Columbus Day - Take a Chill Pill People!

Columbus didn’t mass murder Native Americans. Jeez. He’s celebrated for sailing here and finding this place. I think people are WILDLY exaggerating with their fake-outrage BS, as usual.

I believe this Holiday started as mostly an Italian American thing. Heck, my people have St. Patrick's Day and everyone seems to join in. I don't know squat about St. Patrick, and neither do most people. But, I hear the Easter Bunny smokes crack! :D

It's an interesting discussion, and I suppose it makes people think, but I don't see this kind of insult to an Italian American hero as productive.

I think Columbus' achievements are noteworthy enough. I'm pretty sure there are no perfect people in history, and it really doesn't make sense to vilify all historical figures and erase their achievements from human history. Seems like this is a constant drumbeat whenever we celebrate any historical figure. JFK was a hormonger, right? *rollseyes*

Now Queen Elizabeth was a genocidal maniac, and that's a fact. She exterminated over a million Catholics, but we glorify her in lovely movies with Kate Blanchett. I find them historically insulting, but most people think she was some kind of hero to the female gender. I suppose there's some merit to that.

Have y'all seen the movie, The New World about Pocahontas and John Smith? That is a lot more historically accurate version of what happened. She was a very tragic figure, and he was a veritable scoundrel, but Disney isn't going to be destroying that cartoon anytime soon, lol.

Again, an interesting discussion, but not some major outrage IMO.

I think people are relying on a certain "version" of history with all this labeling Columbus some kind of sadistic slave owning monster guilty of genocide. There's always a "version" of history, isn't there? Most people of “stature” kept slaves and had what we consider barbaric ideas about humanity. I don't condone it, but it's a reality you can't just dismiss, and given the centuries that have passed, I really don't think it's reasonable to take all that as gospel.

I have read so many versions of Thomas Jefferson's life in various biographies that it seems he was several different people. And George Wills' version of Jefferson is particularly vicious. I'm not saying we should just ignore history and not try to learn more - far from it, but I am saying we really do have to take a lot of this with a grain of salt and an ounce of humility. We are sitting on our high perch judging celebrated historical figures based on an abridged, slanted, probably far from accurate or complete version of them, whose lives and times we cannot possible comprehend. If we take this day each year to learn more about history, then it's well worth celebrating IMO.