LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Focus on the future, not the past

Posted

To the editor:

(re: “Should Columbus be toppled from his column?” Oct. 12)

It’s disgusting to witness the growing attacks by various radicals against historical figures who lived centuries ago. And it is idiotic and unjust to judge past events by today’s morals and ethics.

What was thought of as exploration and colonization has recently become doctored by revisionist historians as murderous conquest and plunder. Behavior that was orthodox in times past is now, in hindsight, thought of as repugnant, racist and sexist.

The hysterical attacks against Italian-born Christopher Columbus are, at best, unfair, and at worse, ethnically biased. How does one compare the actions of a navigator against the atrocities committed by the Spanish throne and their famed Conquistadors?

History proves that it was Hernan Cortez, Pedro de Alvarado and Francisco Pizarro that, in their “Godly conquest,” destroyed the Aztec, Mayan and Inca empires. An even more deadly outcome would be the introduction of old world diseases such as smallpox, measles, malaria, yellow fever that would kill millions throughout the Caribbean and North and South America.

In fairness, the so-called indigenous people they encountered were themselves warlike, practiced slavery and worshipped their pagan gods in brutal sacrificial rituals and horrific ceremonies.

If, as has been proposed, we replace Columbus Day with so-called Indigenous Day, would that include the celebration of the four Iroquois tribes (Mohawks, Cayugas, Onondagas and Senecas) that fought with the British against American independence? Should we also celebrate the Shawnee chief Tecumseh and the tribes that, in alliance with England, fought against and murdered our countrymen in the War of 1812?

Authenticated history certainly gives new meaning to expressions like “Dances with Wolves.” 

A more honest and interesting question would be to ponder whether such a vast resource-laden land mass would have eventually been discovered and its isolated inhabitants conquered by another more powerful civilization. And how will future historians judge our actions, or lack thereof, decades from now?

How bewildered will they be to explain how a group of religious fanatics destroyed the Middle East, or that a communist madman kept millions isolated and enslaved in his improvised hermit kingdom. 

That instead of intelligent decisions based on science, we allowed the destruction and pollution of our own planet with its catastrophic loss of thousands of species. 

That our various societies preferred ignorance, superstition, irrational behavior over common sense, tolerance, humanistic thinking in our relationships with one another.

And that in a time which demanded that we address future endeavor, we allowed ourselves to be burdened by the transgressions and unusual history of the past.

Lou DeHolczer

Lou DeHolczer

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