazon and B&N. Please take a moment and go to the sites and read about them. Then if you like it, buy one or two.

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