The war against Columbus Day?

Commentary by Greg Krasovsky on "The war against Columbus Day" in The Washington Post.

  

You know the writing is on the wall when an establishment newspaper, such as the Washington Post, starts publicly questioning Columbus Day.

I hate to say it, but over the years I've come to realize that Christopher Columbus was no hero.

Yes, he may have a been a 15th century European pioneer explorer who discovered (for himself and his crown) the Caribbean, but any praise that the discovery should have merited was quickly obliterated by the brutal, sadistic and murderous exploitation of Native Americans by Columbus and his allies, including his brother.

Here's an appropriate quote from another WP article today "More cities celebrating ‘Indigenous Peoples Day’ amid effort to abolish Columbus Day"

"“This is something that I’ve struggled with for a long time,” Sarah Adams-Cornell told the station last month. “The fact that our country, our state and our city celebrate this holiday around this man who murdered and enslaved and raped indigenous people and decimated an entire population.”"

  

If we claim to be moral, tolerant and democratic, then we need to make this holiday into a tribute to all the indigenous Americans who wrongly and needlessly perished from European colonization of the Americas.

We also need to start setting this right with Native Americans in the United States, especially in light of all the treaties that were violated with Native American tribes and nations.

So when will the Washington Post demand that the Washington Redskins drop the team's racist name?

   

Hmmm...I guess that it's easier to criticize an abstract holiday that costs businesses and the government money than to go after one of America's most visible sport teams?

   

How about detouring or canceling that Dakota Access Pipeline which would desecrate Native American burial grounds and potentially pollute their lands?

    Please read "Tribe to Continue Fight After Court Refuses to Halt Dakota Access Pipeline" to get a sense at how fair the current American Court system is toward Indigenous Americans.

Or is Big Oil an exception as well when it comes to rehabilitating and compensating victims of genocide and other war crimes that were committed against Indigenous Americans?

How can we ask G-d to bless America and expect that his blessing (a divinely exact apportionment of G-d's supreme justice for observing AND violating His laws, including those that prohibit stealing from your fellow man as well as killing, raping, unjustly enslaving and exploiting him) will bring America prosperity and peace when we as a country not only continue to refuse to repent for what we've down to Indigenous Americans, make amends (reasonable reparations) but also continue to violate blatantly their rights and dignity? 

  

So what happens eventually to those people, societies, nations and empires who continue to tempt G-d's judgment and wrath by habitually violating his laws? 

I think that some call it Karma. What goes around comes around.

Does G-d and the Universe tolerate moral recidivism on such a mass scale as the genocide of Indigenous Americans more than American states that have "Three Strikes & You're Out" laws on their books against felon repeat offenders?

  

So let's stop tempting fate, repent about what our ancestors, country and government did to Native Americans and make amends.  

Otherwise, every time that we sing "God Bless America..." we'll be writing another letter in the Divine guilty verdict and sentence against us with all ensuing consequences for us and our progeny. 

Since the Lord works in mysterious ways, I don't think that we'll be able to avoid or commute that sentence no matter how much money we throw at avoiding divine wrath through defense or technology. 

Let's just remember how much money the Roman Empire spent on defense, civil works and entertainment after brutally colonizing, enslaving and killing millions within and around its Empire, including the Jews. 

But even adopting Christianity at the end couldn't help save Rome, which never recognized and repented for what it did to all those "savages" and peoples "lesser" than Roman nobility and citizens.

  

Those who do not properly learn history are bound to repeat it.

   

With all that in mind, do we continue to celebrate Columbus Day and discriminate against (oppress!) Indigenous Americans or do we begin to recognize and celebrate true heroes like Red Cloud who fought to protect his people and land?  See "Red Cloud’s War" 

  

So what's our choice, America?

  

Columbus Day or Indigenous Peoples Day?

Above photo is from The Huffington Post's "Native American Activists Ramp Up Push To Rebrand Columbus Day" 

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Selected Excerpts:

  

"“It is important to acknowledge the original people of this land, and that is something that Columbus Day has completely contradicted,” Laura Medina, an Arizona State University student and activist

...

"Phoenix and Denver join at least 26 other cities across the country that will celebrate Native Americans on Monday, while federal and state governments observe Columbus Day.

...

The idea of celebrating Indigenous People’s Day was first proposed nearly 40 years ago, when a delegation of Native nations to a U.N. conference in Geneva passed a resolution. 

Thirteen years later, in 1990, the First Continental Conference on 500 Years of Indian Resistance in Ecuador passed a resolution changing Columbus Day into a celebration of Native Americans."

  

Also please read this WP blog "Answer Sheet" - "Columbus Day is still a U.S. federal holiday. But why?"

     "As for Columbus himself, he mapped the coasts of Central America and South America but never set foot on North America, and died thinking he had discovered Asia. 

     He ruled the Caribbean islands as viceroy and governor so brutally that, according to US-History.com: “Even his most ardent admirers acknowledge that Columbus was self-centered, ruthless, avaricious and a racist.”

...

    In 1937, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Congress, bowing to lobbying by the Knights of Columbus, an influential Catholic group that wanted a Catholic hero to be honored, proclaimed Oct. 12 to be Columbus Day, a national holiday. In 1971, the holiday date was changed to the second Monday in October."