Should We Cancel Columbus Day?

Should we cancel Columbus Day? His epic voyage, often dismissed by revisionists, ushered in the great Age of Exploration. Yes, he should be celebrated.

Why Do We Celebrate Columbus Day?

Let’s get this out of the way.  I will not now, nor will I ever celebrate anything called “Indigenous People Day.”   I base this on the rather reasonable assertion that the descendants of the first migrants of the North American Continent lost the war.  Christopher Columbus. On the other hand, represents the beginning of the Age of Exploration – an epoch in Western Civilization on par with the Industrial Revolution and the Digital Age.  I would rather celebrate Columbus – his achievements and the secondary and tertiary achievements that flowed thereafter – as opposed to the 500+ warring nations, most of which never left the Stone Age.  Getting high and engaging in gratuitous torture?   We can all do without that “culture,” thank you very much.

The Year 1492

1492 – The year Columbus set sail on his epic voyage, is also the year the combined might of Castille and Aragon defeated the Islamic invaders and drove their remnants from the Iberian Peninsula.  Another reason for the Left’s animosity.

Columbus Circle, New York City

The Left makes it impossible to have an honest discussion about Columbus for the same reasons they make it impossible to have an honest discussion about Donald Trump.  Instead of a good-faith debate on the merits and shortcomings of the subject at hand, the Left will always compare their “villains” against perfection.  Not that I blame them, given the average Marxist’s allergy to facts and logic.

So… should we cancel Columbus Day?

I’ve flown above the Atlantic Ocean on occasion.  Few things have made me feel so insignificant.  Looking out the tiny window from the cabin, all one sees is an expanse of gray from horizon to horizon.  Even knowing that you’re on board just one of three thousand flights crossing the North Atlantic on a daily basis doesn’t help.

Now imagine you’re one of the crew onboard the Santa Maria.  It’s the late 15th century.  You have no phone, no radio, no RADAR, no satellite navigation technology.  You’re among the first to make this crossing.  You’re not certain where you’re going, or the length of the journey in terms of either time or distance.  Your home is 60 feet in length and 16 ½ feet at its widest point, bobbing up and down in the middle of the ocean.  You might as well be riding a cork.

Five centuries later, people will call you an enslaver.  A racist.  A greedy degenerate.  Revisionist and detractors give zeros consideration to the daring feat of crossing the uncharted ocean.  This intrepid accomplishment will be dismissed by the very beneficiaries of your daring and panache.  Given all this, the question Should We Cancel Columbus Day? is answered with a firm “no.”

Columbus Did Not Die In Prison

Contrary to urban legend, Columbus did not die in prison.   The most famous mariner of his age spent his last days in Valladolid, in upper-middle-class comfort, just not in the opulence he thought was his due.  After is fourth and final voyage, Columbus waited in vain to be summoned to court.  His mental state deteriorated as it became more and more apparent that the recognition and titles which he craved were to be denied him. Queen Isabella of Castile, his benefactor, died in 1504.  Her husband, King Ferdinand of Aragon, had to deal with the unification of Spain and the interminable distractions that came with it.  Unfulfilled; check, embittered; check, yet Columbus did not die alone.  Rather, he was cared for by his family up until the end.

If you really want a legitimate Columbus Controversy, I suggest you look up the life of Martín Alonso Pinzón.  There’s a statue of him in his hometown of Palos de la Frontera, Spain.

The tragedy of Columbus’ life?  Not his unfulfilled ambitions.  The great mariner passed from this life not realizing that he had opened up a new continent to the Western World.

To judge Columbus by the standards of the 21^st century Social Justice is hubris on steroids.  We live in a nation where, thanks to hulking machinery, and the processors to run them,  less than one percent of us actually till the soil.  This gives the rest of us (including me, I’ll own) way too much time to think, and too much time to judge those who came before us and assumed the real risks.

Selah.

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