Today is Discoverers Day, formerly known as Columbus Day. It was on October 12th 1492 that Christopher Columbus set foot in the Caribbean and started the process that would destroy the Taino people and most of the other cultures of the Americas. It was on that day that the people he described as the most honest, gentle, and loving poeple the world had ever known were sentenced to genocide. Chris, of course, didn’t know this. As he looted gold, took slaves, and returned to Spain, he simply felt like he had done something wonderful. That he had changed the world. His stated goal was to get enough gold to fund a new crusade and kill more of the non christian people in the holy land.
Historians have no idea what he actually looked like as there was never a portrait of him made during his life. They are uncertain if he were Italian, Spanish, Jew, Anglo, or Portuguese. Even his name is not at all certain as the translation is something like Christ Bearing Missionary, more of a title perhaps than a name. Certainly a coincidental name if there ever was one. Love him or hate him…he certainly changed the world. Especially for all the people that died as a result of his curiousity. Curiousity killed the cat? Yeah, and close to the entire population of two continents….
Here is to Chris Columbus….cd
