Columbus’ role in history has been overblown. There were English fishermen fishing off the coast of Newfoundland in the early 1400s. They kept it secret because they didn’t want the French and Portuguese moving in and ruining the great fishing. Viking explorer Lief Ericson got to the Canadian Maritime in the eleventh century CE. Look at a map: Greenland was well known to Europeans and only a short hop from what is now Canada. America would have been “discovered” by someone or other; Columbus merely was the first one to publicize it when he bumped into some Caribbean islands accidentally.
Regarding honoring Italians: Columbus (who was calling himself by the Spanish equivalent Cristobol Colon by then) had long before abandoned his native Genoa. He was sailing for Spain’s queen Isabella, a religious fanatic who thought a route to the East would open up a European conquest and forced conversions to Christianity. Statues to truly great Italians such as Verdi, Fermi, Garibaldi, and others would honor Italian people far better than a statue of Columbus would.
In an ideal world, natives of the Americas would have forgotten their differences (Ex: The local Micmacs here don’t want anything in the way of free healthcare from my wife because she’s a steenkin’ Mohawk/Abenaki) gotten together to make the invaders from the east behave and then, had they wanted, negotiated fair, ironclad agreements as to what the Europeans were to be allowed and forbidden.
Instead, like people the world over, divided they fell.
sergioandrade Premium Member over 4 years ago
A Colectomy?
Rabies65 over 4 years ago
Appropriately named.
Dawn Premium Member over 4 years ago
:-)
Newenglandah over 4 years ago
Columbus’ role in history has been overblown. There were English fishermen fishing off the coast of Newfoundland in the early 1400s. They kept it secret because they didn’t want the French and Portuguese moving in and ruining the great fishing. Viking explorer Lief Ericson got to the Canadian Maritime in the eleventh century CE. Look at a map: Greenland was well known to Europeans and only a short hop from what is now Canada. America would have been “discovered” by someone or other; Columbus merely was the first one to publicize it when he bumped into some Caribbean islands accidentally.
Regarding honoring Italians: Columbus (who was calling himself by the Spanish equivalent Cristobol Colon by then) had long before abandoned his native Genoa. He was sailing for Spain’s queen Isabella, a religious fanatic who thought a route to the East would open up a European conquest and forced conversions to Christianity. Statues to truly great Italians such as Verdi, Fermi, Garibaldi, and others would honor Italian people far better than a statue of Columbus would.
tung cha cha cha over 4 years ago
Keep the holiday and rename it, “All lives matter equally” day
kd1sq Premium Member over 4 years ago
In an ideal world, natives of the Americas would have forgotten their differences (Ex: The local Micmacs here don’t want anything in the way of free healthcare from my wife because she’s a steenkin’ Mohawk/Abenaki) gotten together to make the invaders from the east behave and then, had they wanted, negotiated fair, ironclad agreements as to what the Europeans were to be allowed and forbidden.
Instead, like people the world over, divided they fell.
Ah, how dumb ALL humans are.
Ironhold over 4 years ago
One of the statues torn down was of an abolitionist who died of injuries sustained while fighting in the Civil War.
This person gave their life to end slavery, but simply because it was a statue of a dead white guy it was ripped apart like so many others.
This is why the people who are taking the statues down are looked at as vandals and terrorists by the mainstream public.