Columbus Day

Christopher Columbus did not, of course, “discover America.”  And he knew this as soon as he landed and was greeted by natives who were living where he embarked.  Their ancestors had lived here for 12,000 or 50,000 years, take your pick.  Columbus knew they were human, but he treated them rather inhumanely.  And today, because of his actions and the actions of millions of Europeans who followed him, some of his statues have been torn down.  Even the holiday of Columbus Day is threatened.  Is this a good idea?

Statues of Confederate generals have been removed from their pedestals on Monument Avenue in Richmond, VA, the capital of the Confederacy.  But these generals fought against the Union; technically, they had committed treason against their country, against the U.S. Constitution.  Lincoln finally declared: with malice toward none, with charity for all.

George Washington was a slave holder.  But he freed all his slaves in his will.

Thomas Jefferson was a secessionist and an advocate of states’ rights; his first loyalty was to his home state of Virginia, not to the United States of America (not until he was elected president of the new nation, anyway).  Despite his having a 40-year love affair with a black slave, he believed that blacks were inferior to whites.  He did not free his slaves upon his death, he had too many debts that were not paid.

Abraham Lincoln believed that blacks were an inferior race too, and he early on advocated sending them “back where they came from,” to Africa.  He said if he could keep the Union and not free a single slave, he would do so.  But meeting Frederick Douglass probably changed his mind about black intelligence, and he considered Douglass a “friend.”

Should the Washington Monument be torn down?  The Jefferson and the Lincoln Memorials, should we raze them, too?

Who can survive this kind of scrutiny, judging the past by today’s standards?  Most recently, how many American men have fallen to the #MeToo movement for “crimes” against women?  How many careers have been shattered?  I am not for a moment condoning the actions of these men.  They were wrong and justice has caught up with them, some of them at least!  But they committed their sins when society (male-dominated) at large looked the other way.  It was a commonplace for a woman to submit to the sexual advances of a powerful man in order “to get ahead.”  Those days are long gone (are they really?), and many once powerful men have paid the piper.

What is the right response, the appropriate response, the measured response?  I have no idea.  All I do know is that not all crimes are created equal.  Even rape has degrees, just like murder.  And inappropriate sexual behavior – talk – is not rape.  I do believe in old-fashioned justice, an eye for an eye.  But I also believe that the punishment should fit the crime.  And I sometimes believe in forgiveness.

And above all else, we should honor our good deeds and condemn our bad deeds; and teach them all equally to the generations that follow.

What to do about Columbus Day? If you have a day off, enjoy it.