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I read your article about George Dumbass Bush being the biggest
environmental terrorist of all time (I agree) and his many other
too-long-to-list violations (I agree) but when you ran down a list of
history's bad guys, you did NOT list Christopher Columbus... why?
Why is it that so many people still think of this greedy, murdering,
slave-trading bastard as a hero? There were an estimated 6,000,000 people
(Taino) in the Caribbean when Columbus, lost, came upon it and then
promptly "claimed" it... He called it the New World and was heralded for
his "discovery"... but, didn't the Taino discover it...they had been in
the (cough,cough) New World for two thousand years when Columbus stumbled
upon them. Columbus promised the King & Queen of Spain riches beyond
imagination for funding his voyage... but even though he enslaved the
population and put them to work in the gold mines until they dropped dead
from exhaustion or starvation... the greed was never-ending but the gold
just wasn't there. So, the enterprising Columbus rounded up 1,000 of the
biggest, strongest Taino and stuffed them into the stinking holds of his
ships to be taken to the slave market and sold for profit in Seville...
those who died en route were thrown overboard and other greedy
entreprenuers setting out to get a piece of action in the New World said
it was possible to find your way to there by following the trail of bodies
in the water. Columbus was the very first slave-trader in the
Americas. Many people know this and many people do not... there is a
reason... you are not about to be taught this information (the truth) in
our government (i.e., public) schools... because to admit how evil
Columbus was to the indigenous peoples and the trend of horrific abuses
that began under his command against them (the Aztec (Cortez) & Inca
(Pizarro) populations both disappead shortly after Columbus' arrival and
the Taino are also now declared "extinct"....) would be to open the door
to possible reparations for Native peoples... it's much easier to continue
to portray Columbus as the hero. BUT although Columbus Day is a FEDERAL
holiday... there are 17 states that refuse to celebrate it, making it the
ONLY disputed holiday on our calendar... doesn't that say something to
you? Another thing that has been done to guarantee that the modern day
relations to the decimated indigenous populations do not ask for
reparations is government reclassification. For many years Latino was
defined as "a Spanish speaking Indian" ... a direct result of conquest...
but that has been tweaked and they are now recognized as a separate group,
i.e., Hispanic -- therefore no longer Indian, no longer a possibility of
any claims filed against a government who stole their land, language &
culture using any dispicable means available. Columbus is not a hero to
many of us and his invasion and greed are the cause of millions of deaths,
yet some still regard him as a hero and the government still perpetrates
that lie. I would appreciate it if you would add this bloodthirsty
bastard to your list of evildoers or maybe even write an article about him
as we approach the celebratory date of his ~ahem~ discovery.
