Columbus Day
Posted by Richard on October 9, 2007
No, Monday, October 8th, was not Columbus Day. Officially, it was Explorers Day. That's the weenie, non-specific, politically correct substitute for Columbus Day enacted by the same stiffs who took away Washington's Birthday and Lincoln's Birthday, replaced them with Presidents Day, and said, "Look, it's on a Monday. Isn't that great?"
The real Columbus Day is October 12. It doesn't celebrate bringing murder, rape, and oppression to the New World. All those things existed here long before Columbus arrived, weren't his purpose, and were practiced far more ruthlessly by the original inhabitants than by Chris and the crew. Columbus Day celebrates courage, determination, and the drive to explore and expand one's world. Those are universal values.
Only a racist views this holiday as celebrating the conquest of one ethnic group by another, because only a racist sees everything in terms of ethnic groups.
I'm slightly (but only slightly) amused by the angry "Native American" professional victims and their supporters who disrupt Denver's Columbus Day Parade every year. With not a trace of irony, they wholeheartedly embrace the European romanticists' notion of the noble savage, and most of them think the politico-economic ideas of European socialists are somehow the heritage of America's "indigenous peoples." Morons.
Hathor said
How would you know what the Aarawak were like before Columbus? If the first natives that met Columbus had been so treacherous , he would not have survived to come back to the old world. What ever you disdain about the natives, the didn’t manage to wipe as many Europeans as they did the native. For someone who speaks of rights, apparently you think that only applies to the European.
rgcombs said
I know about the Arawak the same way you do — neither of us was alive then. From what I’ve read, they were much nicer and more peaceful than the Carib, but they did keep slaves.
That’s neither here nor there, though, because I wasn’t referring strictly to the people Columbus himself encountered. Russell Means and Glenn Morris, [http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,299959,00.html Denver’s perennial protest leaders] and Indian grievance champions, aren’t Arawak, and when they rant about “genocide and oppression,” they’re not just talking about the Arawak.
And I wasn’t expressing disdain for Native Americans, but for the promoters of the PC point of view (most of whom are white, by the way) that demonizes Europeans and embraces the romantic nonsense about “noble savages” living peaceful, idyllic lives. In truth, various peoples of the Americas practiced war, brutality, slavery, torture, human sacrifice, and in some cases, cannibalism, long before Columbus came along.
Hey, they weren’t unique. ”’Every”’ ethnic group and culture, Europeans included, has a history replete with the most shocking and barbarous behavior. But what does that matter now? What matters now is how you behave and what the society/culture you’re in is like, not what your ancestors were like.
But I’ve about had it with accusations of “contributing to more racism” for the crime of dissing rap, or “intellectual dishonesty” for not having enough self-doubt to suit someone. I call them as I see them. I don’t give a pass to people of color because they’re “disadvantaged” (what a condescending thing to do!), and I won’t adopt a burden of unearned guilt. If that bothers you, too bad.
Hathor said
“Contributing to more racism” is the conglomeration of many small voices that continue to question the sensitivities of another person. You can not say how I feel. It has nothing to do about being PC. It would be like, to infer something of your philosophy from your German heritage.
It is not about guilt. You being guilty does not wipe away history, as least not to me. For you to scoff at the genocide of some groups during the westward expansion or say as Micheal Medved about slavery, insults me, because you cannot be honest about my history and the consequences of that history in forming our society. It erases me. Growing up as I have, I do not wish my past to vanish to future generations, it would be as if I didn’t exist.
In da words of hip hop, you be dissin me.
rgcombs said
”In da words of hip hop, you be dissin me.”
I was going to respond with “pot, meet kettle,” but that’s not fair to me. I didn’t “scoff” at genocide, and I didn’t diss anybody except the “professional victims” like Means and Morris and their guilt-plagued white liberal supporters.
I’m not feeling guilty, I’m feeling annoyed. If you choose to take offense where none is given, that’s not my problem. And I’m not responsible for your inability (or unwillingness) to understand what I’m saying.