Columbus - Still worth celebrating?

[The Brave Little Toaster Oven]

http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/features_momsatwork/2009/10/columbus-still-worth-celebrating.html

Today is Columbus Day. Not to be unsentimental, but to me that basically means to not bother checking my mailbox.

I do remember it being a bigger deal when I was school age. Usually it meant a lesson on how Columbus "discovered" America, often followed by a room party or patriotic assembly.

Today's school-age students aren't celebrating Columbus Day in the same way. In fact, many school districts throughout the country won't even observe the holiday in his namesake.

In Texas, students start learning in the fifth grade about the "Columbian Exchange" — which consisted of the diseases that wiped out native populations, along with the trade of gold, crops and goods.

In McDonald, Pa., 30 miles southwest of Pittsburgh, fourth-grade students put Columbus on trial this year — charging him with misrepresenting the Spanish crown and thievery. They found him guilty and sentenced him to life in prison.

Students in a New Jersey school were forced to stand in a cafeteria and not allowed to eat while other students teased and intimidated them. The activity was planned to so students could better understand the suffering indigenous populations endured because of Columbus.

So if this is the direction the next generation is going, how long can we really expect this national holiday to even exist? Or, more personally, do I need to re-educate myself on the truths of Columbus before my daughter comes to me asking about him?

I'm curious about how other parents have addressed Columbus. Have you found that the schools are answering your child's questions effectively? Are there still things about his exploration that are worthy of a lesson plan?

Some people are really Debbie Downers

[The Brave Little Toaster Oven]

http://www.examiner.com/x-7627-DC-Progressive-Examiner~y2009m10d12-Reconsider-Columbus-Day

At 11 a.m. today, October 12, 2009, the United States government honors and celebrates the achievements of Christopher Columbus along with the Embassies Italy and Spain by laying a national wreath laying at the base of the Columbus Memorial Statue located at Union Station at Massachusetts Avenue & 1st Street in Washington, D.C. Widely regarded as the founder of the United States of America, Christopher Columbus received national recognition for contribution to the U.S. when October 12 (which later was changed to the second Monday in October) was officially declared a federal holiday in 1934.

A hero to some and a villain to others, how often do we take the time to examine who was Christopher Columbus? What his true legacy in the Americas and to whose expense we celebrate his "discovery?"

For many in the United States, Columbus Day is just another holiday. It is a time to spend with family and friends, an opportunity to take a short vacation, an extra day of rest from a long work week, or it is the last chance for a barbecue before winter. But for others, it is a sharp and painful reminder that history has betrayed and forgotten the contributions of their people, the lives lost, and a rich culture that pre-dated colonization.

From the moment a sailor aboard the Pinta sighted land from the sea, at 2am on October 12, 1942, the course of indigenous history was forever changed. Upon landing on what is now the Bahamas, once known as Guanahani, Columbus encountered indigenous peoples of the Lucayan, Taíno or Arawak, nations. Peaceful and friendly, Columbus and his Spanish explorers manipulated their hospitality and mercilessly slaughtered, enslaved, and stole lands in the name of the Spanish crown. He wrote of them in his journal, "They ought to make good and skilled servants, for they repeat very quickly whatever we say to them."

In his four voyages to the Americas, traveling extensively throughout the Caribbean and Central America, each voyage became more deadly than the first. Within two years of his initial landing historians estimate that half of what is believed to have been 250,000 Taino people were massacred. Remaining survivors were either sold into European slavery, forced to mine gold for the Spaniards in the Americas, and many later died of disease.

Even after Columbus' death, the brutality he implemented on the island of Hispañola (now the Dominican Republic and Haiti) endured. By 1550, only a few hundred Taino remained in Hispañola and in Mexico and estimated indigenous population of 25 million was decimated to 1 million by 1605.

This drastic decrease in the indigenous populations of the Americas, later brought about the trans-Atlantic African slave trade, and was followed by indentured Chinese labor after slavery's abolition. The thirst of cheap labor and the blood of the indigenous, Africans, and Chinese, still stain the soil that is the foundation of development in the New World.

However, this is not the history that is taught in schools throughout the United States. Our children do not learn of the brutality of the explorers, of Native American history and its traditions, nor do we pay homage the cultures that ruled for centuries before Columbus' arrival. Instead every second Monday of every October of every year, we give our youth a day off to remember and reflect on the "accomplishments" of Christopher Columbus, a nautical pioneer, explorer and a man who ordered the murder and enslavement of thousands.

Despite the 1990 Congressional resolution designating November as National American Indian Heritage Month, we have yet honor the indigenous peoples of the Americas with a national holiday. How many of us even recognize and/or celebrate American Indian Heritage Month annually?

What we have failed to realize in the United States is that Native American history is our history. If we are to call ourselves "Americans" we must honor and respect the first peoples of the Americas. So on this day, let us reconsider why we celebrate Columbus Day and not Indigenous People's Day.

[Thiebear]

I'm kinda grateful that i was born in the United States.. Don't know about you but i count that as a gift that keeps on giving.

(not sure you can blame the slave trade on Columbus).

Slavery and the slave trade were an integral part of African societies and states which supplied the Arab world with enslaved people for centuries before the arrival of the Europeans

[Kosher Ham]

I never celebrated it. I don't recall it ever being that big of a deal growing up in DC. Not like people had parties or anything.

[tone_dubbz]

I have a government job, and we do not recognize Columbus day as a holiday. Thats why I'm stuck at work!!!!

[spjunkies]

Why the hell not? it's a day off so I'll take it.

[Prosperity]

I say we replace Columbus Day with 9/11 day or some other more important historical event

[Mickalino]

Don't tell that to people who live in Columbus Ohio.

[spjunkies]

I say we replace Columbus Day with 9/11 day or some other more important historical event

I guess the only issue with that would be because it's so close to Labor Day, but I think it's a good idea.

[The 12th Commandment]

The Indians out here really, really don't like the fact that we have a Columbus day. Not entirely up to them, I'll grant, but I can see their point.

[Mickalino]

I guess the only issue with that would be because it's so close to Labor Day, but I think it's a good idea.

No, there's NO issue with it - it's my birthday, so I would get my birthday off every year.

[PeterMP]

I say we replace Columbus Day with 9/11 day or some other more important historical event

9/11 is more historically important than when modern Europeans capable of colonizing North and South America found the North and South American continents?

I don't think so.

You might not like the historical ramifications, but there is no way it is historically more important.

[Mickalino]

9/11 is more historically important than when modern Europeans capable of colonizing North and South America found the North and South American continents?

I don't think so.

You might not like the historical ramifications, but there is no way it is historically more important.

Well, Columbus Day kind of sucks, because if those morons from Europeans would have never discovered the Western World, then 9/11 would have never happened !! And JFK would have never been shot, the Redskins would not have lost to the Raiders in the Super Bowl, and the Skins wouldn't have lost to the winless Lions and Panthers !!

And instead of being an Sicilian immigrant in the U.S., I would be living in BEAUTIFUL Sicily right now, drinking Italian wine, and Ricotta Cheese

So, screw those Europeans !!

[TimmySmith]

The legacy of Columbus puts us where we are today for better or worse.

I do not see much point in celebrating "indigenous peoples" day as that wacko article suggests, as the modernization of the world pretty much relied on exploration and exploitation.

[The 12th Commandment]

9/11 is more historically important than when modern Europeans capable of colonizing North and South America found the North and South American continents?

I don't think so.

You might not like the historical ramifications, but there is no way it is historically more important.

Is historical importance, in and of itself, really justification for a Holiday? Not a very good IMO.

[skinsfan44]

To me, Columbus didn't discover America, so I think this holiday is bogus.

How can you discover a place that already had people living there ie Indians-Native Americans.

If you want to proclaim someone discovering America from Europe then it was the Vikings that discovered it a 1000 years before Columbus.

[Thiebear]

Happy Lief Erickson day?

[endzone_dave]

Columbus was a cruel, greedy SOB. We could probably pick a better person to honor.

[G.A.C.O.L.B.]

To me, Columbus didn't discover America, so I think this holiday is bogus.

How can you discover a place that already had people living there ie Indians-Native Americans.

If you want to proclaim someone discovering America from Europe then it was the Vikings that discovered it a 1000 years before Columbus.

1000 years before Columbus? I thought it was more like 300-400?

[Mickalino]

Let's wait til we mutilale Bin Laden, and make that a national holiday

[zoony]

Even after Columbus' death, the brutality he implemented on the island of Hispañola (now the Dominican Republic and Haiti) endured. By 1550, only a few hundred Taino remained in Hispañola and in Mexico and estimated indigenous population of 25 million was decimated to 1 million by 1605.

This is an extremely dishonest statement to make- put in to prey on the weak minded.

[Prosperity]

9/11 is more historically important than when modern Europeans capable of colonizing North and South America found the North and South American continents?

I don't think so.

You might not like the historical ramifications, but there is no way it is historically more important.

never said it was more important historically, I said more a more important historical event.

9/11 is more important to us than Columbus' discovery of America, regardless of it's historical importance objectively. And what decides that importance doesn't have to be bound purely by the historical perspective.

[The Evil Genius]

Half of my office has dressed up as conquistadors and the other half has dressed up as native Americans. We (i'm on the conquistador team) are chasing around the Natives and smacking them with bibles until they agree to convert to catholicism. This afternoon we are giving espanol lessons and claiming some of the women folk as our own.

[Prosperity]

Half of my office has dressed up as conquistadors and the other half has dressed up as native Americans. We (i'm on the conquistador team) are chasing around the Natives and smacking them with bibles until they agree to convert to catholicism. This afternoon we are giving espanol lessons and claiming some of the women folk as our own.

I recommend giving the nativies small pox, and receiving from the natives STD's

for historical accuracy

[zoony]

I recommend giving the nativies small pox, and receiving from the natives STD's

for historical accuracy

:hysterical:

Then, tell 9/10 of the natives to drop dead from their disease.

But, before that, have the natives tear out your still beating heart and offer it as sacrifice to their sun god. Then, they skin you alive and wear your skin as a body suit.

Good times. It's a dam shame Catholicism got rid of all that.

.....