[J Schweinbagel]

Here's the response I just EMailed to bquinn@th-record.com.:

"Are you a columnist who's run out of things to write about? Tired of calling George W. Bush an idiot? Weary of attacking capitalism? Looking for a juicy topic guaranteed to generate lots of angry reader mail while impressing your leftist colleagues?

Well, don't despair! Simply tear down a Pillar of American Society (tm)!

That's right! In your next screed, just point out that the Pillars of American Society (tm) really weren't the swell people we learned about in our history books! For instance, Lincoln didn't really want to free the slaves; he just did that to further his political career! Not only that, but Washington owned slaves! Heck, Jefferson fooled around with his!

And Columbus...whoo hoo! We're talking genocide here, baby! A fine example is Beth Quinn's October 14 column, "Columbus and his Merry Band of Murderers"! (Catchy title, eh?)

In it, Beth repeats the usual line about how Uncle Chris raped and looted and slaughtered everything he could get his blood-stained hands on...wow! Thirty million killed, all because of Columbus! (Of course, that's peanuts compared to Stalin or Mao, but your dink readers don't know that, and besides, they think Stalin and Mao were the bad guys, for pity's sake!)

The best part about Beth's column is its confessional "I-used-to-believe-that-old-garbage-but-now-I-know-the-truth" style! "To tell the truth, I never gave Christopher Columbus much thought until last spring when a student in my OCCC English class gave me an education," she writes! Why, it's like Oprah talking to Dr. Phil! It's not just a column, it's an example of personal growth! Impressive stuff!

"But Columbus day is over," you cry. "What'll I write about now?" Buck up, campers...there's plenty of material available all year round! Here's a few to get you started:

November: "Why Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade Makes Me Deeply Ashamed!"

December: "Santa Claus: Time To Take The Old SOB Out Back And Shoot Him!"

January: "Today's The Birthday Of Ronald Reagan, A Man Whose Name I Can Barely Type Without Retching!"

February: "Valentine's Day: Burn Down The Malls!"

So, get to it, columnists! Tear down a Pillar of American Society(tm) today! After all, it sure beats working for a living, eh?"

[attagirl]

I reveiwed a textbook used in our system for at least 20 yrs after the history stds. were in the news. Lo and behold! All those lies had been there about Chris, Thomas Jefferson, all that time.

You need to see what is being taught to our kids. Is it any wonder they think as they do? (overpopulation problems given in math, history taught from a Marxist perspective, whitey always seen as the bad guy [Johnnie Cochran mined this one] readings in English consistently deal with depressing, suicidal and occult themes, evolution is the overriding theme in science etc.)

Never heard of Beth Quinn. I see that critical thinking is not her forte (she probably also gets her info from all those stupid forwwaraded e-mails that spam our computers).

Rigoberta Menchu, the lying nobel prize laureate, was brought to the fore in 1992, to detract from the 500th anniversary of Chris' excellent adventure. She came to our school and was hailed as a "hero."

BTW, the reason Chris is defiled is because he saw himself as being on a Mission from God to spread Catholicism.

Unforgiveable to a liberal.

[ikka]

Until I read Jim's paper, my opinion of Columbus had been formed by elementary school social studies books.

What the h*ll is this person doing as a teacher in a school?

[secretagent]

The author's motives aside, you haven't refuted her account of Columbus' methods with the natives. Her column provides new information to some.

[dogbyte12]

Columbus was a bastard. But he was a great man. He and his crew did rape, murder, and plunder. He also vastly changed this world for the better, by exploring the New World. Europe would have kept stagnating along, renaissance or no, without the new world being brought to the minds of those with dreams of doing something brave and different.

I honestly don't know how Columbus should be taught in schools. He was one of the most pivotal figures of positive change in the last milenium. He was also a rapist. Not easy to distill into an 8th grade history lesson.

[ladtx]

A liberal once again looking at the 15th century through 21st century eyes. It can't and shouldn't be done. Values, mores, and the view of mans place in society have changed considerably in 500+ years. Dwelling on our view of how we "think" society should have been is counter-productive to a true view of history. As a teacher I would think she would realize that most important point. But then again it doesn't lend itself to the view of our most generous concept of our own "perfection".