America... for the Taking

In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue...  It sounds like a Carnival cruise when you sing it like we used to in elementary school, commemorating the year that he discovered America.  But our history has a way of romanticizing things to further the 'America is great!' propaganda, and Christopher Columbus might as well be the poster child for how yarns (ironically, born the son of a weaver) are spun and how truly horrible people tend to be idolized.

In school, we were taught that he set out to find a better trade route to India and debunk the myth that the world was flat, which had already been disproven.  A bit of a poser and idealist, after several attempts to propose his exploration to the Portuguese, French, English and Italians to get funding, the king and queen of Spain finally agree (to not be outdone by the Portuguese, who had already set out) and he leaves with 3 ships and about 80 men, most derelicts and released prisoners.  With all of his maritime experience and knowledge, he miscalculates and ends up in the Caribbean (5000 miles off his mark), thinking that he landed in India.  One of his crew was actually the first to spot land, but with a lifetime pension promised by the Spanish royals, he claimed that he saw it the night before and stole the credit (and the pension) from the crewmember.

Columbus landed on what is now known as the Dominican Republic, claiming it for Spain (regardless of it being occupied for thousands of years by it's tribes).  Realizing that they were a very hospitable, docile group (several million of them), they had no weapons, knew not of killing and weren't religious... he overtook them to help him find more of the gold they wore, enslaved thousands and, upon return to Spain, took many back with him for slaves (throwing those overboard who did not live through the voyage), before returning back for more.  When he returned, he brought African slaves for the new world (being the first to start the slave trade).  By the ruling of the Pope, he forced the natives to convert to Catholicism before being enslaved and, because it was illegal to enslave Christians, he simply wouldn't baptize them so that didn't interfere with his plans.  Over the next decade, Columbus' treatment of the natives was probably the largest genocide and atrocity of mankind.  He forced them to work in his gold mines until they died of exhaustion, cutting off their hands if the didn't make their daily quota, wearing their hands around his neck to 'send a message'... he sold 10 year old girls into sexual slavery (being the pioneer of sexual slavery... he brought back attack dogs from Spain and if the people misbehaved, he would cut off an ear or their nose or have the dogs attack them or burned their bodies alive if they tried to escape, feeding their babies to the dogs as dog food.  They would slice people's arms or legs off or cut them in half in a game to test the sharpness of their swords, killing thousands of them a day, parading their bodies through the streets.  Several diseases spread.  The natives starting committing suicide instead of enduring the horrible treatment and, eventually, word of the atrocities got back to Spain and Columbus was brought back and jailed (only to be pardoned later because of the riches that he brought to the monarchy and allowed to go back).  By this time, there were only a small handful (approximately 500 out of millions) of natives left.  Before the invasion of the Europeans, it was estimated that there were 80-100 natives occupying the Americas and, currently, only about 6 million identify as native decedents, are forced to live on reservations set forth by treaties that the U.S. has repeatedly gone broken.

Heralded as a testament to loyalty and patriotism to country and progression of society and citizenship, the anniversary of Columbus' 'discovery' has been long celebrated.  The first statewide holiday was in Colorado in 1907 by a first-generation Italian and, in 1934 with the lobbying of the Knights of Columbus (in an effort to elevate Italian-Americans in status since they were considered less than white (and to find a Catholic hero for their children to look up to)), it was made a federal holiday, later officially a legal holiday in 1972.  In 2002, George W. Bush issued a proclamation, declaring Columbus' great expedition and pioneering accomplishments and directed that the U.S. flag be flown on government buildings in celebration.  In truth, the only thing, perhaps, that we should be celebrating, is his contribution to bringing native species of crops back and forth to and from Europe in his travels (along with chocolate and syphilis).

Best said by Irwin Ozborne in his contributing piece to Wake Up World... "Christopher Columbus — a liar, thief, rapist, pedophile, savage, torturer, genocidal murder, brutal conqueror, and pioneer of slavery and sex trades — did not discover anything besides a beautiful, peaceful group of people who had lived sustainably on their land for millennia; who rescued him and welcomed him into their home. Implementing what can only be described as sociopathic imperialism, his thirst for wealth, greed and power wiped out generations of people within a decade. And for his “bravery”, we celebrate the day he invaded the land of the people that rescued him."   And further comparing it to that of Hitler's (who wrote of his admiration for America's genocide)... "Thousand-mile death marches, concentration camps, forced assimilation, mass killings by starvation and the deliberate introduction of disease, the forced adoption of culture and ‘beliefs’…".  This was yet another mass slaying in the name of religion and greed.

Sadly, history is full of it's 'heroes' like Genghis Khan, Napoleon, and Caesar that overshadow genuine heroes that go less celebrated, who have truly made contributions to mankind.  Society tends to idolize those that have taken in the name of 'discovering' when it should have been called 'conquering'.  Our political system is full of people who lie and cheat to further accumulate what they have and get what they want, often times in the name of religion.  And they are admired (as evidenced by the current Republican polls).  Your Trumps and Romneys only rise to the top the more fraud they commit.  Ayn Rand, who said "I do not think (Native Americans) have any right to live in a country merely because they were born here... and acted and lived like savages".  This is someone to idolize.

We vote these people into office and it has become the plague in our country today... the taking at the expense of others is a national pastime... a national holiday... and a show of strength and celebration.