What of America? Columbus Day Revisited — an Op-Ed by Alex Parker

On October 8th, Columbus Day came and went. And I stayed silent, because I’d said all I wanted to say. A year ago. But it dawned on me recently that I could repost that article, written originally for the now-defunct TruthRevolt. Here’s the link to my original post. And below are my thoughts on this very important — it seems to me — holiday:

“In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue.” These were words taught to schoolchildren, during a time when kids in public schools also commemorated Thanksgiving by dressing up as Pilgrims and Indians. And yes, they were called “Indians,” rather than that leftist attack on not only the validity of our country but also the definition of a word — despite its so-called politically correct usage, “native” refers to one’s birthplace; therefore, the vast majority of U.S. citizens are native Americans. In truth, the Indians — like the Pilgrims — were immigrants: they came to America the same as did Columbus, only they reached her via the Bering Strait. In 1621, the Pilgrims sat down with their fellow immigrants; and for centuries, America celebrated that symbolic fellowship. Similarly — beginning officially in 1937 — it happily observed Columbus Day.

But a lot has changed since grade-schoolers sang about that beautiful blue ocean rushing an explorer to a providential shore. Leftist cultural insurgents have infiltrated the institutions of our country, steadily muting the joyous festival of our birth in gleeful anticipation of its hastened death. Suicide is the dumbest way to die; and that is exactly what the Left wants. We are being attacked by those who hate this place; and “progressively,” those who threaten America most are…Americans.

Toward that goal of self-annihilation, skating past the removal of Confederate symbols, we find ourselves at the next stop on the Slippery Slope: the erasure of Christopher Columbus, the father of the evil empire of the United States. The beginning of this new purge is profiled in USA Today writer Josh Hafner’s disturbing column, “As Confederate Statues Come Down, What About Columbus?” According to Hafner:

“While historians caution against lumping in Columbus with Confederates who came three centuries later, they say Columbus’s holiday and monuments remain ripe for reassessment — whether they stay, change or vanish entirely.”

Referencing comments by Kris Lane — a Latin American history professor at Tulane — Hafner calls Columbus “a deluded navigator who…didn’t seem to arrive with ideas of genocide, but massive death stemmed from his encounter.”

From there, Hafner’s piece sharply races to the bottom, weighted by historians and educators eager to transform a day of celebration into a moment of silence:

“The horrors of slavery can’t be scrubbed from America’s past, said (University of Virginia professor) Douglas Blackmon…but it can be fully factored into the remembrances of figures like Columbus…And if doing so brings enough dishonor, it’s okay to stop celebrating them.”

Quoting James Grossman, executive director of the American Historical Association, Hafner relays an endorsement of history revisionism:

“‘Revision is not the same as lying, which people think it is,’ Grossman said. ‘Revisionism happens when we find new information or ask new questions, when you come up with a different narrative.’”

But what if that narrative is leftist, anti-American propaganda?

By Blackmon’s estimation, we are past due time for a new attitude toward Columbus:

“‘The reason this broad re-evaluation is happening right now is because for most of the past 150 years — while a revolution was occurring in the way most Americans perceive race — there was also an absolute refusal to seriously reconsider how we remember these historical figures.’”

Note his position: to vilify Columbus is not to do something strange that we’ve never done before; rather, it’s to do what is common sense, which we’ve dysfunctionally fought until now. Blackmon’s view of the once-revered discoverer of America frames him squarely as an embarrassing nuisance:

“‘You still have to deal with Columbus. But the idea of reckoning — commemoration as reckoning, as opposed to celebration — is distinct.’”

Hafner cites a way of “deal(ing) with” it, suggested by University of Alabama law professor Alfred Brophy:

“‘Place a statue of an indigenous woman holding her child at Columbus Circle in New York City, he said, reminding viewers of those Columbus encountered and enslaved. New plaques could put the brutal parts of Columbus’s story in daylight for all to see.’”

Wow.

The United States is in the midst of a cultural war: on one side, a sea of hats expressing hope to “Make America Great Again;” and on the other side, many who say America was never great to begin with. If the Left prevails, Columbus Day — like a Confederate statue — will be removed from America’s public square. And so will Thanksgiving, which is just as well — we’ll have no need for turkey, because our goose will be cooked.

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