A Call For The Truth About Christopher Columbus
Create A Forum With Reputable Historians To Cite the Facts
With the celebration of Columbus Day on Monday, the controversy over the recognition of the famous explorer who discovered America is once again in the public discourse. The holiday was made official in 1934 by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and has been a day of pride for Italian-Americans. Catholics and many other people across the United States, who appreciate the faith-driven life of Columbus.
In Russian Assault, my second book in the Dylan Reilly thriller series, Columbus is well-represented by the heroic deeds of the Knights of Columbus in one scene as well as a recreation of the protest scene at the Columbus statue in Grant Park in July of 2020, except my version goes quite differently. The real protest turned into a violent attack on the Chicago Police officers who were trying to maintain the safety of everyone marching as well as protecting the statue. The Defund the Police mob became violent, throwing rocks and frozen bottles at the police, and 49 officers were injured with 18 taken to the hospital.
Those protestors, who injured the police, don’t represent the majority of people in the Chicago area or around the country. The anti-Columbus protestors claim the issue is racism and imperialism. The real issue, according to expert Columbus historians, is the accuracy of the historical facts being fed to their radical groups. They are trumpeting non-credentialed, cherry-picked information, which is being carried on agenda-driven websites supporting the Fake History. We have had Fake News in this country and now we have Fake History being promoted by radical groups.
The protestors are latching onto misinformation about Columbus blaming him for the death of the indigenous people, the Tainos population. When Columbus and his men arrived, they brought with them diseases from Europe and it killed a large percentage of the Tainos people. Does anyone really believe that was a premeditated act? But he is also being blamed for the severe mistreatment of those people whom he governed on the islands of Hispaniola (now Haiti and the Dominican Republic). From the legitimate historical accounts I have read, as well as Columbus journal and letters, he is most clearly a devout Christian, who was seeking to turn the Tainos people into Christians. It’s very difficult to believe that this man would be responsible for the horrific deaths of the Tainos people described by Bartolome de la Casas. I don’t know if the claims made by de la Casas are true, but I do know the legitimacy of his claims have been a been a long-running debate among respected historians. But if they are true, I don’t believe Columbus was responsible for the atrocities based on what I have read about the man and from the man.
A true biography on the life of Christopher Columbus, which there are many, details how his faith impacted his life, his choices, and his desire to explore the world! It is why the Catholic service organization, the Knights of Columbus, was formed and continues today.
And here is the bottom line for those radical groups, if they are going to make negative judgments about historical figures who discovered and helped shape this nation, then they have to make judgments about historical figures whom they support. And then they need to look in the mirror at their own lives. “So as you judge, so you will be judged.” Matthew 7:1-5
But that’s not what’s taking place here. This is an agenda-driven movement against Catholics and Italian-Americans. The Ku Klux Klan was behind it initially going back 100 years. But now other radical groups have latched onto it for the same reasons and are pushing their agenda.
If civic leaders of the major cities where these violent protests have taken place really wanted to do something responsible, they should take a more sound position than just trying to appease radical activist groups, which don’t represent the majority of Americans.
Instead of taking down statues and changing traditions, wouldn’t mayors be better served educating the public at large about the truth of Christopher Columbus and other great Americans in history who have come under fire by those trying use those historical figures to draw attention and support for their own 501 (C3) organization? Instead of listening to those extremist activist groups, wouldn’t Americans be better served by having legitimate Columbus historians provide a real education about the famed explorer, including citations to the actual historical documents?
In Chicago, why not establish a legitimate Christopher Columbus education forum held at the Museum of Science and Industry, the site of the 1893 Columbian Exposition celebrating the 400th anniversary of Columbus arrival in the New World. At this forum, the most prominent scholars of Columbus can be invited to present the real history of the explorer and answer questions posed by a respected moderator from one of the city’s news organizations. The point of this forum would be to cite and highlight the facts and disqualify agenda-driven opinions. There can be no political correctness represented by the moderator or historians, only the truth.
The digital video from this forum could be shared in classrooms across the United States, so students can learn the truth about Columbus.
If this forum is successful, perhaps other historical figures and events which have come under attack can be addressed in the same way to dismiss this Fake History. It won’t stop the attacks by the social media mobsters, but it will create a truthful document which can help educate Americans with the true history of our nation.