Let’s take back Columbus Day
Why does an embarrassed, guilty silence descend on the nation each Columbus Day? Because people don’t know how to celebrate the blossoming of Western civilization over the past five centuries without seeming to rejoice in the misery of American Indians. Modern historians have distorted the facts, finding fault with Columbus, America, and Western civilization for evils and tragedies that they did not create—while extolling mysticism and tribalism, which actually are the causes of history’s darkest chapters.
It was Western philosophers, scientists, statesmen and businessmen who gave mankind the first moral and practical alternatives to such age-old scourges as slavery, racism, warfare, and disease. I’m talking about men like Aristotle, Newton, Locke, Pasteur, and Rockefeller. I’m talking about the scientific method (including medical research), individualism (including the concept of individual rights), and capitalism—all of which combined to liberate humanity from the miserable,