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Bye Bye, Columbus Day
Pajamas Media ^ | April 22 | Travis Rowley

Posted on 04/22/2009 9:48:31 AM PDT by AJKauf

Several weeks ago the Brown University faculty ratified a student petition demanding that the university abandon its recognition of Columbus Day. The directive was enacted by Brown’s Native American student group, whose spokesmen defend their activism by pointing out the atrocities committed by Christopher Columbus and his men upon the indigenous people of the newly discovered continent. Some have suggested that the holiday be renamed Indigenous Day, but for now Brown has decided to settle for Fall Weekend — a weekend in which Brown students and professors will still enjoy a Monday off from work.

Now that Brown University has set new moral standards for preserving traditional namesakes, some are wondering if Brown students will petition to scratch the name of a slave-trading family from the face of their university.

Or will they look into the misdeeds of Martin Luther King Jr. in an attempt to save the nation from commemorating anyone who may have blemishes on his moral record? Will there now be an academic investigation into the countless atrocities committed by Native Americans, prompting the removal of tribal names from casinos and other landmarks?

Probably not. But nobody expects consistency from liberals anymore anyway....

(Excerpt) Read more at pajamasmedia.com ...


TOPICS: Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: brownuniversity; christophercolumbus; columbus; columbusday
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1 posted on 04/22/2009 9:48:31 AM PDT by AJKauf
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To: AJKauf

I’d like to point out the atrocities the indigenous peoples carried out against each other.


2 posted on 04/22/2009 9:50:33 AM PDT by DeLaine (Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter. (MLK))
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To: AJKauf

Silliness.
Indians lost, they were an inferior culture.

Now, if they want to talk about the continuing mistreatment of Indians by the US government, they have a legitmate point. The US government has implemented a form of socialism on the Indians that has left many of them in a stupor of poverty and addiction.

Look to the Indian reservations for an insight into the future of America’s general population.


3 posted on 04/22/2009 9:53:29 AM PDT by brownsfan (Kool aid comes in two new flavors: Hope and Change.)
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To: AJKauf
Hello Leif Ericson Day?
4 posted on 04/22/2009 9:54:26 AM PDT by Dixie Yooper (Ephesians 6:11)
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To: brownsfan

“Indians lost, they were an inferior culture.”

All of them? Are you judging ‘inferior’ because of education,
Christian religion, civility, constitutional government?
Because before removal some Indians had attained all that, but it didn’t stop their removal.


5 posted on 04/22/2009 9:55:52 AM PDT by AuntB (The right to vote in America: Blacks 1870; Women 1920; Native Americans 1925; Foreigners 2008)
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To: DeLaine

“I’d like to point out the atrocities the indigenous peoples carried out against each other.”

Slavery, muder, mayhem, torture, the “noble savage” had more murderous ways to deal with each other than we knew...don’t they get the credit for teaching us new skills in “guerilla warfare” torture techniques (OK, maybe they learned some from the Spaniards in the south, but they were PRETTY good at skinning the white eyes) and on and on?

Their use of slavery was very common, but not much discussed today...


6 posted on 04/22/2009 9:56:25 AM PDT by jessduntno (When POTUS is used in reference to Obama, does the TU stand for Totally Useless?)
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To: Dixie Yooper

What about Amerigo Vespucci? (He’s the guy we are supposed to be GLAD our countinent was named after his FIRST name instead of his LAST name.)


7 posted on 04/22/2009 9:59:38 AM PDT by RebelTXRose
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To: AuntB

“All of them? “

Most of them.
History is full of invasions, and war. Would you suggest we try to figure out who started where, and put them all back where they belong?

Europeans were more advanced than the Indians, they won. The Indians, had they combined forces couldn’t have invaded Europe. If the Indians had joined forces, they couldn’t have stopped the Europeans invading here.

That’s sort of how nature works, the stronger overcome the weaker.


8 posted on 04/22/2009 9:59:48 AM PDT by brownsfan (Kool aid comes in two new flavors: Hope and Change.)
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To: jessduntno

I would like to suggest that Columbus naysayers actually read his diary. It is clear through his own thoughts that Columbus loved the indigenous peoples and that they loved him in return.


9 posted on 04/22/2009 10:02:05 AM PDT by grammarman
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To: RebelTXRose

Isn’t Brown located in a heavily populated Portuguese area? You would think the citizens would be a little upset about it.

http://www.dightonrock.com/columbus_was_100_portuguese.htm


10 posted on 04/22/2009 10:05:21 AM PDT by Radl (rtr)
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To: brownsfan
If you knew the amount of your tax money that goes to support these reservations, you would blanch. They get free this, free that, pay no taxes, and it goes on and on.

If you knew the amount of corruption that exists in the Indian community among the Indian leaders, again you would blanch.

11 posted on 04/22/2009 10:05:40 AM PDT by Parmy
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To: AJKauf

I’m surprised their PC hasn’t worked around to their own name ,Brown, as the family was in the slave trade, among a lot of other enterprises,see “Sons of Providence.”


12 posted on 04/22/2009 10:06:24 AM PDT by gusopol3
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To: RebelTXRose

Amerigo Vespucci was a map maker who heard stories of Leif Ericson’s adventure, 500 years after the fact.


13 posted on 04/22/2009 10:07:39 AM PDT by Dixie Yooper (Ephesians 6:11)
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To: Parmy

“If you knew the amount of your tax money that goes to support these reservations, you would blanch.”

John Stossel did a very good report on this. He also covered a tribe that rejected government support and started businesses, (embracing *gasp* capitalism).

The government supported tribes have huge unemployment, rampant alcoholism, and are just generally miserable.

The tribe that rejected the government support is thriving.


14 posted on 04/22/2009 10:08:39 AM PDT by brownsfan (Kool aid comes in two new flavors: Hope and Change.)
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To: AJKauf
... the university abandon its recognition of Columbus Day.

Christopher doesn't mind any longer. I'm getting over it. I'm sure you will, too.

15 posted on 04/22/2009 10:11:19 AM PDT by RobinOfKingston (Democrats, the party of evil. Republicans, the party of stupid.)
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To: brownsfan
Silliness.

Indians lost, they were an inferior culture.

Yep. Europeans replaced a culture where the guys hunted and fished, raided the neighbors for brides (and horses, later), and the women cleaned the game, prepared meals, tanned the hides, sewed, packed the lodge, unpacked the lodge and set it up...

You might rethink that a little...

16 posted on 04/22/2009 10:12:21 AM PDT by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly. Stand fast. God knows what He is doing.)
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To: Dixie Yooper

I read somewhere Lief stopped in at the Azores and asked for a warm place to stay and some food to eat. A Portuguese Sephardic Jew sent him to Miami with a bag of bagels.


17 posted on 04/22/2009 10:13:06 AM PDT by Radl (rtr)
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To: AuntB

European disease is what did in the Indians of Canada and the USA. Of course there were wars and displacement into reservations but disease was 10 times worse in my estimate

If the Europeans hadn’t conquered and invaded then the Chinese would have within one thousand years of 1492. “Black Robe” and “Last of Mohicans” with Daniel Day Lewis are my favorite Indian movies

Indians of Mexico and Central America were on a much lower plane due to mass human sacrifice and widespread slavery


18 posted on 04/22/2009 10:13:06 AM PDT by dennisw (Your action becomes your habit. Your habit becomes your character, that becomes your destiny)
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To: AJKauf

The whole Indian argument against Columbus Day is silly. Of course Columbus Day is silly anyway, he wasn’t first by a lot and people actually did know the world was round. It’s never really been a holiday anywhere I’ve lived, I don’t think I’ve ever gotten the day off work or school without illness being involved.


19 posted on 04/22/2009 10:17:43 AM PDT by razorboy
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To: dennisw

“European disease is what did in the Indians of Canada and the USA. Of course there were wars and displacement into reservations but disease was 10 times worse in my estimate”

Hmmm. If I had my choice, I’d rather die of disease than watch other ‘human beings’ march me into oblivion.


20 posted on 04/22/2009 10:18:23 AM PDT by AuntB (The right to vote in America: Blacks 1870; Women 1920; Native Americans 1925; Foreigners 2008)
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