Happy Columbus Day!
I went for a run today, following my usual course through the woods and local schools. There were kids in school today! I called the principal’s office and found that they will not be observing Columbus Day today or on the actual date of the 12th of October.
For those crumb-crunchers who are missing out on this holiday and receiving indoctrination, the rest of us are celebrating the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus and the spread of European civilization to the New World.
When the explorers arrived on this continent, they found the Algonquin torturing and killing Iroquois, imposing their morals and culture on their neighboring brothers. Maya and Aztec were brutalizing fellow native Americans, while the Blackfoot and other plains tribes were battling one another for turf, well on their way to exterminating the buffalo. Here in the Sierras, the Miwok and Maidu people were found barely subsisting on acorn mush, supplemented by an occasional diseased fish, rabbit or deer that fell victim to their stone-age hunting devices.
While the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole largely adopted the progressive ways of their European benefactors, most Native American tribes did not and fell by the wayside in the this hemisphere’s move toward modern civilization. Many cherish hatred and bitterness towards those who have moved ahead and overcome the differences highlighted by this inevitable clash of cultures.
In short, the original people here in America really needed some help and the people from the east were brave, self-sacrificing and compassionate enough to bring them the benefits of modern society, medicine and technology. That sort of human endeavor is to be celebrated and remembered!