Unworthy Hero? Some Call For End To Columbus Day

Protsmouth Herald ^ | October 13, 2002 | Jesse J. DeConto

[Tancred]

It's that time of year for Columbus-bashing!

But seriously, Columbus should be celebrated because he is the one single man that is emblematic of the enormous changes coming from the discovery of the New World.

[Abcdefg]

Young minds full of mush and hearts full of hate.

[breakem]

Columbus will continue to be one of the great pivitol characters in western and world civilization. He did what no one before him would or could do and his voyages lead to what is agruably one of the greatest ciivilizations in the world.

In a world of war and might makes right, the Indians were overrun by a superior civilization. They made war and enslaved each other. They engaged in cannibalism, torture, human sacrifice, body mutilation etc. They got their asses kicked by a stronger civilization: Europe. This sanctimonious whining about Columbus is a desparate attempt to get emotional reparations.

So let's agree there was slavery and war and disease on evryone's part and the Indians lost. Now what!

[evolved_rage]

More fatal than slavery were the various diseases Columbus and other Spanish explorers brought to the Americas.

Wow! Good for Columbus. Discovered a new world, lived to tell about it, AND discovered viruses and bioterrorism. If he had invented the enema bottle, we would know where these teachers came from too.

[Cicero]

One of only two named holidays? Thank the Democrats. We used to have Lincoln's Birthday and Washington's birthday before the Dems killed them.

[holyscroller]

And why is it we no longer celebrate Washington's birthday, but we do "celebrate" Martin Luther King Day? Let's bring back "President's Day" if we're rearranging holidays.

[xrp]

They can point the finger at Mr Columbus all they want, but it was actually Mr Smallpox that killed the majority of Native Americans. One way or another, the diseases of the East eventually would have made their way to the West.

[Indie]

"Christopher Columbus was a genocidal killer and spread disease and wiped out indigenous cultures," Middleton said.
Hmmm, I guess that's why we are the strongest country in the world now. Thank goodness. I think we should have a holiday for this man. My existence thanks him! Oh by the way...as far as spreading disease and attempting to wipe out indigenous cultures....isn't that what the illegal immigrants (AIDS, TB, you name it) and islamonazis in our own country are doing to us????

[Huck]

We were here first

You weren't even born!

[ChiMark]

I remember a college class on Indians. I bought into those allegations of mass geneocide of some 20M Indians. Ater doing some inquiries into these claims we find out that the max population could not have exceeded 3-4M across North America. That's really a sparce population for the enitire continent. Archeaological evidence cannot suport any burial findings for such a holocaust. Who gave these squatters
godly rights over this land? What order gave these so called native Americans a dispensation over this land?
GO Columbus.

[RobbyS]

The irony is that they have learned this stuff from liberal whites. Never mind that the Spaniards also ended the practice of large scale human sacrifice in Mexico.

[SunkenCiv]

Just a ping, figured you'd want to read this.

[Keith Pickering]

For a really eye-opening look into the issue of the pre-Columbian population of America, see David Henige's fabulous, spot-on book, "Numbers From Nowhere: The American Indian Contact Population debate." (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1998).

[SunkenCiv]

---

Numbers from Nowhere: The American Indian Contact Population Debate by David P. Henige recommended by Keith Pickering

---

[RightWhale]

IMHO Columbus was a mere figurehead. Several Euro kingdoms and free cities were already trading with the Americas. His voyage made it official for purposes of establishing property rights.

[fish hawk]

As one of the few American Indians on FR, let me say that this is the kind of crap that gives us a bad name. This and the bitching about sports teams names like Warriors, Braves, etc. just piss me off. There are plenty of us out here that feel this way but you only see the ones that the media grabs on to like this idiot. As for me, I love the Braves and the Redskins, and think that Columbus was a great man.

[purpleraine]

OK, I apologize:

That Columbus was such a great explorer.

That he talked the King and Queen of Spain into permanent settlements in the western hemisphere.

That his voyages led to the establishment of the great civilization and form of government known to this date.

That my poor grandfather, a Sicilian dirt farmer, came here for a better life.

That some Indians are making $16,000 a month tax free from their "European" enterprises.

That some idiots don't know how to explain history to their children.

[LtKerst]

Jarret Middleton is a Moron.

[LtKerst]

Jean Chadwick is a moron.