What i think about Columbus. What do you think?

Columbus doesn’t deserve a day.

Only two men in the United States of America have been honored by receiving a national holiday in their name. One, known as Martin Luther King Jr., the leader of the Civil Rights movement in the 1960’s, fought for and won the rights of African-Americans, leaving behind a reputable legacy of equality. The other, Christopher Columbus is credited for bringing the Americas “to the attention of the civilized world” (Berliner, On Columbus day…” 1 of 2) which eventually brought the ideas and achievements of many great thinkers, writers, and inventors. One should realize, Columbus was not the first to set foot on the Americas and their surrounding land he had simply “wandered lost” (Weatherford, “Examining the reputation…” 1 of 2) on to the lands. The Americas had inhabitants thousands of years preceding Columbus. The Indian inhabitants paid the ultimate price of slavery, forced religious shifts, torture and murder, and the eventual genocide of their entire population. This being said one can make a compelling argument as to why Christopher Columbus should not be honored by receiving a national holiday in his name.

Thinking back to elementary school, most remember learning about how the great Christopher Columbus sailed to the Americas and colonized them, bringing us present day United States of America, how ever teachers fail to mention the gruesome, realistic facts of this “colonization”. Asking surrounding peers if they remember learning a single name of an Indian who was murdered or otherwise affected, sadly, one will end up with the majority being negative responses due to the fact that “no one mentioned the names, of even a few victims” (Durham, “Columbus Day” 2 of 4). Also, most Americans are under the falsified impressions that Indians had no structure, were merely hunter-gatherers following food sources and lived undoubtedly like savages. Having no agricultural settlements, division of labor, or any kind of social structure, the Indians just screamed out for Western civilization. These impressions are false in a vast number of ways. Indians had existed in the Americas and Caribbean islands for thousands of years before Columbus came and changed things to fit his standards. Indians had their own religion based upon nature, and while some were nomadic the majority was stationary. They set up villages and practiced many agricultural skills such as farming, and trade.

Most Indian tribes had distinct gender roles, and women had more say than in the “colonized” countries. Women farmed and maintained the houses and were practically in charge of trade, ironically similar to today’s living situations. Women made a list of supplies for the husbands to retrieve, and the husbands went out, traded, and brought the goods home. Men were responsible for trading, hunting, and providing for their families. These facts should prove Indians could stand on their own feet; they would have eventually colonized the Americas without Columbus’ invasion. However, not only did Columbus invade the Indians land he also, forced Catholicism upon them, murdered and tortured countless victims, enslaved thousands of them, and eventually led to the genocide of the entire population. Columbus’ actions set a tone for the ways other groups of people viewed and treated Indians. They were viewed as one of the lowest races and were treated accordingly. Columbus had no compassion or respect for anyone, in one instance the Taino Indians “saved Christopher Columbus from certain death”(“Goodbye Columbus” 1 of 4). In return he enslaved and slaughtered thousands of these Indian peoples.

When a person looks at the achievements and sacrifices of Martin Luther King Jr. and the achievements and sacrifices of Columbus a person should be able to see an apparent difference. The achievements of Columbus include his bringing of attention of the new world to the civilized world and hardly much else. The sacrifices made by him were not his own forfeiture but the forfeiture of the entire Indian population. In order to wipe out an entire population one must have a hole where his or her heart should be, no compassion, no feelings whatsoever. In one myth Columbus convinced the Spanish monarch to invest in his explorations with the promise of returning with gold, spices, and other goods to him. After failing at to acquire these goods he was under pressure to repay his debt. The pressure caused by his debt caused him to seize 1,200 Taino Indians and sell them as slaves. Columbus would stop at nothing to colonize the Americas, not even the ultimate price of a human life. Christopher Columbus was not a hero who deserves a national holiday but a ruthless tyrant. To celebrate Columbus day is to celebrate the genocide of an entire group of people in exchange for colonization of the “new world” which would have occurred in time, if the Indians would have just had a chance to thrive.