"1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue." We've all heard that saying. We've been taught it in school ever since we were children. But you know what we were never taught in school? They say Christopher Columbus was the man who founded America. But, really, wasn't it the Native Americans who founded America? (Besides the fact that Leif Ericson and his crew made it to America before Columbus did. It's just that they didn't make lasting settlements there.) Christopher Columbus just took it from them by force. Not only that, he murdered, tortured, enslaved, and kidnapped thousands of Native Americans. According to the article "Columbus, the Indians, and Human Progress," during his first of 4 voyages to America, he rounded up 500 Native Americans to take back to Spain with him. En route, 200 died. They lived in extremely cramped quarters in their own urine and feces on the journey to Spain. Disease, hunger, and thirst killed that 2/5 of those passengers. The ones who arrived alive were sold as slaves. Columbus was sure there was gold in America, even though there wasn't any, so he went back. According to the article, "They ordered all persons 14 years or older to collect a certain quantity of gold every 3 months. When they brought it, they were given copper tokens to hang around their necks. Indians found without a copper token had their hands cut off and bled to death." Since there was no good, the Native Americans were sentenced to torture and death, and they could do nothing about it. The Native Americans tried to fight back, so the Columbus's crew took prisoners and hanged them and burned them to death. Many Native Americans took their own lives. "The Spaniards thought nothing of knifing Indians by tens and twenties and of cutting slices off them to test the sharpness of their blades." One account was that 2 young boys approached the Spaniards once, and the Spaniards beheaded them, just for fun. And it was all for nothing. "For all the gold and silver stolen and shipped to Spain did not make the Spanish people richer. It gave their kings an edge in the balance of power for a time, a chance to hire more mercenary soldiers for their wars. They ended up losing those wars anyway, and all that was left was a deadly inflation, a starving population, the rich richer, the poor poorer, and a ruined peasant class." So see? Columbus was not a hero. He didn't even found America; the Native Americans did. He didn't give our country a good start, and he did way more damage than good. He even ruined his own country for a long time with what he did to ours. We definitely should not have a holiday for him, and we absolutely should not be teaching our kids in schools about what a hero he was. He was comparable to Osama Bin Laden, Saddam Hussein, Adolf Hitler, and many other disgraces of the world.
So why am I telling you this? Because it's crazy what kids are taught in schools about patriotism and how our country is the best in the world. Until I was probably 12 years old and said something to my parents about it, and they set me straight, I thought America was the only free country in the world. How sad is that? I had been taught in school that our country was the best in the world, and that Columbus was a hero, and all these crazy things that simply are not true. At a very young age, I was forced into this sense of false patriotism that was a form a brainwashing by school systems. Every student in my classes since I can remember were forced to recite the Pledge of Allegiance before school started every day. Now, if that's not a form of brainwashing kids into false patriotism, then I don't know what is. I mean, it's great to love your country. But are our children being brainwashed into loving their country before they can even really learn anything about it? Are we essentially forcing them to pledge allegiance to a country before they are even able to understand what the words mean or make up their minds as to whether or not they want to pledge that allegiance? I mean, let's face it, when I was a kid, I recited the pledge a million and one times. But not once did I actually understand what the words meant. I was just mindlessly reciting words my teacher was essentially forcing me to recite. Also, are we teaching our kids a bunch of lies and making murderers into heroes, just because we want our country to seem like it had a good, valiant start? What other lies are our kids being taught in school? In what other ways are they being brainwashed? What other things are they being forced to do? In what other situations are they only hearing one side of the story? And I feel like I need to say that, by teaching children that Columbus's efforts were valiant, but at the same time teaching children that what Hitler did was unforgivable, we're essentially teaching people that it's ok to murder, torture, enslave, and kidnap other people, as long as we're the ones doing it, and as long as the victims are people other than ourselves. We're basically teaching our kids that, when other people do it, it's wrong, but when we do it, it's good. That's one hell of a double standard. We're teaching children that we're superior to everyone else in the world.
So why don't we start teaching people the truth, instead of these crazy lies about Columbus being a hero? We can still be proud of our country as it is today. We can still be happy that the Europeans settled America, thus giving us the home we were born and raised in. People need to know the truth. And we should re-name Columbus Day "Murder and Torture People Who Are Different From Us Day." Or we could just do away with it. Or maybe we should just stop celebrating Columbus and just celebrate the 4th of July. Afterall, that is the day we celebrate the founding of America. And I don't really know what we should do about the Pledge of Allegiance. I mean, it's nice to teach your kids to love their country and be devoted to it, but that's their decision to make when they're older. Just because someone grows up and doesn't like their country doesn't mean there's a problem. If kids don't recite the pledge, it doesn't mean they'll grow up to hate their country and become internal terrorists. It also doesn't mean that they'll forever love their country and never question it when they become adults and start seeing all the corruption of America. Some of them will, probably because they've been brainwashed to the point of no return. (I like to call these people rednecks.) But it's just ridiculous. Teach kids the truth about America, and teach them that they should be good people and have sense of devotion to their country, but don't have them mindlessly recite a bunch of words which they don't even know the meaning of. It's pointless, except to attempt to brainwash them.
Anyway, take a look at this video. It's short and sweet, and it's HILARIOUS. My professor in my previous sociology class showed it to the class, and we laughed our butts off. You guys really do have to check this out. It's about the recital of the Pledge of Allegiance by school children being a brainwashing method. Here is the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=618U-_8o31k.
Don't be this guy. Don't do it.
I thought this was interesting.
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