Christopher Columbus - Black-Hearted Thug

Every October in the U.S., we have a national holiday honoring Christopher Columbus,   allegedly for having 'discovered America'.  When I was about six years old, I remember doing a school class play that honored Columbus' exploits. 

The myth about Columbus has little resemblance to the truth.

Columbus didn't discover America.  There were millions indigenous people here when Columbus showed up in 1492.

In reality, Columbus was a brutal thug.  Tens of thousands of Native American people  were murdered, and enslaved by Columbus and those that followed him from Europe  A million or more natives died terrible deaths from small pox and other diseases Columbus and his followers brought with them, for which the local people had no physiological immunity. Columbus is directly guilty of torture, murder, and turning children into sex slaves.  The truth is found in his own journals.

For many years, I have known, more or less, the real story of Columbus.   He was a plundering scumbag.  The disgraceful reality behind the myth of America's founder has long resided below my personal radar.  

A few days ago,  I stumbled across a very compelling article exposing the truth about Columbus in a blog called The Oatmeal.  It turns out, Columbus Day wasn't even a national holiday until 1930, when the Knight's of Columbus, a Catholic men's organization pressured congress into declaring a national holiday honoring Columbus.  As The Oatmeal points out, giving Columbus a national holiday, in the same way Washington, Lincoln, and Martin Luther King are honored, is a monstrous travesty.

If it were up to me, I would remove Columbus' name from that holiday in October. In its place, I would declare a national holiday in honor of the indigenous people of North America. I might call it, Peacemaker Day after the greatest American, who most people don't know about. If yon't know who I'm talking about, check this blog tomorrow.

Here is a link to The Oatmeal's excellent reflection on the shame of naming a national holiday after one of history's most cruel and rapacious evil doers... http://theoatmeal.com/comics/columbus_day

The graphic below comes from Occupy Portland's Facebook page.