image credit: brainskewer.com
Mark Antonio Wright at National Review explains WHY we
celebrate Columbus Day (h/t Chicks on the Right):
Let us dispense with any pretense
that the indigenous peoples of the Americas lived in a peaceful idyll in
harmony with their neighbors and with nature, and that the advent of Columbus
destroyed a noble paradise. The great civilizations of the Western Hemisphere
were indeed advanced, and yet, like Europeans, Asians, and Africans, the
American peoples used their technology to subjugate. Anyone familiar with the
expansionist and warlike cultures of the Aztec and Inca Empires should know
that the tables would have been turned had it been the New World that
“discovered” the Old and possessed the power to conquer it. Human nature,
tainted with original sin, is what it is and has been — of that we can be
certain.
Europeans, beginning with Columbus, treated the
Indians pitilessly — that should not be whitewashed or forgotten — but, in the
same way, we should not ignore the genuine good that has come down to us as a
result of the course of human events — namely, the space for a unique idea to
grow and flourish: the self-government of a free people, with an ever-expanding
idea of who can partake of that promise.
How much is Columbus personally responsible for
all of this — for the good and the ill? Only as much as any one man can be. As
the historian William J. Connell has written, “What Columbus gets criticized
for nowadays are attitudes that were typical of the European sailing captains
and merchants who plied the Mediterranean and the Atlantic in the 15th century.
Within that group he was unquestionably a man of daring and unusual ambition.”
Connell concluded that “what really mattered was
his landing on San Salvador, which was a momentous, world-changing occasion
such as has rarely happened in human history.”
Hannah at Chicks on The Right comments:
I’d also like to note that on
Columbus Day, we’re not celebrating HIM as person.
We’re not celebrating genocide
or racism. The day marks a significant event. Big difference.
The
current Columbus Day narrative only tells half of the story. It’s revisionist history.
It’s all rooted in Western guilt.
ANYWAY.
Trump tweeted about Columbus and got slammed on Twitter:
Christopher Columbus’s spirit of determination
& adventure has provided inspiration to generations of Americans. On #ColumbusDay, we honor his remarkable accomplishments
as a navigator, & celebrate his voyage into the unknown expanse of the
Atlantic Ocean.
You can read more here. Happy Columbus Day.
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