Cornell Students Decry Columbus Day

Copyright © 2003 by The Cornell Daily Sun, Inc. ^ | 10/10/03 | By CASEY HOLMES

[ZULU]

I don't think I called them unpatriotic.

Not everyone who is an idiot is unpatriotic, but I'd say anyone who is unpatriotic is an idiot.

You have to judge a historical character on the basis of two things:

the standards of their own times and their impact on the future.

By the standards of his times, Columbus was no worse than anyone else. Sure, he enslaved Indians. But the Muslims were enslaving Balkan Christians and African blacks, the SPaniards were enslaving North Africans, etc. slavery was a way of life back then. From the standpoint of brutality he was hardly in the same league as his contemporaries.

As for his impact on the present, we wouldn't be having this conversation right now without him, except maybe in secret and in Japanese, German, Chinese, or Russian.

[stands2reason]

It was sarcasm; I was making a point. They HATE to be called unpatriotic, even though no one calls them that. Yet, they hate everything Columbus stands for, and blame the slave trade on him. That means they blame the USA on him. But they're not unpatriotic (in their own mind). Got it?

[ZULU]

O.K.

Sorry