I myself, wa never big of columbus day..but well over a decade ago, looking at a history channel special about columbus i was in loss of words. He chopped the hands off adolescent males, landing in dominican republic, NOT america, like were lied to, i mean taught in school. My ex ex g/f is dominican, and she showed me pictures of columbus's fort thats a tourist thing today, on the southwestern shore thier. Women were raped, and he tool thier gold. What bothers me the most, is to this day, it is taught he disccovered america, when in fact, HE landed in dominica...he rpaed, plundered, and enslaved the people...and america still has this sick holiday on the calendar..sounds like something adolph hitler or stalin would do...it shuold be strikin from american holidays.

Columbus was a typical European thug/conqueror/rapist: read his diaries, he brags of beatings, rapes(including girls as young as ten) and child murders. People like to excuse this crap with the line about judging them in context of their times, to which I answer: they were Christians, and as far as I can tell, their Bible specifically condemned that brutality then as now. So why not judge them according to what they claimed to believe with all their being, repeatedly?

Why not?

Because that leads to acknowledging the longest active genocide in recorded history: 1492-1898. And the passive genocide continues to this day.

Bah!

I have a button I wear on Columbus Day that reads:

"I might have believed it was an accident, except that you changed clips twice."

Originally posted by apacheman
Columbus was a typical European thug/conqueror/rapist: read his diaries, he brags of beatings, rapes(including girls as young as ten) and child murders.

Where might one gain access to said diaries?

Columbus was no criminal. He was a product of his time - which was a brutal, horrific era altogether. He was no worse than anyone else, nothing special.

Also, Columbus and his victims have been dead for 500 years now. It's time to let go and move on already. The same things Columbus did 500 years ago, when they were the norm, are being done now, when we supposedly know better. I would much rather worry about crimes happening now, than tragedies that took place centuries ago.

Yes, the conquistadors were quite savage to the Native American populations of the Americas, but so were all European powers who set foot on these shores. What we see is that it is human nature to subjugate those that can't defend themselves. Anything that is perceived different or odd to the general status quo, it is eradicated as to not disrupt the balance of things. Some call it a clash of civilizations. This has been the Modus Operandi for mankind since they decided to come out of the caves.

What Columbus and others of his ilk did is no different that what is being done today. Just look at Africa and other third world nations, but this time subjugation is performed through oppressive economic policy and raping countries of their rightful resources to be sold in foreign markets were the proceeds are kept in the foreign economy. Then a few shady thugs running the host countries get monetary allowances and their fancy Presidential mansions and luxury cars from the financial elite, while their people live in squalor. When a crusading leader rises up to end the subjugation and do right by their people they are dismembered by covert or overt action by the foreign powers. It's been 500 years since Columbus sailed the ocean blue but the same problems of his day go on today, but through different techniques. Basic human dignity is something that has taken a backseat to conquest and greed. I see history like a revolving door.

You won't find a Columbus fan in me!

Guy was an a-hole, and wasn't even the first to discover America. Wasn't even the first European to!

columbus was quite a vibrant character wasnt he. he is truly the few and the proud.

We tend to judge historical figures against contemporary contexts. Under these conditions, we could find fault with nearly every person who has ever lived.

Had it not been for those in history who, by our own smug standards are so imperfect, we would have never had the opportunity to learn from their mistakes to become the perfect, all knowing and all loving society we are today.

Learn from history, don't attack it.