Following up on my Columbus Day rant, I happened upon this video on Facebook, “Christian the Bible Cat’s Happy Columbus Day Celebration.” Just like Columbus Day celebrations perpetuate the myth that Columbus discovered America, this dumpy little cartoon accentuates the fallacy that the United States was built on Judeo-Christian principles. Damn! When will the madness stop?! Don’t expect much – this isn’t exactly Japanimation.
Filed under Curiosities
The Christopher Columbus monument in Barcelona, Spain
Today is Columbus Day in the United States where narrow-minded Americans perpetuate the myth that Christopher Columbus discovered this country. It remains a popular fallacy despite obvious proof that the Western Hemisphere was not devoid of humans when Columbus and his fellow seafarers arrived. As someone who is part Indian (Mexican), this is a particularly vexing situation. But, as someone who is also Caucasian (Spaniard and German), I know I can be critical. For one thing, historical references can’t confirm exactly where Columbus landed. Some say present-day Hispaniola; others state Cuba. But, it’s pretty well understood that he didn’t make it to the American mainland.
We also have to understand some other facts that slip by the history texts, which have always had a Euro-Christian slant. Italian-Americans celebrate Columbus as one of their own. Evidence has surfaced in recent years, however, that the intrepid explorer was not actually a humble Italian weaver, but a Polish immigrant. Manuel Rosa, a professor at Duke University, claims that Columbus was the son of Vladislav III, an exiled king from Poland.
More importantly, though, Columbus had to seek help from Spain to finance his voyage. In the late 15th century, Italy was not actually a country, but a collection of city-states; fractured and in constant conflict. Apparently, no member of Italian royalty saw the value in Columbus’ grand scheme. Thus, he turned to Spain and received approval from Queen Isabella – one of my paternal ancestors.
Another myth is that Columbus had deliberately set out to discover the Americas, or traveled as a result of some divinely inspired vision. In reality, he wanted to find a westward route to India’s east coast and thus gain an advantage in the lucrative spice trade. Spices were as valuable as gold and silver at the time. Columbus believed Asia was where the Americas are and initially thought he’d arrived somewhere off the coast of China. Then, he thought he’d actually made it to India and thus, called the Taíno peoples of the Caribbean “Indians.”
Yet another major fact that goes unreported is that Columbus was not the first European to arrive in the Western Hemisphere. As Jared Diamond points out in his seminal book Collapse How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed, scientists now realize that Norse Vikings arrived in North America nearly 500 years earlier. In the 1960’s, archaeologists unearthed remnants of a village in present-day Newfoundland known as “L’Anse Aux Meadows.” Norse literature also points to a land the Vikings called “Vinland.” The Norse had begun their march across the North Atlantic around A.D. 800; first populating the Orkney, Shetland and Faeroe islands, then moving onto Iceland and Greenland. There’s even some evidence that they’d made as far down North America’s eastern coastline as present-day Florida. But, that remains to be proven. By the time they landed in Newfoundland, however, they’d depleted much of their own energy and resources; thus any permanent settlement was unlikely.
But, here’s something even more important: people first arrived in the Americas between 15,000 and 25,000 years ago, if not sooner. They’d branched out across the entire Western Hemisphere, even reaching the southernmost tip of South America, long before Columbus started thinking about his trip. They built complex, intricate and highly-advanced societies – without firearms and without horses or cattle – and lived as best they could for all those millennia.
I’ve seen colorful illustrations of European men adorned in velvet and silk arriving on virgin American shores; their majestic ships moored in the distant background, carrying oversized crucifixes to which the scantily-clad Indians responded by dropping to their knees in automatic subjugation. But, it’s just not true. Columbus’ venture was a matter of commerce, not faith. The concept of spreading Christianity came later, as Spaniards began settling into México and then, as the English and the French began moving westward across North America. Some Indians allowed themselves to be converted to Christianity; more as a matter of survival, though, than some sort of mystical divine intervention. Others, however, strongly resisted and were subsequently beaten down by White settlers who used their religiosity more as a tool of oppression than benevolence.
Investigations into the history of the Americas are ongoing, but in recent years, research has gradually proven the Siberian migration hypothesis to be true. One study found “a unique genetic mutation” that exists only in both the indigenous peoples of Siberia and Native Americans. Other recent data suggests that Japanese seafarers made it to South America’s Pacific coast around 3000 B.C. Scientists have found similarities in pottery among Japan’s Jomon culture and coastal Ecuadorian Indians. They also noticed that “the nautical capability of Chinese sea-going rafts” were identical to those of indigenous Peruvian and Ecuadorian peoples. Moreover, archaeologists have found early specimens of the peanut – which is native to South America – in China. That humans populated just about every corner of the Western Hemisphere is testament to overall human ingenuity and determination. That they – we – have survived 500 years of disease, exploitation and genocide is even more impressive.
None of this is historical revisionism, as some staid elitists might claim. The facts are now coming forward and being revealed, whether the old-timers like it or not. It’s a mixed heritage. I’m glad, for the most part, that Europeans made it over here. But, what they did to the indigenous peoples cannot be underestimated or dismissed. While nothing can be done about it now, it’s futile to ignore historical facts – even if it puts a damper on all those Columbus Day picnics and yard sales at Wal-Mart.
Filed under Essays
Today is Thanksgiving Day for my Canadian neighbors. Canada – which remains caught in a battle between French and English, while continually reminding the U.S. it is NOT a 51st state – adopted their holiday from the indigenous Canadian peoples. Canadian Indians held ceremonies and festivals to celebrate bountiful summer harvests at the threshold of winter – which, from what I understand, can be pretty nasty in Canada. But then again, all peoples across the globe gave thanks for enough food to get them through the tough times in life. We modern humans, with our plethora of electronic devices, can still learn from our humble forebears.
So, here’s hoping our northern neighbors had a grand holiday!
Filed under News
Survivalist Tip: I’ve stated more than once that you can’t be certain how things will go after December 21. Many of you certainly hope to stay in your homes and weather the chaos. But, in the event you have to evacuate to safer territory, it might be prudent to stash as many of your survivalist essentials in an assortment bucket. These look like ordinary plastic trash receptacles, but they’re actually portable multi-leveled storage units. A good sturdy assortment bucket is roughly 12” x 10” x 13” in size and costs anywhere from $60 to $70. The wheels make it easy to transport, should you be on foot, or just to move around. Their varied compartments allow for storage of dried foods, bottled water, ammunition and, of course, your beloved chocolate. Even after things settle down and return to some degree of normalcy, the assortment bucket can be used for future storage. Besides, you never know when you have to hide food from nosy relatives.
Filed under Mayan Calendar Countdown
The annual State Fair of Texas is known for two things: the giant “Big Tex” figure and the plethora of fried foods. Every year culinary extremists try to outdo one another by finding something to fry. Ice cream, Snickers bars, bubble gum and margaritas have all fallen victim to vats of boiling lard. (I’m not kidding! They’ve actually fried these things!) This year, however, some lunatic produced a new acid reflux – laden feast: the world’s largest Frito pie. Last week a crew from Frito-Lay combined 635 bags of chips, 660 cans of chili and 580 bags of shredded cheddar cheese to create the 1,325 pound gastronomical monstrosity. It all came together in what can only be described as a trough. Somehow, in present-day America, that actually seems appropriate.
Filed under Curiosities
“I just want to make sure I got this straight. He’ll get rid of regulations on Wall Street, but he’s going to crack down on Sesame Street.”
– President Obama, in response to Mitt Romney’s idiotic statement during last week’s presidential debate that he will cut funding for PBS.
Filed under News
October is “National Breast Cancer Awareness Month.” Like many people, I knew someone who suffered from breast cancer. She was my Aunt Margo who died in 1989 at the age of 59. She was my mother’s older sister, and Margo’s death still impacts us today. Cancer of any kind doesn’t just affect the individual who develops it – it affects everyone who loves that person. Fortunately, our society has made great strides in the decades since this issue first came to prominence. It’s no longer a taboo subject, and its victims no longer have to live and suffer in the shadows.
Filed under News
Yesterday, October 6, marked the official end of Banned Books Week. This shouldn’t be just a single annual event; it should be a daily, ongoing ritual. There will always be people who feel they know what’s best for the rest of us to read and see, and it’s up to us writers, poets, artists and bloggers to combat that arrogance. Thanks to fellow bloggers “Laith’s Ramblings” and “Travel Between the Pages” for highlighting this critical issue. As I’ve said before, no society is truly free unless they have the right to vote, to speak openly and to read whatever they please.
Filed under News
Watching the debate between President Obama and Mitt Romney the other night invoked a number of emotions in me; mainly nausea. Obama looked half-asleep, while Romney displayed yet another side of his plastic persona. Romney contradicted himself more times than someone with schizophrenia, and Obama simply didn’t show any backbone. Considering that Romney announced he would take down “Sesame Street” and Obama expressed joy last week that the National Football League’s referee strike had ended peacefully, I haven’t been this disillusioned about politics since January 20, 2001, when George W. Bush first took office.
It’s come to this? PBS and football referees are that utterly important in the overall scheme of America’s ongoing economic crisis? Well, at least PBS serves a purpose. But, even before the Obama – Romney debate, I pondered why America has let itself stoop to such lowly aspirations. This is a country that built the world’s first transcontinental railroad system in the mid-1800’s and, less than a century later, constructed the world’s largest highway system. Following World War II, this same nation created the strongest middle class the world has ever seen. We were the first to take flight into the air and the first to place men on the moon. We helped to develop automobiles, telephones, radio, televisions and computers. Now, we’re talking about creationism in schools and gay marriage. Are we serious? How did the national dialogue become so pathetic?
A half century ago, President John F. Kennedy issued a challenge to the nation; he wanted us “to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things; not because they are easy, but because they are hard.” And, we did just that! Less than seven years later, Neil Armstrong became the first human to set foot on the lunar surface.
I’m somewhat of a dreamer. In fact, I’m a big dreamer. My quiet, sometimes introverted personality conjures up the most fantastic of stories. But, it also envisions the seemingly impossible of events. Thus, while some people worry what Vice President Joe Biden might say in his debate with Congressman Paul Ryan next week and others sit on the edge of their seats, wondering who will take first place on “Dancing with the Stars,” I propose the following challenges to my fellow Americans.
Energy Independent – Every American president since Richard Nixon has called for the U.S. to be completely and totally energy independent. The oil embargoes of the 1970’s first made us realize how badly our nation is beholden to the Saudi royal family who – just a few decades earlier – were still living a nomadic lifestyle. Our technology helped them move into the 20th century almost overnight. Currently, though, the U.S. obtains most of its oil from Latin America, mainly Venezuela. We actually buy more oil from Canada than from OPEC nations. But, we’re still reliant upon foreign nations for a good chunk of our fuel. And, we’re still too dependent upon coal and natural gas. The fact is that those resources are finite. They’re also dirty and dangerous to extract from the Earth. I’d like to see the U.S. develop cleaner and safer means of energy by 2030. Yes, that’s less than 20 years from now, but I know we can do it. And, we need to do it. We can’t continue to pollute our environment and put our citizens at risk just to keep the lights on in the house.
Subterranean Power and Telecommunication Lines – In August of 1992, Hurricane Andrew plowed into Florida as a borderline category 5 storm, before marching across the Gulf of México and slamming into Louisiana. It was the most expensive natural disaster in U.S. history at the time; costing an estimated $26 billion. For weeks afterward, residents in the impact zones lived without power. Andrew had knocked down and / or destroyed thousands of yards of power and telecommunication lines. In the richest, most powerful country on Earth, people found themselves struggling from day to day in a third world-style environment in the heat of summer. Twenty years later Hurricane Isaac gently rolled over southeastern Louisiana and did virtually the same thing to all those power and telecommunication lines. Tropical storm systems aren’t the only harbinger of disaster. Almost every winter, people in the northeastern U.S. brace for mighty arctic hurricanes that send them back into those third world type living conditions. The same happens after floods, tornadoes, wildfires and earthquakes. We can never control what the planet’s natural elements will do. Every time humans have tried to fight nature, they almost always get smacked back into reality. But, we can mitigate the impact of these calamities by burying as many of our power and telecommunication lines underground as possible. This is not a new idea. Many people – from energy analysts to, yes, politicians – have pushed for this to be done on a massive scale. But, there have been plenty of detractors. While we already have a large number of subterranean power and telecommunication lines, opponents claim they’re not necessarily more reliable than overhead lines. While overhead lines experience more outages and are more vulnerable to every piece of aerial debris from disoriented birds to tree branches, subterranean lines are generally more difficult to access and repair when problems with them do arise. Another obstacle, of course, is money. There are greater costs associated with the installation of subterranean lines, and – as you might have guessed – those costs must be passed onto consumers, either in the form of higher utility rates or increased taxes. But, I think it’s well worth the financial burden. Ultimately, it costs people more to go without power; food is spoiled and lives can be endangered in extreme heat or cold. The expenses incurred with the initial installations and ongoing maintenance will more than pay for themselves in the ensuing years.
Humans on Mars – For eons, our ancestors wondered what it was like on the surface of the moon. When the U.S. finally made it there in July of 1969, our fanciful images of otherworldly beings gave way to the bland reality of rocks and dust. But, we made it! We’d successfully landed humans on the surface of another celestial body and brought them back to Earth. Almost immediately, people began contemplating a trip to Mars. The U.S. has come close; first with the Viking I and II voyages, and most recently, with the Curiosity mission. These have been unstaffed journeys, but they’re important. The U.S. space program of the 1960’s helped to advance technological developments; mainly with telecommunications, such as facsimile machines and cordless phones, but also with engineering and robotics. As with any grand adventure, however, there are detractors who look primarily (or only) at the money factor. The Viking missions alone cost $1 billion – in 1970’s-era figures – and, as of now, the Curiosity budget has exceeded $2.5 billion. But so far, the U.S. has spent nearly $807 trillion in Iraq and almost $572 trillion in Afghanistan. If we can afford that kind of cash to kill people and destroy entire towns and villages, we definitely can expend a fraction of that money on a staffed trip to Mars. I don’t believe we’re alone in this universe. And, it’s in our nature as humans to explore and discover. I feel we should make a concerted effort to send a craft with humans to Mars by 2030.
100% Literacy Rate – This is the most ambitious of my goals. Literacy and education are paramount to the success of any society. But, they’re also the most personal and the most difficult. As of 2012, the U.S. literacy rate stands at roughly 80%. While this means that more than three-quarters of the U.S. population can read and write to some degree, we’re still far behind such countries as Denmark, Japan and Norway where literacy rates hover close to 100%. Why is the U.S. at a dismal 80%? I think much of it has to do with our elected officials and their reluctance to consider education as equally important as military prowess and individual financial wealth. Moreover, the United States boasts the largest rate of incarceration than any other nation; some 1.8 million people are imprisoned here, or about 1 of every 100 adults. Of those individuals, roughly 70% are illiterate. While rates vary among states, it costs roughly $23,000 per year to house one person in a prison. However, it costs about $1,000 to educate a child each year at the elementary level and about $3,000 per year at the high school level. College educations also vary widely among states and differ between private and public universities. But, the average cost per year is about $15,000. Once someone graduates from college, or even a vocational training program, however, they can enter the work force and start paying back those costs in earnings and taxes, as well as consumer spending. Somehow, though, our political elite thinks it’s more feasible to imprison someone than to educate them. Every year across this nation, states balance their school budgets on the backs of its most vulnerable citizens: elderly, disabled and children. Just like with the costs of the Afghanistan and Iraq conflicts, it’s beyond me to understand why this nation always has enough money for war, but never enough for education. I feel it’s the conservative mindset working against us. Earlier this year former senator and Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum denounced President Obama as a “snob” for wanting everyone in the U.S. to have a college education. Ignoring such stupidity, though, I think it’s plausible for the U.S. to have a 100% literacy rate by 2050, if not sooner. It’s well worth the expense, as we’ll see our prison rates decrease, while consumer spending rates increase. Educated people generally make better decisions and think first before they act. It’s easier to give a child and book and deal with their barrage of questions once they finish reading it than to let a kid drop out of school and deal with their bad attitude once they’re in jail.
I know naysayers will read this and scoff at my lofty ambitions; perhaps accusing me of arrogance in imposing such goals upon others. I’m not forcing anyone to believe as I do. But, the wealthiest nation on Earth should have much greater objectives than ensuring tax cuts for the wealthiest 1% of its citizens or constructing a wall along the southern border. Our grand ethnic and cultural diversity will allow for it. Our future depends on it. It’s in our nature as humans to wonder and explore – and to dream big.
Filed under Essays
Chief Writing Wolf 