Not Rewrite It.
Dumb the Dumb and his mignons attempt to rewrite the history of January 6th, but we have videos of that day in history. However, much of Christopher Columbus’ legacy is not much more than despicable and racist.
George Santayana warned the world, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” As we look back on our history, Santayana was correct. In the case of Columbus, he didn’t discover the New World nor did Leif Erikson. The New World isn’t any newer than Europe and had millions of inhabitants.
Columbus sailed four times from Europe to North America: 1492, 1493, 1498, and 1502. Initially, he wasn’t looking for the New World. He wanted to find a shorter route to sail to Asia.
Columbus was determined to find a western from Europe to Asia. After a long voyage across the Atlantic, most historians believe he discovered Watling Island in the Bahamas. He thought that the Taino people were people living off the coast of India. Hence, Columbus called the Tainos Indias Occidentales or West Indies. That is the basis of the English term Indians.
Columbus was confused about his actual location. So, that was just a dumb mistake. Nonetheless, he began enslaving the locals and taking thousands of them to Spain to be sold as slaves.
Columbus trafficked in slaves and women.
His soldiers cut off the hands of slaves mining for gold when they did get their quota.
Tainos that weren’t slaves or killed by Columbus’ soldiers, 90% died due to diseases the Columbus and other explorers brought to North America. One would have thought that white Europeans would have been a bit more ethical.
Four hundred years after Columbus discovered America, one would also have thought Americans who came from Europe would have learned from the earlier Europeans past mistakes to paraphrase Santayana. We had a Civil War, which the North won but lost the peace. Then we got into the Manifest Destiny mindset. Manifest means apparent or obvious, and Destiny means God-given or predetermined.
This picture, American Progress, by John Gast in 1872, is a self-righteous painting, but it reinforces the adage, “A picture is worth a thousand words.”
We are now living in the 21st century, which raises the question of when will we address racism? Tragically, Bob Dylan has a nebulas response to the question. “The answer is blowin’ in the wind.”
How many roads must a man walk down
Before you call him a man?
Before she sleeps in the sand?
Yes, and how many times must the cannonballs fly
How many roads must a man walk down
Before they’re forever banned?
The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind
The answer is blowin’ in the wind
Yes, and how many years must a mountain exist
Before it is washed to the sea?
And how many years can some people exist
Before they’re allowed to be free?
Yes, and how many times can a man turn his head
And pretend that he just doesn’t see?
The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind
The answer is blowin’ in the wind
Yes, and how many times must a man look up
Before he can see the sky?
And how many ears must one man have
Before he can hear people cry?
Yes, and how many deaths will it take ’til he knows
That too many people have died?
The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind
The answer is blowin’ in the wind
Visit the Connecting the Dots page to read more about this topic.
Visit the Music I Love and Why page to read more about this topic.
Visit the Darkest Before Dawn page to read more about this topic.
10/11/21