[DMinus]

the facsist indian groups her ein denver, including ward churchill, did their best to threaten and intimidate the italians out of celebrating their heritage. in the end, though, the parade went off without a hitch.

[combat_boots]

The 'great debate' of what constitutes a human being occurred at Salamanca between Sepulveda and de las Casas, arguing before religious and political forces that governed Spain. The indians lost out, as we know. The archival documents of the debate still exist.

[Oztrich Boy]

Exploring Columbus (Great Man or Racist Oppressor?)

"Can't he be both, like the late Earl Warren?"

[Mr Ramsbotham]

"Well, Columbus is also responsible for many germs and diseases that Europeans brought to America, causing untold suffering and death among the people who were here before us."

And the Indians gave us tobacco and syphilis in return. I'd say they've just about had their revenge.

[ExpatGator]

Great Racist Oppressor!

[sarasmom]

Nobody did a poll at the time, but if anyone had bothered, I doubt the indigenous population would have described themselves as "discovered".

I am the product of my mixed maternal and paternal ancestors.
I still dealt with racial prejudice in my youth, among my own immediate paternal family, because I was not "pure white".

I am not overly fond of Columbus Day and Thanksgiving Day, as a result.

But some things require individuals to stop futilely obsessing over.
History is one of those things.

[ThanhPhero]

Actually a Great Man can be a Racust Oppressor. Attila the Hun was a Great Man as was Adolph Hitler. Great is their amount of effect on the world, not their benevolence..

[Ulugh Beg]

From the article: << "Columbus believed the Earth was a sphere. He thought he could reach the Far East by setting off on a westward course. Though he stumbled upon what is now the Bahamas by accident, he was still a great explorer and a great man, Billy." >> And the myth continues, no matter how many times it is corrected. Columbus's "belief" that the Earth was a sphere was shared by all educated people in Europe -- and had been accepted for a very long time. It wasn't even a issue between him and those opposed to his voyage. The controversey between Columbus and his detractors before the voyage was over the size of the Earth -- not its shape. His opponents at the Council of Salamanca argued for a circumference pretty close to what we now know to be the case. Columbus fudged his figures and argued for a circumference barely half that size. They were right; he was wrong. Columbus took with him a letter of introduction from the sovereigns of Spain to the Great Khan of China -- based on his reading of Marco Polo. Only problem was -- the Mongols had been overthrown by native Chinese a couple hundred years before! Columbus only took along enough provisions to get about as far as he did get. He was expecting to reach "the Indies" any day -- and he claimed to his dying day that he HAD done so. If he hadn't bumped into something that neither he nor his opponents knew about -- and if the Earth had been -- as he thought -- all water from Europe to Asia -- he and his crews would have perished at sea. They were already low on provisions when they sighted land -- and the crews were starting to grumble. Aristotle had explained the evidence for the sphericity of the Earth nearly two thousand years before -- and Eratosthenes, a few hundred years later, calculated its circumference, and got a number pretty close to today's figure. While I am sure many ignorant peasants were unaware of the fact -- the educated "elite" certainly knew it. If only we could get schools to stop perpetuating the myth about this. M PS -- I used several paragraphs, with double spacing between them, when I wrote this -- but the preview shows one big long paragraph. I apologize, but I cannot figure out how to fix this problem. Any help would be appreciated.

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

Leif Ericson discovered Newfoundland and possibly Cape Cod, Mass, at least 500 years before Columbus. I don't understand why we don't have a day honoring him.

[DumpsterDiver]

"Well, Columbus is also responsible for many germs and diseases that Europeans brought to America, causing untold suffering and death among the people who were here before us."

"That's right, children, Columbus invented germs and diseases, the most important one being smallpox."

And for those who need it... /sarc

[Fred Hayek]

Tonight on WCCO-TV news (Minneapolis), there were some interviews with some grade school kids about Columbus. The kids have gotten their political indoctrination about Columbus being some kind of racist genocidal oppressor.

MY TAXES ARE PAYING FOR THIS < excrement >!