Columbus Day

Today is Columbus Day though some in some cities around the country leftists are celebrating something called Indigenous Peoples Day instead.  The leftists’  outrage is not directed at the often execrable behavior of the Spanish and Portuguese conquerors and colonists south of the Rio Grande, but rather at their own country. Well I’m glad Columbus made his voyage of discovery,  in large part because it began a series of events which led to the creation of the United States -  the country founded on liberal enlightenment principles of liberty and human rights, the country that fought a bloody civil war to rid itself of the slavery that was a residue of English colonial rule, the country that created better lives for more people than any in history, the country that became a beacon for the rest of the world, the country which saved civilization twice in the 20^th Century, and the last best hope of humanity.

Wrongs were committed against Indians, but, speaking only of what happened north of the Rio Grande, much of the leftists’ propaganda is false. There was no systematic genocide of Indians. The country was not stolen from the Indians because almost all of it was unsettled wilderness which belonged to no one. (There were scattered settlements which did belong to Indians, and some of them were stolen or swindled away.)  The Indians were not a uniformly peaceful group of proto-greens living in Eden-like harmony with everything. Quite a number of them were rough customers engaged in ongoing brutal and savage warfare with their neighbors.  Their treatment  of women was often deplorable, and their treatment of captives was often horrific.

Still the lefties with their Indigenous People’s Day disagree. Since they do, it seems there is a clear path of duty ahead of  them, if they do not want to be hypocrites. All of them who are not Indians need make amends for the wrongs by getting their sorry non-Indian selves  back to Europe, Africa, or  Asia where they belong. This might not help the Indians any, but it surely would improve things around the country otherwise.