RECONSIDER COLUMBUS DAY!

It’s 6am and your doorbell is ringing. Upon opening the door, you are greeted by a total stranger who delivers the surprise announcement that they have just “discovered” your home and all its contents. Or in other words, your house, your car, your flatscreen, your money, EVERYTHING that used to be yours is now theirs.  The stranger has “discovered” it.

Sounds far-fetched, huh? Sounds like something you’d NEVER accept, right? Sounds like a proper moment to call either the police or a good mental hospital, yes? I know what you’re thinking: How could ANYONE be so bold as to come up to you and announce that they have just claimed your home and all its possessions? Well it can happen. In fact, it DID happen — because that is exactly what Christopher Columbus did more than 500 years ago when he “discovered” America.  And today, we celebrate his thievery discovery with a national holiday.  Hmmm…

Consider this: Have you ever watched a good old-fashioned black and white western film, which always culminated in a brutal battle between the Cowboys and the Indians? And wasn’t the slant always toward rooting for the heroic Cowboys while cheering at the slaying of one of those backward natives? Did you ever stop to think about why those two factions were fighting?  Or did the thought ever cross your mind that perhaps the Indians were just trying to defend what was already theirs and the Cowboys weren’t really the heroes they were portrayed to be in those films?

You see, the land we call “America” was already inhabited by original and indigenous people whom we refer to as Indians or Native Americans. This was THEIR land and Christopher Columbus and his gang took it.  It was that “gang” who later became “cowboys” that killed off the original people so as to cleanse the new nation — all for self-gain and gratification. Or in other words, the man whose memory we celebrate today with a holiday did not “discover” America.  He STOLE America.  And today we celebrate him.  Now how crazy is that???