It is ironic to me that Columbus has a federal holiday just the same as Lincoln and Martin Luther King. It’s actually worse than that really. We were taught in school how Columbus was a great explorer and hero. In actuality Columbus never thought the world was flat. Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand never thought the world was flat. Columbus was after..wealth…fame, and a lucrative trade route. He stumbled onto a new continent and so.. he got the fame, and he got slaves on his subsequent trips to the Americas in in 1493 to 1496. He had his men cut the noses and ears off of the Lucayan Natives so that these natives, who had been so friendly with him on his first voyage would get the message that he meant business. He demanded their woman as sex slaves for his men, and because he had seen the natives wearing gold necklaces on his first trip…he demanded GOLD. The natives rebelled, and Columbus and his men went to battle with them, and slaughtered them. Many of the bodies of the Indians were fed to dogs…some still alive. Not getting the gold he wanted, he took 500 back to Spain as slaves…only 300 survived the trip. He came back on other trips to find that gold…but it eluded him, falling to subsequent Conquistadors to find it instead.
As a first grader we had a play about Columbus. One of my friends Terry Roberts played Columbus. I played one of the Indians. I’m glad I was on the right side.
Columbus doesn’t deserve a holiday. He deserves for History to be corrected and show him for the bad man he really was.
Writing for Sanity's Sake 