If you like Starbucks, Google, Facebook or your freedom not to like them (why wouldn’t you?) you can thank Christopher Columbus, explorer, navigator — and, in 2017’s political arena, rabble-rouser. In other words, Monday is Columbus Day: Are you ready to be offended?
In honor of the day an adventurous but flawed man trekked all the way to the New World with a crew of men on a few ships, social justice warriors, and even Antifa, are gearing up to protest — because nothing says thanks to the man who discovered the Americas like Americans holding a protest. Antifa declared Monday “Deface Columbus Day” and other groups have declared it “Indigenous Peoples Day.”
Despite all the hubbub, Columbus Day is worth celebrating.
A group of folks who agree have launched an initiative to clear up misconceptions and counter liberal radicals and Antifa efforts to target Columbus via a new website.
In a statement, Patrick Korten of the National Christopher Columbus Association, the civic organization that maintains the site said:
Up to now, the campaign of flawed history and misinformation against Columbus has been allowed to proceed with barely any pushback. TruthAboutColumbus.com will help set Columbus’s record straight and serve as a reminder that, as new Marist polling shows, the majority of Americans support celebrating Columbus and his key role in our history.
Today’s anti-Columbus movement isn’t just tiresome political correctness. The site maintains it’s actually got Marxist roots and discusses the faith and race-based bigotry behind the rhetoric, including anti-Spanish and anti-Catholic language still used today. “It is both tragic and frightening that far-left groups like Antifa are picking up where the KKK left off,” said Korten. “Americans need to recognize that this attempt to destroy one of the great figures in our national experience is part of a shameful racist tradition.”
Detractors of Columbus Day note he was a “murderer” and “thief.” Even mainstream news sites, such as CNN, criticized Trump’s positive speech about Columbus saying, “Never mind the disease and slavery wrought by Christopher Columbus’ voyage — or the fact that he didn’t actually ‘discover’ the New World.”
I don’t need to know Columbus personally to know he probably was a flawed man. Like every single human being that’s ever lived, he probably had strengths and weaknesses. The Left’s attempts this year to whitewash history, magnifying a man’s flaws over his positive contributions, is not only disingenuous but ridiculous. (Surely Columbus himself is glad he begged for funds to travel to America, probably vomiting the whole way here on the Santa Maria, only to see a few hundred years later, 323 million people love living here but nobody loves the fact that he is credited for finding the place.)
Let’s pretend the accusations about Columbus are true. He still likely did contribute many good things to our historical memory. If honor only went to purely noble men and women, few would receive it because no one is perfect.
History is simply knowledge and recollection of events from days passed, and even though the people involved in America’s history may be imperfect, that doesn’t make them less important. In fact, if anything, it allows us to learn great lessons: Flawed people can do great things and great events can occur even though the people participating are merely human.
Nicole Russell is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. She is a journalist in Washington, D.C., who previously worked in Republican politics in Minnesota. She was the 2010 recipient of the American Spectator’s Young Journalist Award.
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