Monday, October 14, 2013

Columbus Day

Columbus Day — History.com Articles, Video, Pictures and Facts: Throughout its history, Columbus Day and the man who inspired it have generated controversy, and many alternatives to the holiday have appeared in recent years.

When I was a kid, Christopher Columbus was still regarded as a heroic figure, and school kids everywhere learned all about the Pinta, the Niña, and the Santa Maria.  We learned the following little jingle: 

In fourteen hundred ninety-two,
Columbus sailed the ocean blue
And found this land, land of the Free,
Beloved by you, beloved by me.  

It never occurred to most of us that Columbus never actually set foot on the American continent or that there was anything unusual about "finding" a land that had already been found by a lot of other people before him.  Our whole grade school was bused to the local movie theater to see Fredric March in Christopher Columbus with the heroic and noble Fredric March.

Things have changed.  We see Columbus' voyage and its results from other perspectives.  History has turned dark, and today won't be celebrated the way it was when I was young.  Sometimes I feel like that wedding quest who was waylaid by the Ancient Mariner.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

*holds open door of geezer bus for Ancient Mariner in Alvin*


Jeff

Cap'n Bob said...

He may not have been the first European to discover the New World, but it was his discovery that opened it to European settlement.