{"id":2399,"date":"2012-10-08T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2012-10-08T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/2012\/10\/its-columbus-day.html"},"modified":"2012-10-08T09:00:00","modified_gmt":"2012-10-08T09:00:00","slug":"its-columbus-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/2012\/10\/its-columbus-day.html","title":{"rendered":"It’s Columbus Day"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

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Was a time, in the deep forgotten mists of my earliest memories, that Christopher Columbus was still celebrated as a bold explorer whose courage brought Europe into the hope and promise of a New World. \u00a0That was way, way long ago. \u00a0Even by the time I began phasing from elementary school into middle school, that portrait was beginning to change. <\/p>\n

By high school, there was enough time spent on the ill effects of Columbus\u2019 discoveries, that his reputation was well on its way to being tarnished. \u00a0Even in elementary school, we focused somewhat on his disappointments and the effect it had on the native population of the Western Hemisphere. But by high school, it was clearly tilting almost exclusively on the negative impact that his explorations had on the American Indians.<\/p>\n

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By college, the verdict was in and the condemnation was clear: Columbus was a racist slave owning imperialist who\u00a0sadistically\u00a0slaughtered untold numbers of hapless Native Americans, while setting\u00a0the\u00a0stage for invasion after invasion of the pristine\u00a0paradise\u00a0that was the Americas by boorish, uncouth, racist, bloodthirsty\u00a0conquistadors\u00a0and religious zealots bent on enslaving the innocent and burning the last traces of\u00a0beautiful\u00a0pre-Christian paganism that existed.<\/p>\n

That is the story more or less told today. \u00a0Like Thanksgiving<\/a>, Columbus day \u2013 possibly more so because of our Protestant heritage \u2013 has been cast into\u00a0the\u00a0outer darkness of post-civil rights disdain for all things European and American. \u00a0There is no cup half full, or even half empty. \u00a0When it comes to the\u00a0legacy\u00a0of European migration to the New World, there is no cup at all. \u00a0It is almost entirely a one sided portrait of hellish evil and mass slaughter against an\u00a0almost\u00a0mythical people of purity, love, peace, buff bodies, and harmonious relations with nature. <\/p>\n

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Of course it\u2019s all rubbish. \u00a0Columbus was merely a product of his time and age. \u00a0Likewise the idea that the Indians were all morally pure humans in whom there was never\u00a0guile\u00a0 is also a myth. \u00a0It\u2019s not to say Columbus should be excused. But by\u00a0definition\u00a0of his white skin, he can\u2019t be blamed for everything that would happen the next five hundred years. \u00a0Likewise, we shouldn\u2019t be inclined to dismiss the actions of the native population either. \u00a0Many were\u00a0innocent\u00a0 \u00a0Others, not so much. \u00a0It has been said that after all\u00a0these\u00a0generations, we still don\u2019t do the history of conflict between Native Americans and Europeans well. \u00a0We still paint the conflict in terms of stark contrasts and sweeping stereotypes. \u00a0It\u2019s still a battle between pure and innocent\u00a0heroes\u00a0versus savage and bloodthirsty murderers, we\u2019ve simply switched the name plates.<\/p>\n

So despite decades of indoctrination, I\u2019m still able to celebrate Columbus Day, for had it not been him, it would have been somebody. \u00a0And because I understand that many coming to this new world were no different\u00a0than\u00a0the immigrants trying to come to America today, I don\u2019t begrudge the person who made it possible in the first place. \u00a0And while I can mourn the injustices\u00a0that\u00a0would be\u00a0visited\u00a0upon the native population time and again, I don\u2019t\u00a0ignore\u00a0the meaner sides of their history either; both their history in dealing with European immigrants, as well as dealing with each other. \u00a0Plus, I look at some of the better moments, such as the peace made between the Plymouth Pilgrims and the local native\u00a0population\u00a0 and realize that there was always a chance to have done better than we did in dealing with those who had come before. \u00a0Perhaps that should be the lesson we take from it instead of insisting either one side or the other was completely right or completely evil.<\/p>\n

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Was a time, in the deep forgotten mists of my earliest memories, that Christopher Columbus was still celebrated as a bold explorer whose courage brought Europe into the hope and promise of a New World. \u00a0That was way, way long ago. \u00a0Even by the time I began phasing from elementary school into middle school, that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2805,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2399","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nIt's Columbus Day<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Was a time, in the deep forgotten mists of my earliest memories, that Christopher Columbus was still celebrated as a bold explorer whose courage brought\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, 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