In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue. With three ships he crossed the Atlantic: the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria. This year in late summer a replica of the Nina, one of these three ships, came to Duluth, Minnesota as a tribute to this significant occasion. Simultaneously, our town was also visited by protestors of this historical achievement. With increased awareness of the dark side of the Conquest of the Americas, some have suggested that we discontinue the celebration of Columbus Day as a national holiday.
In December 1980 when I was at the Zocalo in Mexico City, archeologists had unearthed a room the length and width of a football field filled with human skulls to a depth of twenty feet. The protesters of the Nina here in Duluth may have desired to (correctly) note that Christopher Columbus did not herald all good things for natives of the Americas, but this single archeological dig is evidence that not all atrocities in this hemisphere originated with whites from across the seas.
Christopher Columbus' original aim was to find a route to India. His intentions were earnest, not malicious. And no, he was not a genocidal maniac.
Christopher Columbus' original aim was to find a route to India. His intentions were earnest, not malicious. And no, he was not a genocidal maniac.
The dark side of human behavior neither begins nor ends with Western Civilization. Robert Burns noted, “Man’s inhumanity to man makes countless thousands mourn.” Horrors have been committed by every race throughout the course of history. This past century we have seen horrors in Rwanda, Uganda, Cambodia, Algeria, Bosnia, Albania, as well as the German Holocaust and Stalin’s terrors. A-bombs obliterated Hiroshima and Nagasaki. And going further back we see the Spanish Inquisition, Ghengis Kahn, the American slave trade, Vikings, Huns and more.
Since perpetrating evil is the province of all races, perhaps the solution can be found by all races working together to find solutions that are relevant to all races… today. In our own time, better jobs, housing, freedom to live without fear of violence, hope for tomorrow… these are things toward which we can all work together, rather than quibbling over the meaning of a replica of a 500 year old boat.
Since perpetrating evil is the province of all races, perhaps the solution can be found by all races working together to find solutions that are relevant to all races… today. In our own time, better jobs, housing, freedom to live without fear of violence, hope for tomorrow… these are things toward which we can all work together, rather than quibbling over the meaning of a replica of a 500 year old boat.
Unfortunately, we can't change the past. Hopefully we can learn from it.
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