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Why Celebrate Columbus Day?

From the journal of Christopher Columbus:

In all the world, there is no better people nor better country. They love their neighbors as themselves, and they have the sweetest talk in the world, and are gentle and are always laughing.

They

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by: Android Tablets

06-14-2011 @ 5:39pm

by: Joe_Allen_Doty

10-13-2009 @ 11:10pm

I just got through watching "Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader" on a local affiliate of the MNT TV network.

A lady contestant was asked, "What next holiday comes after Flag Day?"

She didn't answer with "Independence Day." She said, "The 4th of July."

Well, on the calendars of every county where the primary spoken language is English, there is a 4th of July. The name of the holiday is "Independence Day." It is NOT the 4th of July.

In reality, "Flag day" is not really a Federal Holiday. The Federal Holiday before Independence Day is Memorial Day.

I am a US Army Veteran and a Vietnam Conflict Veteran (it was not a war). "Veterans' Day" was originally "Armistice Day" to celebrate the end of World War I.

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07-04-2011 @ 2:30pm

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by: oregondentist

11-04-2009 @ 10:20pm

Oregon Dental Implants and Cosmetic Dentistry
Mid-Valley Dental Associates:

When you visit our dental offices, your care is our top priority. Dr. Geoffrey Berg and his entire team are dedicated to providing you with the personalized, professional care you expect.

http://mid-valleydental.com/

by: Butler Auto Auction

07-29-2011 @ 2:37pm

Butler Auto Auction...

Howdy! I could have sworn I've been to this blog before but after checking through some of the post I realized it's new to me. Anyhow, I'm definitely happy I found it and I'll be book-marking and checking back often!...

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07-24-2011 @ 10:57am

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07-29-2011 @ 11:23pm

Butler Auto Auction...

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08-12-2011 @ 11:13pm

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08-12-2011 @ 11:13pm

Brute...

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by: Android Tablets

06-14-2011 @ 5:39pm

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07-31-2011 @ 11:17pm

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by: greenearth

10-15-2009 @ 1:24pm

Columbus opened up a legacy of oppression and genocide against the Native Americans. Believe me, this IS a downer!

by: Rick Waldrop

10-12-2009 @ 4:13pm

Thanks so much for the shattering critique, Randy. I think we should all boycott Columbus Day until it is officially removed from the national calendar. What a shame for this country!

by: compassion4

10-12-2009 @ 4:24pm

This journal entry awoke me in 2000 to the lies I had been taught in school, within a book entitled Lies My Teacher Told Me by James Lowen. Thank goodness I know now to tell and educate my children about these things.

by: jesse3

10-12-2009 @ 5:16pm

Can I just point out that for the past couple of years, at least, Sojo has used several national holidays as occasions for criticizing the US and Americans. Seriously. This has happened for Columbus Day. Veterans Day. Independence Day. And I'm almost certain it also happened for Christmas and Thanksgiving.

Mind you, I don't really care...but you guys can be downers!

by: Joe_Allen_Doty

10-12-2009 @ 5:55pm

Thanksgiving Day should be celebrated at the time of the year when the main harvest takes place.

The Cherokees and other tribes celebrated their "Green Corn Festival" and that was when the corn on the cob was sweet and just perfectly right to eat. That was actually a Thanksgiving Holiday Period and it was not in November.

by: Joe_Allen_Doty

10-12-2009 @ 5:58pm

Canadians celebrate today as "Thanksgiving Day." That makes more sense to me.

According to some internet information, Columbus' 3rd voyage took him to the coast of South America and his 4th voyage took him to Central America which is on the North American Continent.

by: Fat Belly

08-16-2011 @ 2:52pm

Lose Belly Fat...

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by: Fat Belly

08-16-2011 @ 2:52pm

Lose Belly Fat...

Hi, I think your blog might be having browser compatibility issues. When I look at your website in Firefox, it looks fine but when opening in Internet Explorer, it has some overlapping. I just wanted to give you a quick heads up! Other then that, great...

by: letjusticerolldown

10-12-2009 @ 9:03pm

OK. Let me jump over to the New York Times website and just catch their lead headline at the moment. Pause...........

"U.S. Can't Trace Foreign Visitors on Expired Visas" NYT

"United States," "Foreign," "Visas,"................

These are loaded terms. They are laden with a historical narrative of the nation and the world. Who belongs. Who doesn't belong. etc. etc.

Our ability to converse is laden with culture. The fact Randy writes in English is admission to a dominant, exploitive, conquering culture. Or is it due to a world that loves and desires benefits developed by English culture???

Just as our conversation and today's events must be couched in a cultural context, laden with all kinds of understandings--so too is every historical narrative.

Randy's narrative could as easily focus on the cruelties, oppressions, and evils of "indiginous peoples." The concept of "indiginous people" rests on a notion that there was some pristine moment of human history in which the people that were supposed to rightly inhabit Hispaniola resided there free of disease, sin and conflict. Everything since then was corruption.

I think we ought reflect on places like Palestine and consider how long and deeply we want to debate alternative historical narratives.

For the moment--I side with Randy. But I become suspicious when language that is presented as an appeal for a corrected narrative begins to sound as a desire to simply establish a new dogma.

Christopher Columbus has a certain stature in our cultural narrative--and we frame him in different ways. The explorations were significant with significant consequences.

I think the 'invisibility' of indiginous peoples in our overall narrative is profoundly wrong--factually and as a matter of perspectives and values.

The day does not need to be one of treating him as saintly hero or demonic enemy. What I see unfolding (and is what I fear) is simply another opportunity to wage a new war of historical frameworks. And the victim becomes any attempt to simply be a bit more honest and complete. It becomes a fight.

Dr MLK was killed 41 years ago. As far as I can tell, the public narrative about who this man was, and what he did (and a whole movement), continues to evolve. And it does not evolve towards a better, more complete, more appreciative understanding--even though we have tens of millions in the nation who remember him.

We still, in these United States, have many nations, many broken treaties, and much unfinished business in being a nation that lives out its promise instead of its curse. We have choices to make today. Simple honesty about the world Columbus bumped into would be wonderful. We don't need a political fight over whether the day should be--as if we could take care of our business by obliterating our memory of a twisted memory.

by: greenearth

10-15-2009 @ 1:24pm

Columbus opened up a legacy of oppression and genocide against the Native Americans. Believe me, this IS a downer!

by: Police Car Auctions

06-27-2011 @ 5:02am

Police Car Auctions...

Hey there, I think your blog might be having browser compatibility issues. When I look at your blog in Firefox, it looks fine but when opening in Internet Explorer, it has some overlapping. I just wanted to give you a quick heads up! Other then that, s...

by: Rick Waldrop

10-12-2009 @ 4:13pm

Thanks so much for the shattering critique, Randy. I think we should all boycott Columbus Day until it is officially removed from the national calendar. What a shame for this country!

by: compassion4

10-12-2009 @ 4:24pm

This journal entry awoke me in 2000 to the lies I had been taught in school, within a book entitled Lies My Teacher Told Me by James Lowen. Thank goodness I know now to tell and educate my children about these things.

by: Sochi

07-29-2011 @ 8:58pm

Crush...

[

by: jesse3

10-12-2009 @ 5:16pm

Can I just point out that for the past couple of years, at least, Sojo has used several national holidays as occasions for criticizing the US and Americans. Seriously. This has happened for Columbus Day. Veterans Day. Independence Day. And I'm almost certain it also happened for Christmas and Thanksgiving.

Mind you, I don't really care...but you guys can be downers!

by: NMRod

10-12-2009 @ 11:25pm

It's hard to be a Native American on Columbus Day: everyone else can look to ancestry from their mother country. The English, to England, the Irish, to Ireland, the Germans, to Germany; and a hundred other original nationalities and nations. Even Jewish folk can now look to Israel.

All of those often on Columbus Day celebrate the conquest of North America; and for those, it can often have a religious and patriotic cast: the Pilgrims and Puritans, setting "God's City" upon a "hill" - the pre-eminent and dominating high ground from which all the world is now ruled, according to Manifest Destiny.

It's another thing to be an American Indian; to be a conquered people, shrunken to reservations originally set up to be concentration camps for those slated for extinction.

It's demoralizing to be an American Indian man; America's troops roam the globe and there's no serious chance that they will actually ever need to defend the "homeland" from any of their far-flung foes conquering it or taking it over the way that American Indians had it done to them.

But American Indian men cannot defend their lost nation. No wonder that so many submerge this into becoming the ethnic minority with the greatest participation in America's armed forces: if you can't beat 'em, join 'em. In this way the sense of failure at being unable to defend one's people is sublimated.

Yet everyone is God's child. The prescription for having suffered victimization is not to victimize in turn, even in one's heart or wishes.
The victim is superior to the oppressor, until he takes up bitterness. Evil is not conquered with thoughts of evil.

What would God have us do, by the example of Jesus?

Americans who've profited from this oppression need forgiveness. They will never be whole until they realize what truly happened and how contrary to God's will it has been. For this to occur, they need to be confronted with the loving forgiveness of those oppressed, with it clearly stated what they are being forgiven for.

Many Americans are now suffering personally - financially, spiritually and in personal sacrifice in endless battles - for the wrongs that have been done. The inevitability of the consequences for what has been done that's wrong, multiply as the same errors continue, writ larger and larger. Not realizing fully what has been done, many Americans have taken the wrong lessons as to how to proceed in the future, and we compound error upon error.

America needs to listen to its American Indian voices. It needs to hear and heed their voices of forgiveness.

For it is a rare and unusual native people Americans have in their midst - a forgiving and loving people, who can model the behavior Jesus wants us all to show to each other.

by: Joe_Allen_Doty

10-12-2009 @ 5:55pm

Thanksgiving Day should be celebrated at the time of the year when the main harvest takes place.

The Cherokees and other tribes celebrated their "Green Corn Festival" and that was when the corn on the cob was sweet and just perfectly right to eat. That was actually a Thanksgiving Holiday Period and it was not in November.

by: Joe_Allen_Doty

10-12-2009 @ 5:58pm

Canadians celebrate today as "Thanksgiving Day." That makes more sense to me.

According to some internet information, Columbus' 3rd voyage took him to the coast of South America and his 4th voyage took him to Central America which is on the North American Continent.

by: oregondentist

11-04-2009 @ 10:20pm

Oregon Dental Implants and Cosmetic Dentistry
Mid-Valley Dental Associates:

When you visit our dental offices, your care is our top priority. Dr. Geoffrey Berg and his entire team are dedicated to providing you with the personalized, professional care you expect.

http://mid-valleydental.com/

by: Katie Rodgers Boxeth

10-12-2009 @ 11:45pm

Randy,
As always, I appreciate your perspective and wisdom. Enjoy your radio spot! That should be a kick!

by: kosmetyki

07-21-2011 @ 12:08pm

kosmetyki naturalne...

Greetings! Quick question that's completely off topic. Do you know how to make your site mobile friendly? My web site looks weird when viewing from my iphone 4. I'm trying to find a theme or plugin that might be able to correct this problem. If you h...

by: canucklehead

10-13-2009 @ 12:16am

You're right, Joe, and as I munch my third piece of pumpkin pie today, I find myself giving thanks that retailing breathes meaning into Thanksgiving Day.

by: letjusticerolldown

10-12-2009 @ 9:03pm

OK. Let me jump over to the New York Times website and just catch their lead headline at the moment. Pause...........

"U.S. Can't Trace Foreign Visitors on Expired Visas" NYT

"United States," "Foreign," "Visas,"................

These are loaded terms. They are laden with a historical narrative of the nation and the world. Who belongs. Who doesn't belong. etc. etc.

Our ability to converse is laden with culture. The fact Randy writes in English is admission to a dominant, exploitive, conquering culture. Or is it due to a world that loves and desires benefits developed by English culture???

Just as our conversation and today's events must be couched in a cultural context, laden with all kinds of understandings--so too is every historical narrative.

Randy's narrative could as easily focus on the cruelties, oppressions, and evils of "indiginous peoples." The concept of "indiginous people" rests on a notion that there was some pristine moment of human history in which the people that were supposed to rightly inhabit Hispaniola resided there free of disease, sin and conflict. Everything since then was corruption.

I think we ought reflect on places like Palestine and consider how long and deeply we want to debate alternative historical narratives.

For the moment--I side with Randy. But I become suspicious when language that is presented as an appeal for a corrected narrative begins to sound as a desire to simply establish a new dogma.

Christopher Columbus has a certain stature in our cultural narrative--and we frame him in different ways. The explorations were significant with significant consequences.

I think the 'invisibility' of indiginous peoples in our overall narrative is profoundly wrong--factually and as a matter of perspectives and values.

The day does not need to be one of treating him as saintly hero or demonic enemy. What I see unfolding (and is what I fear) is simply another opportunity to wage a new war of historical frameworks. And the victim becomes any attempt to simply be a bit more honest and complete. It becomes a fight.

Dr MLK was killed 41 years ago. As far as I can tell, the public narrative about who this man was, and what he did (and a whole movement), continues to evolve. And it does not evolve towards a better, more complete, more appreciative understanding--even though we have tens of millions in the nation who remember him.

We still, in these United States, have many nations, many broken treaties, and much unfinished business in being a nation that lives out its promise instead of its curse. We have choices to make today. Simple honesty about the world Columbus bumped into would be wonderful. We don't need a political fight over whether the day should be--as if we could take care of our business by obliterating our memory of a twisted memory.

by: canucklehead

10-13-2009 @ 12:17am

Watch out, Grandparents Day!

by: honduranhero

10-13-2009 @ 12:32am

Hispanics call this day, "El Día de la Raza." We take pride in it, since it was the day when our race was born. We are a mixture of African, European, and Native peoples. It used to be considered a sign of inferiority, but we now own the "Mestizo" and "Mulato" identity. Once a symbol of pain, we consider ourselves to be "the Cosmic Race."
I have a lot of indigenous heritage (i.e. I can't grow facial hair), so I understand the pain of colonialism and racism; however, for Hispanics it has become a day to celebrate because we now own the mixing of the races.

by: Police Auctions

07-25-2011 @ 10:15am

Police Auctions...

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by: NMRod

10-13-2009 @ 12:59am

Watch out - this might be the "unwarranted" pride proviso that Andy Schlafly's The Conservative Bible Project wanted to rework about the scriptural injunction against pride in his rewrite of the King James Version Bible! Of course, his idea was to make pride in country and military service - and gasp, maybe in even being anglo-European - acceptable in his tribal God's eyes.

I could get into the idea that we should all celebrate one another as God's gifts to each other though - to put it to the test, how do Michael Moore, Rush Limbaugh, Minister Farrakhan and Al Franken sound for starters? I won't mention some others until we can come to love even those first!

by: RadicalChristianLibrarian

10-13-2009 @ 2:53am

Ugh. I guess I do have to love Rush Limbaugh, even if he makes it really, really, really hard. But I guess that's the whole point of being a Christian- loving those who aren't so lovable. Jesus said that even non-believers love their friends and that we must make ourselves distinct and separate from the rest of the world by loving our enemies.

I'll start praying for Rush too. And don't worry, I'm not "adopting a conservative."

by: bielizna damska

07-19-2011 @ 2:15pm

bielizna...

Hello there! Quick question that's completely off topic. Do you know how to make your site mobile friendly? My site looks weird when browsing from my iphone. I'm trying to find a theme or plugin that might be able to resolve this problem. If you have...

by: NMRod

10-12-2009 @ 11:25pm

It's hard to be a Native American on Columbus Day: everyone else can look to ancestry from their mother country. The English, to England, the Irish, to Ireland, the Germans, to Germany; and a hundred other original nationalities and nations. Even Jewish folk can now look to Israel.

All of those often on Columbus Day celebrate the conquest of North America; and for those, it can often have a religious and patriotic cast: the Pilgrims and Puritans, setting "God's City" upon a "hill" - the pre-eminent and dominating high ground from which all the world is now ruled, according to Manifest Destiny.

It's another thing to be an American Indian; to be a conquered people, shrunken to reservations originally set up to be concentration camps for those slated for extinction.

It's demoralizing to be an American Indian man; America's troops roam the globe and there's no serious chance that they will actually ever need to defend the "homeland" from any of their far-flung foes conquering it or taking it over the way that American Indians had it done to them.

But American Indian men cannot defend their lost nation. No wonder that so many submerge this into becoming the ethnic minority with the greatest participation in America's armed forces: if you can't beat 'em, join 'em. In this way the sense of failure at being unable to defend one's people is sublimated.

Yet everyone is God's child. The prescription for having suffered victimization is not to victimize in turn, even in one's heart or wishes.
The victim is superior to the oppressor, until he takes up bitterness. Evil is not conquered with thoughts of evil.

What would God have us do, by the example of Jesus?

Americans who've profited from this oppression need forgiveness. They will never be whole until they realize what truly happened and how contrary to God's will it has been. For this to occur, they need to be confronted with the loving forgiveness of those oppressed, with it clearly stated what they are being forgiven for.

Many Americans are now suffering personally - financially, spiritually and in personal sacrifice in endless battles - for the wrongs that have been done. The inevitability of the consequences for what has been done that's wrong, multiply as the same errors continue, writ larger and larger. Not realizing fully what has been done, many Americans have taken the wrong lessons as to how to proceed in the future, and we compound error upon error.

America needs to listen to its American Indian voices. It needs to hear and heed their voices of forgiveness.

For it is a rare and unusual native people Americans have in their midst - a forgiving and loving people, who can model the behavior Jesus wants us all to show to each other.

by: Katie Rodgers Boxeth

10-12-2009 @ 11:45pm

Randy,
As always, I appreciate your perspective and wisdom. Enjoy your radio spot! That should be a kick!

by: canucklehead

10-13-2009 @ 12:16am

You're right, Joe, and as I munch my third piece of pumpkin pie today, I find myself giving thanks that retailing breathes meaning into Thanksgiving Day.

by: Eric77

10-13-2009 @ 12:19pm

The city of Cahokia had in excess of 15,000 residents with numerous suburbs and agricultural centers creating a total urban population of more than 40,000 residents.

Does this mean Native Americans were the first creators of the suburbs in America? It's their fault!!

by: canucklehead

10-13-2009 @ 12:17am

Watch out, Grandparents Day!

by: honduranhero

10-13-2009 @ 12:32am

Hispanics call this day, "El Día de la Raza." We take pride in it, since it was the day when our race was born. We are a mixture of African, European, and Native peoples. It used to be considered a sign of inferiority, but we now own the "Mestizo" and "Mulato" identity. Once a symbol of pain, we consider ourselves to be "the Cosmic Race."
I have a lot of indigenous heritage (i.e. I can't grow facial hair), so I understand the pain of colonialism and racism; however, for Hispanics it has become a day to celebrate because we now own the mixing of the races.

by: NMRod

10-13-2009 @ 12:59am

Watch out - this might be the "unwarranted" pride proviso that Andy Schlafly's The Conservative Bible Project wanted to rework about the scriptural injunction against pride in his rewrite of the King James Version Bible! Of course, his idea was to make pride in country and military service - and gasp, maybe in even being anglo-European - acceptable in his tribal God's eyes.

I could get into the idea that we should all celebrate one another as God's gifts to each other though - to put it to the test, how do Michael Moore, Rush Limbaugh, Minister Farrakhan and Al Franken sound for starters? I won't mention some others until we can come to love even those first!

Comments sorted by highest rated. After voting you must refresh your page to see the sort order change.

by: Rick Waldrop

10-12-2009 @ 4:13pm

Thanks so much for the shattering critique, Randy. I think we should all boycott Columbus Day until it is officially removed from the national calendar. What a shame for this country!

by: Rick Waldrop

10-12-2009 @ 4:13pm

Thanks so much for the shattering critique, Randy. I think we should all boycott Columbus Day until it is officially removed from the national calendar. What a shame for this country!

by: compassion4

10-12-2009 @ 4:24pm

This journal entry awoke me in 2000 to the lies I had been taught in school, within a book entitled Lies My Teacher Told Me by James Lowen. Thank goodness I know now to tell and educate my children about these things.

by: compassion4

10-12-2009 @ 4:24pm

This journal entry awoke me in 2000 to the lies I had been taught in school, within a book entitled Lies My Teacher Told Me by James Lowen. Thank goodness I know now to tell and educate my children about these things.

by: jesse3

10-12-2009 @ 5:16pm

Can I just point out that for the past couple of years, at least, Sojo has used several national holidays as occasions for criticizing the US and Americans. Seriously. This has happened for Columbus Day. Veterans Day. Independence Day. And I'm almost certain it also happened for Christmas and Thanksgiving.

Mind you, I don't really care...but you guys can be downers!

by: jesse3

10-12-2009 @ 5:16pm

Can I just point out that for the past couple of years, at least, Sojo has used several national holidays as occasions for criticizing the US and Americans. Seriously. This has happened for Columbus Day. Veterans Day. Independence Day. And I'm almost certain it also happened for Christmas and Thanksgiving.

Mind you, I don't really care...but you guys can be downers!

by: Joe_Allen_Doty

10-12-2009 @ 5:55pm

Thanksgiving Day should be celebrated at the time of the year when the main harvest takes place.

The Cherokees and other tribes celebrated their "Green Corn Festival" and that was when the corn on the cob was sweet and just perfectly right to eat. That was actually a Thanksgiving Holiday Period and it was not in November.

by: Joe_Allen_Doty

10-12-2009 @ 5:55pm

Thanksgiving Day should be celebrated at the time of the year when the main harvest takes place.

The Cherokees and other tribes celebrated their "Green Corn Festival" and that was when the corn on the cob was sweet and just perfectly right to eat. That was actually a Thanksgiving Holiday Period and it was not in November.

by: Joe_Allen_Doty

10-12-2009 @ 5:58pm

Canadians celebrate today as "Thanksgiving Day." That makes more sense to me.

According to some internet information, Columbus' 3rd voyage took him to the coast of South America and his 4th voyage took him to Central America which is on the North American Continent.

by: Joe_Allen_Doty

10-12-2009 @ 5:58pm

Canadians celebrate today as "Thanksgiving Day." That makes more sense to me.

According to some internet information, Columbus' 3rd voyage took him to the coast of South America and his 4th voyage took him to Central America which is on the North American Continent.

by: letjusticerolldown

10-12-2009 @ 9:03pm

OK. Let me jump over to the New York Times website and just catch their lead headline at the moment. Pause...........

"U.S. Can't Trace Foreign Visitors on Expired Visas" NYT

"United States," "Foreign," "Visas,"................

These are loaded terms. They are laden with a historical narrative of the nation and the world. Who belongs. Who doesn't belong. etc. etc.

Our ability to converse is laden with culture. The fact Randy writes in English is admission to a dominant, exploitive, conquering culture. Or is it due to a world that loves and desires benefits developed by English culture???

Just as our conversation and today's events must be couched in a cultural context, laden with all kinds of understandings--so too is every historical narrative.

Randy's narrative could as easily focus on the cruelties, oppressions, and evils of "indiginous peoples." The concept of "indiginous people" rests on a notion that there was some pristine moment of human history in which the people that were supposed to rightly inhabit Hispaniola resided there free of disease, sin and conflict. Everything since then was corruption.

I think we ought reflect on places like Palestine and consider how long and deeply we want to debate alternative historical narratives.

For the moment--I side with Randy. But I become suspicious when language that is presented as an appeal for a corrected narrative begins to sound as a desire to simply establish a new dogma.

Christopher Columbus has a certain stature in our cultural narrative--and we frame him in different ways. The explorations were significant with significant consequences.

I think the 'invisibility' of indiginous peoples in our overall narrative is profoundly wrong--factually and as a matter of perspectives and values.

The day does not need to be one of treating him as saintly hero or demonic enemy. What I see unfolding (and is what I fear) is simply another opportunity to wage a new war of historical frameworks. And the victim becomes any attempt to simply be a bit more honest and complete. It becomes a fight.

Dr MLK was killed 41 years ago. As far as I can tell, the public narrative about who this man was, and what he did (and a whole movement), continues to evolve. And it does not evolve towards a better, more complete, more appreciative understanding--even though we have tens of millions in the nation who remember him.

We still, in these United States, have many nations, many broken treaties, and much unfinished business in being a nation that lives out its promise instead of its curse. We have choices to make today. Simple honesty about the world Columbus bumped into would be wonderful. We don't need a political fight over whether the day should be--as if we could take care of our business by obliterating our memory of a twisted memory.

by: letjusticerolldown

10-12-2009 @ 9:03pm

OK. Let me jump over to the New York Times website and just catch their lead headline at the moment. Pause...........

"U.S. Can't Trace Foreign Visitors on Expired Visas" NYT

"United States," "Foreign," "Visas,"................

These are loaded terms. They are laden with a historical narrative of the nation and the world. Who belongs. Who doesn't belong. etc. etc.

Our ability to converse is laden with culture. The fact Randy writes in English is admission to a dominant, exploitive, conquering culture. Or is it due to a world that loves and desires benefits developed by English culture???

Just as our conversation and today's events must be couched in a cultural context, laden with all kinds of understandings--so too is every historical narrative.

Randy's narrative could as easily focus on the cruelties, oppressions, and evils of "indiginous peoples." The concept of "indiginous people" rests on a notion that there was some pristine moment of human history in which the people that were supposed to rightly inhabit Hispaniola resided there free of disease, sin and conflict. Everything since then was corruption.

I think we ought reflect on places like Palestine and consider how long and deeply we want to debate alternative historical narratives.

For the moment--I side with Randy. But I become suspicious when language that is presented as an appeal for a corrected narrative begins to sound as a desire to simply establish a new dogma.

Christopher Columbus has a certain stature in our cultural narrative--and we frame him in different ways. The explorations were significant with significant consequences.

I think the 'invisibility' of indiginous peoples in our overall narrative is profoundly wrong--factually and as a matter of perspectives and values.

The day does not need to be one of treating him as saintly hero or demonic enemy. What I see unfolding (and is what I fear) is simply another opportunity to wage a new war of historical frameworks. And the victim becomes any attempt to simply be a bit more honest and complete. It becomes a fight.

Dr MLK was killed 41 years ago. As far as I can tell, the public narrative about who this man was, and what he did (and a whole movement), continues to evolve. And it does not evolve towards a better, more complete, more appreciative understanding--even though we have tens of millions in the nation who remember him.

We still, in these United States, have many nations, many broken treaties, and much unfinished business in being a nation that lives out its promise instead of its curse. We have choices to make today. Simple honesty about the world Columbus bumped into would be wonderful. We don't need a political fight over whether the day should be--as if we could take care of our business by obliterating our memory of a twisted memory.

by: NMRod

10-12-2009 @ 11:25pm

It's hard to be a Native American on Columbus Day: everyone else can look to ancestry from their mother country. The English, to England, the Irish, to Ireland, the Germans, to Germany; and a hundred other original nationalities and nations. Even Jewish folk can now look to Israel.

All of those often on Columbus Day celebrate the conquest of North America; and for those, it can often have a religious and patriotic cast: the Pilgrims and Puritans, setting "God's City" upon a "hill" - the pre-eminent and dominating high ground from which all the world is now ruled, according to Manifest Destiny.

It's another thing to be an American Indian; to be a conquered people, shrunken to reservations originally set up to be concentration camps for those slated for extinction.

It's demoralizing to be an American Indian man; America's troops roam the globe and there's no serious chance that they will actually ever need to defend the "homeland" from any of their far-flung foes conquering it or taking it over the way that American Indians had it done to them.

But American Indian men cannot defend their lost nation. No wonder that so many submerge this into becoming the ethnic minority with the greatest participation in America's armed forces: if you can't beat 'em, join 'em. In this way the sense of failure at being unable to defend one's people is sublimated.

Yet everyone is God's child. The prescription for having suffered victimization is not to victimize in turn, even in one's heart or wishes.
The victim is superior to the oppressor, until he takes up bitterness. Evil is not conquered with thoughts of evil.

What would God have us do, by the example of Jesus?

Americans who've profited from this oppression need forgiveness. They will never be whole until they realize what truly happened and how contrary to God's will it has been. For this to occur, they need to be confronted with the loving forgiveness of those oppressed, with it clearly stated what they are being forgiven for.

Many Americans are now suffering personally - financially, spiritually and in personal sacrifice in endless battles - for the wrongs that have been done. The inevitability of the consequences for what has been done that's wrong, multiply as the same errors continue, writ larger and larger. Not realizing fully what has been done, many Americans have taken the wrong lessons as to how to proceed in the future, and we compound error upon error.

America needs to listen to its American Indian voices. It needs to hear and heed their voices of forgiveness.

For it is a rare and unusual native people Americans have in their midst - a forgiving and loving people, who can model the behavior Jesus wants us all to show to each other.

by: NMRod

10-12-2009 @ 11:25pm

It's hard to be a Native American on Columbus Day: everyone else can look to ancestry from their mother country. The English, to England, the Irish, to Ireland, the Germans, to Germany; and a hundred other original nationalities and nations. Even Jewish folk can now look to Israel.

All of those often on Columbus Day celebrate the conquest of North America; and for those, it can often have a religious and patriotic cast: the Pilgrims and Puritans, setting "God's City" upon a "hill" - the pre-eminent and dominating high ground from which all the world is now ruled, according to Manifest Destiny.

It's another thing to be an American Indian; to be a conquered people, shrunken to reservations originally set up to be concentration camps for those slated for extinction.

It's demoralizing to be an American Indian man; America's troops roam the globe and there's no serious chance that they will actually ever need to defend the "homeland" from any of their far-flung foes conquering it or taking it over the way that American Indians had it done to them.

But American Indian men cannot defend their lost nation. No wonder that so many submerge this into becoming the ethnic minority with the greatest participation in America's armed forces: if you can't beat 'em, join 'em. In this way the sense of failure at being unable to defend one's people is sublimated.

Yet everyone is God's child. The prescription for having suffered victimization is not to victimize in turn, even in one's heart or wishes.
The victim is superior to the oppressor, until he takes up bitterness. Evil is not conquered with thoughts of evil.

What would God have us do, by the example of Jesus?

Americans who've profited from this oppression need forgiveness. They will never be whole until they realize what truly happened and how contrary to God's will it has been. For this to occur, they need to be confronted with the loving forgiveness of those oppressed, with it clearly stated what they are being forgiven for.

Many Americans are now suffering personally - financially, spiritually and in personal sacrifice in endless battles - for the wrongs that have been done. The inevitability of the consequences for what has been done that's wrong, multiply as the same errors continue, writ larger and larger. Not realizing fully what has been done, many Americans have taken the wrong lessons as to how to proceed in the future, and we compound error upon error.

America needs to listen to its American Indian voices. It needs to hear and heed their voices of forgiveness.

For it is a rare and unusual native people Americans have in their midst - a forgiving and loving people, who can model the behavior Jesus wants us all to show to each other.

by: Katie Rodgers Boxeth

10-12-2009 @ 11:45pm

Randy,
As always, I appreciate your perspective and wisdom. Enjoy your radio spot! That should be a kick!

by: Katie Rodgers Boxeth

10-12-2009 @ 11:45pm

Randy,
As always, I appreciate your perspective and wisdom. Enjoy your radio spot! That should be a kick!

by: canucklehead

10-13-2009 @ 12:16am

You're right, Joe, and as I munch my third piece of pumpkin pie today, I find myself giving thanks that retailing breathes meaning into Thanksgiving Day.

by: canucklehead

10-13-2009 @ 12:16am

You're right, Joe, and as I munch my third piece of pumpkin pie today, I find myself giving thanks that retailing breathes meaning into Thanksgiving Day.

by: canucklehead

10-13-2009 @ 12:17am

Watch out, Grandparents Day!

by: canucklehead

10-13-2009 @ 12:17am

Watch out, Grandparents Day!

by: honduranhero

10-13-2009 @ 12:32am

Hispanics call this day, "El Día de la Raza." We take pride in it, since it was the day when our race was born. We are a mixture of African, European, and Native peoples. It used to be considered a sign of inferiority, but we now own the "Mestizo" and "Mulato" identity. Once a symbol of pain, we consider ourselves to be "the Cosmic Race."
I have a lot of indigenous heritage (i.e. I can't grow facial hair), so I understand the pain of colonialism and racism; however, for Hispanics it has become a day to celebrate because we now own the mixing of the races.

by: honduranhero

10-13-2009 @ 12:32am

Hispanics call this day, "El Día de la Raza." We take pride in it, since it was the day when our race was born. We are a mixture of African, European, and Native peoples. It used to be considered a sign of inferiority, but we now own the "Mestizo" and "Mulato" identity. Once a symbol of pain, we consider ourselves to be "the Cosmic Race."
I have a lot of indigenous heritage (i.e. I can't grow facial hair), so I understand the pain of colonialism and racism; however, for Hispanics it has become a day to celebrate because we now own the mixing of the races.

by: NMRod

10-13-2009 @ 12:59am

Watch out - this might be the "unwarranted" pride proviso that Andy Schlafly's The Conservative Bible Project wanted to rework about the scriptural injunction against pride in his rewrite of the King James Version Bible! Of course, his idea was to make pride in country and military service - and gasp, maybe in even being anglo-European - acceptable in his tribal God's eyes.

I could get into the idea that we should all celebrate one another as God's gifts to each other though - to put it to the test, how do Michael Moore, Rush Limbaugh, Minister Farrakhan and Al Franken sound for starters? I won't mention some others until we can come to love even those first!

by: NMRod

10-13-2009 @ 12:59am

Watch out - this might be the "unwarranted" pride proviso that Andy Schlafly's The Conservative Bible Project wanted to rework about the scriptural injunction against pride in his rewrite of the King James Version Bible! Of course, his idea was to make pride in country and military service - and gasp, maybe in even being anglo-European - acceptable in his tribal God's eyes.

I could get into the idea that we should all celebrate one another as God's gifts to each other though - to put it to the test, how do Michael Moore, Rush Limbaugh, Minister Farrakhan and Al Franken sound for starters? I won't mention some others until we can come to love even those first!

by: RadicalChristianLibrarian

10-13-2009 @ 2:53am

Ugh. I guess I do have to love Rush Limbaugh, even if he makes it really, really, really hard. But I guess that's the whole point of being a Christian- loving those who aren't so lovable. Jesus said that even non-believers love their friends and that we must make ourselves distinct and separate from the rest of the world by loving our enemies.

I'll start praying for Rush too. And don't worry, I'm not "adopting a conservative."

by: RadicalChristianLibrarian

10-13-2009 @ 2:53am

Ugh. I guess I do have to love Rush Limbaugh, even if he makes it really, really, really hard. But I guess that's the whole point of being a Christian- loving those who aren't so lovable. Jesus said that even non-believers love their friends and that we must make ourselves distinct and separate from the rest of the world by loving our enemies.

I'll start praying for Rush too. And don't worry, I'm not "adopting a conservative."

by: Eric77

10-13-2009 @ 12:19pm

The city of Cahokia had in excess of 15,000 residents with numerous suburbs and agricultural centers creating a total urban population of more than 40,000 residents.

Does this mean Native Americans were the first creators of the suburbs in America? It's their fault!!

by: Eric77

10-13-2009 @ 12:19pm

The city of Cahokia had in excess of 15,000 residents with numerous suburbs and agricultural centers creating a total urban population of more than 40,000 residents.

Does this mean Native Americans were the first creators of the suburbs in America? It's their fault!!

by: Joe_Allen_Doty

10-13-2009 @ 11:10pm

I just got through watching "Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader" on a local affiliate of the MNT TV network.

A lady contestant was asked, "What next holiday comes after Flag Day?"

She didn't answer with "Independence Day." She said, "The 4th of July."

Well, on the calendars of every county where the primary spoken language is English, there is a 4th of July. The name of the holiday is "Independence Day." It is NOT the 4th of July.

In reality, "Flag day" is not really a Federal Holiday. The Federal Holiday before Independence Day is Memorial Day.

I am a US Army Veteran and a Vietnam Conflict Veteran (it was not a war). "Veterans' Day" was originally "Armistice Day" to celebrate the end of World War I.

by: Joe_Allen_Doty

10-13-2009 @ 11:10pm

I just got through watching "Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader" on a local affiliate of the MNT TV network.

A lady contestant was asked, "What next holiday comes after Flag Day?"

She didn't answer with "Independence Day." She said, "The 4th of July."

Well, on the calendars of every county where the primary spoken language is English, there is a 4th of July. The name of the holiday is "Independence Day." It is NOT the 4th of July.

In reality, "Flag day" is not really a Federal Holiday. The Federal Holiday before Independence Day is Memorial Day.

I am a US Army Veteran and a Vietnam Conflict Veteran (it was not a war). "Veterans' Day" was originally "Armistice Day" to celebrate the end of World War I.

by: greenearth

10-15-2009 @ 1:24pm

Columbus opened up a legacy of oppression and genocide against the Native Americans. Believe me, this IS a downer!

by: greenearth

10-15-2009 @ 1:24pm

Columbus opened up a legacy of oppression and genocide against the Native Americans. Believe me, this IS a downer!

by: cvboy777

10-22-2009 @ 5:49pm

However, some Latinos like myself have a hard time buying into "La Raza Cosmica" (The Cosmic Race). In Mexico, Jose Vasconcelos pushed this very idea to give the country a sense of ethnic identity and while I consider his intentions to be sincere and hopeful, he romanticized and glorified the fusion of cultures while overshadowing the ignominious histories of Spanish/European arrival to the Americas. Many in Mexico have adopted the Mestizo tagline, but through various echelons of society and government, oppression of indigenous peoples in the Americas and worldwide still persists. Those who identify with indigenous groups don't always fit the bill for the "Cosmic Race" to this day. The divide is clearly demarcated that some "mestizos" (albeit appear the same in physical characteristics) will even call those who represent their ancestry "indios" (literally indian but carries a derogatory connotation). A fact that that is evident and even visible if you spend enough time in any of the Americas. Either way, I'm proud of my ethnic identity (Mexican born in the U.S.) and all that has been offered to me through my culture(s) which I embrace but I am not ignorant to sins of the past which lend pain to those who still strongly identify with their roots. For that reason alone I don't celebrate Columbus Day. We really need to embrace truth and love over pride and lies. Blessings!

Saludos,

by: cvboy777

10-22-2009 @ 5:49pm

However, some Latinos like myself have a hard time buying into "La Raza Cosmica" (The Cosmic Race). In Mexico, Jose Vasconcelos pushed this very idea to give the country a sense of ethnic identity and while I consider his intentions to be sincere and hopeful, he romanticized and glorified the fusion of cultures while overshadowing the ignominious histories of Spanish/European arrival to the Americas. Many in Mexico have adopted the Mestizo tagline, but through various echelons of society and government, oppression of indigenous peoples in the Americas and worldwide still persists. Those who identify with indigenous groups don't always fit the bill for the "Cosmic Race" to this day. The divide is clearly demarcated that some "mestizos" (albeit appear the same in physical characteristics) will even call those who represent their ancestry "indios" (literally indian but carries a derogatory connotation). A fact that that is evident and even visible if you spend enough time in any of the Americas. Either way, I'm proud of my ethnic identity (Mexican born in the U.S.) and all that has been offered to me through my culture(s) which I embrace but I am not ignorant to sins of the past which lend pain to those who still strongly identify with their roots. For that reason alone I don't celebrate Columbus Day. We really need to embrace truth and love over pride and lies. Blessings!

Saludos,

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11-04-2009 @ 8:20pm

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11-04-2009 @ 8:20pm

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11-04-2009 @ 10:20pm

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Mid-Valley Dental Associates:

When you visit our dental offices, your care is our top priority. Dr. Geoffrey Berg and his entire team are dedicated to providing you with the personalized, professional care you expect.

http://mid-valleydental.com/

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11-04-2009 @ 10:20pm

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When you visit our dental offices, your care is our top priority. Dr. Geoffrey Berg and his entire team are dedicated to providing you with the personalized, professional care you expect.

http://mid-valleydental.com/

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