Take a look at this article from The Oatmeal. What are some issues with the myth that Christopher Columbus "discovered" the Americas? Explain. Do you think Columbus should be honored with a holiday in the United States? Why or why not?
58 Comments
Emylee Perkins
10/10/2022 09:10:27 am
Columbus should be honored for his positive contributions for society, but not the negative ones. He discovered the Americas in the sense that he was the first to discover them for his people. I don't see a problem with having a holiday to celebrate his good aspects apart from the bad ones.
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Carter Caywood
10/10/2022 09:18:42 am
I agree with you on celebrating the good from this
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Kennedi
10/10/2022 09:24:18 am
But with all the "good" there was far more bad. So should we celebrate a guy for the small amount of good, to his ghastly amount of pure evil?
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Sean Sapp
10/10/2022 09:29:42 am
I can kind of see the point of view of celebrating the, "good", but he was evil. Would a few good acts, which came about accidentally and out of greed, be a viable excuse for a holiday? I don't think so, he should be shamed for his actions
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Kanyon Tolman
10/10/2022 09:32:44 am
Although he did it a lot more crudely than usual, his bad deeds were technically still mostly legal in his day, so I agree that there isn't too much of a problem celebrating his good deeds and overlooking his cruelty.
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Mariah
10/10/2022 09:14:16 am
Columbus didn't actually discover the America's because the indigenous people were already there and already lived in the places that everybody claims Columbus found. We just told gave Columbus credit for discovering something that was already discovered.I don't think he should get his own holiday because it is basically celebrating something that didn't happen or isn't true.
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Chanci Phillips
10/10/2022 09:19:17 am
I agree that the natives already lived there and Columbus didn’t discover their land.
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Shay Woolf
10/10/2022 09:20:28 am
I agree with this statement.
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Wyatt Nelson
10/10/2022 09:24:05 am
I completely agree that the indigenous people were there already before.
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Kennedi
10/10/2022 09:25:41 am
Not to mention all of his awful crimes against humanity and humanism itself. I just cannot find anything in me to celebrate him.
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Brylee Ganske
10/10/2022 09:30:43 am
I agree, he really just stole that credit and kinda got away with it.
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Travis
10/10/2022 09:33:23 am
I agree he shouldn't get a holiday
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Chanci Phillips
10/10/2022 09:17:06 am
Some issues with the Christopher Columbus myth is that he did not discover the Americas, Leif Ericson sailed 500 years before Columbus did. Columbus also enslaved, murdered, and raped many Native Americans. Columbus should not have a holiday to honor the atrocities he did to the Natives for his own greed.
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Britton Hanson
10/10/2022 09:21:07 am
I agree with your statement.
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Brylee Ganske
10/10/2022 09:32:02 am
I agree, he was a very messed up dude with all he had done.
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Carter Caywood
10/10/2022 09:17:54 am
He is taking credit for something that is already there and is stealing it from the people that were there. It is as if aliens came from space to steal the earth on how we are already here. I believe he should not personally since there was more people to help than just him, so if there is a holiday it should be him and all the others that helped. But overall with this article the author seemed like they just wanted to complain.
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Mariah
10/10/2022 09:19:43 am
I agree with what you said how he is taking credit for something that was already there.
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Britton Hanson
10/10/2022 09:20:10 am
I agree that we shoud not just give him all the credit. I do agree that he should recieve some though.
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Raelynn
10/10/2022 09:21:00 am
I like your analogy about the aliens.
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Wyatt Nelson
10/10/2022 09:26:13 am
I completely agree that if someone is already there then it cannot be discovered but stolen. Very good job on your comment.
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Sean Sapp
10/10/2022 09:31:56 am
I agree with some of that, but the people you are saying helped raped 9 and 10 year old girls. Things like that aren't complaints it's shining light on evil acts. If someone started a chain of raping 9 year olds and was sent to jail it wouldn't be complaining, in fact it wouldn't be enough of a punishment.
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Kanyon Tolman
10/10/2022 09:34:58 am
You make a good point with your parables, with the aliens, but yes, I agree that they should also maybe include some of the others that have discovered it before, helping him make his decision to travel there himself.
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Travis
10/10/2022 09:36:16 am
I agree credit was taken from someone else
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Britton Hanson
10/10/2022 09:18:51 am
Even though he may not have been the first person there, I think we should give him some credit. No body else was going to report their discoveries or tell the world about the Americas. Yes there might have been people there but he did somewhat discover it.
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Carter Caywood
10/10/2022 09:20:38 am
As you said nobody else was going to go there you're right on how someone had to discover it for the others.
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Raelynn
10/10/2022 09:21:46 am
I agree he should have some credit for his efforts.
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Megan Aiello
10/10/2022 09:22:11 am
Yeah! I agree with you! I like your point of view.
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Eilah Foss
10/10/2022 09:30:38 am
I agree with how he did help find the Americas in a way.
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Megan Aiello
10/10/2022 09:18:57 am
I think some issues was that people believed that he found out the world was round and the first to find a new world. I think the issue is that people believe on the myths of what he did, and claiming that he was the first to do things. I think Columbus Day should be honored for but I think people should give out the bad things he did and to spread awareness that he did bad things and he wasn’t the first people to do those things.
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Shay Woolf
10/10/2022 09:21:47 am
I like your ideas about spreading awareness that he did bad things!
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Chanci Phillips
10/10/2022 09:21:52 am
That’s a good point, Columbus did not find out that the Earth isn’t flat.
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Raelynn
10/10/2022 09:19:32 am
As the article states the Americas had already been founded by the natives who lived there, before Columbus was even born. Columbus also just wanted gold. I don’t believe that the United States got this far by playing fair or honoring and following the best people. Andrew Jackson was not the best person but brought our nation forward so we looked the other way. Columbus may not have came to the americas with the best intensions, as he only wanted money, but Americans are heavily fueled by money as a motive. A journey from Europe to the Americas in that day would having been stressing and was brave. I do think he should still get acknowledgment for his journey and the trials he had to go through.
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Mariah
10/10/2022 09:21:55 am
I like how you said that Americans are fueled by money because it is very true but most people don't realize this.
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Kanyon Tolman
10/10/2022 09:38:35 am
I agree that sometimes, some of our greatest breakthroughs were by people that were greedy or cruel, but in the long run they helped push us forward a lot, plus it's human nature to be greedy.
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Shay Woolf
10/10/2022 09:19:51 am
When you falsely give someone credit for something they didn't do or deserve to gain credit for we are putting them on a higher pedistol and prasing him basically for having bad intetions. We gave him a holiday for being a mass murderer and wreaking havoc on an innocent civilization. I do not agree with having a whole holiday for him, yes he might have been the first person from spain at that time to dicover this land mass he did nothing with it but destroy it. I agree with the article when it says it should not called Columbus Day.
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Chloe
10/10/2022 09:21:55 am
You put this message into good words, I like your point.
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Megan Aiello
10/10/2022 09:24:45 am
I agree with you that he should not be honored with the bad things he has done.
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Emylee Perkins
10/10/2022 09:25:00 am
I appreciate your point of view.
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Chloe
10/10/2022 09:20:45 am
To put it as simple as possible, I don’t believe that Columbus should be remembered with the sentiment of a holiday. He was a murderer and a rapist, but it’s okay because he TOTALLY discovered America, right? I don’t think so. Sure, he sailed across the ocean and ran into an unclaimed piece of land. But does that mean that all the injustices that he commuted be ignored? He was looking for India, and messed up. That’s it.
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Kennedi
10/10/2022 09:21:38 am
People (the natives) were already living there and rebelling against Columbus, so he thought that was a perfect reason to go to war. Absolutely not. He is an awful human being and does not deserve any sort of honor. He stole land, money, lives and abused his power in every way, shape and form.
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Chloe
10/10/2022 09:22:52 am
I couldn’t agree more with you.
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Chanci Phillips
10/10/2022 09:23:24 am
I agree that he doesn’t deserve a holiday because of the things he did to the Natives.
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Briella
10/10/2022 09:30:17 am
Keep the Fight! I love your enthusiasm, and I agree with you. He wronged so many people, and hurt so many natives.
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Emylee Perkins
10/10/2022 09:31:12 am
I agree with your opinion, although I think that anyone with power would feel inclined to do the same actions Columbus did, regardless of race. Racism and war has happened in every culture and is evil, but if someone is going to attack your nation, be sexist and racist to its inhabitants, and steal money, land, etc., your nation is going to retaliate by using exactly the same means. That is what the Native Americans and other cultures did as well, fighting back or attacking innocent people who had nothing to do with the initial wrongdoing.
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Wyatt Nelson
10/10/2022 09:22:19 am
I agree that Christopher Columbus should be honored for the things he did. I also think though that it was not the best to go and disrespect the Native traditions and beliefs. I think he did try to learn from the stuff but I also think that he could have tried to learn more from the people. I think it was a good idea to have a holiday because it shows when we found America even though other people had already known about America.
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Briella
10/10/2022 09:26:20 am
Gosh, don't you love Columbus, he's the reason the Americas belong to the white people, because we found it first. Or at least that's what some people want you to believe. Columbus raped, killed, enslaved, and wrongfully governed many of the native Americans, who rightfully had the land they stood on. He wanted their gold, and if they didn't comply he did cruel and unusual punishments. He also made the natives care for him, and let his men do absolutely horrid thing to them. That sounds like the lowest of low to me. I don't like Columbus!
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nicolas
10/10/2022 09:58:43 am
I agree he did some nasty stuff.
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Sean Sapp
10/10/2022 09:27:34 am
Christopher Columbus did not discover the, "New World" there had been natives living there for ages, and the vikings arrived centuries before he did. It is a fact, he didn't even know where he had landed. Columbus absolutely should not have a national holiday, or really any level of recognition besides disgust. Columbus caused the death of 5 million natives and hitler caused the death of 6 million jews, so why should we honor Columbus?
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Briella
10/10/2022 09:37:07 am
That is a very interesting comparison, I had no clue it was that many murdered that many natives. 5 million, those poor family's. He clearly had a very flawed view of people, and was very narcissistic.
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Brylee Ganske
10/10/2022 09:27:41 am
He wasn't the first to find the Americans, many people had made it to the Americans before and that there were also people living here at the time meaning someone had to travel there at some point. No, he was a very messed up and cruel greedy man, and he sold sex slave that where the ages of 9 and 10.
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Eilah Foss
10/10/2022 09:27:49 am
I believe that although Columbus helped start a new beginning for the Americas, I don't think we should celebrate his "heroic activities". His use of colonizing the native's land, abusing his power for slave trade, and still being rewarded for it is unfair. He should be known in our history, but not for the "good" things he accomplished that are masked by cute illustrations in children's books, but rather the factual flaws in his findings and actions. Other holidays typically celebrate either something religious or a person that has greatly reformed the U.S. somehow. I do not believe that Columbus has done his part to acquire his own holiday if there are other people out there doing more by a significant amount.
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Kanyon Tolman
10/10/2022 09:41:43 am
You do make a good point that there are other people who have done greater, but don't get celebrated, however, he is the reason why Europe even started colonizing the Americas, so in a way, some of those people wouldn't even be here to do those greater things without Columbus's "discovery".
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nicolas
10/10/2022 09:54:17 am
I agree, I think that it is wrong that a little kids go and draw cute pictures of columbus
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Kanyon Tolman
10/10/2022 09:30:03 am
Columbus wasn't the first person to "discover" the Americas, since there were several that have before, a few centuries before him. However, he was the first to continue going there and back to his homeland, and actually go and start conquering the land and people. I don't see a very good point why we shouldn't have Columbus day, since he was the person that started the immigration of people from the east over to the west, so technically he is the reason why we're even here.
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Travis
10/10/2022 09:31:39 am
Christopher Columbus did not find the Americas, Leif Ericson did 500 years before Columbus started to sail. Also when he got there there were natives that already lived there. He was a greedy man wanting power and money, so he used them as slaves for whatever he wanted. No I do not think he should be honored with a holiday to his name. He was just a evil man that made an allusion that he was a good man.
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nicolas
10/10/2022 09:43:17 am
After reading this article I learned that Columbus didn't discover that the world was round and that it had been discovered long before his time. I also learned that he wasn't even the first European to go to America. I also learned about Columbus's journal and how he wrote down all of the awful things he did to the people of America. I now don't think that Columbus should be a celebrated person because he was not an honorable person. Everything he did on that voyage was for his and his country's gain. He did not care at all about the Natives because he saw them as weak and easy to conquer. All in all I believe that we should get rid of Columbus Day.
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Carson Vennell
10/10/2022 09:58:58 am
A common myth was that the people of that time thought the earth flat. That was made up by 18th century historians. There was also the fact that Leif Ericson found the New World 500 years before Columbus. Some people think Columbus was a horrible person, some think he was a really good guy. I think for the time, Columbus was morally acceptable. He did some really bad things, yes. Like hauling natives across the ocean and in turn, killing a lot of them. I think He wasn't necessarily bad, nor inherently good. He did some things that were good. He also helped the natives grow, and introduced them to a lot of different new things, like spices, animals, and technology. He did also bring a lot of diseases to the New World, which caused a lot of death. But he didn't know that the natives wouldn't have anti bodies to those diseases, and in turn killed many indigenous people. I am not defending him, nor am I saying his deeds outweigh each other, you can't just look at the bad, or just the good. You have to realize that he did many horrible things, but he also helped the country grow, even if he didn't know he was doing it, causing it go into ups and downs. He wasn't a horrible person, but he also wasn't great. Its like how people take a look at a certain spot in a book, and then don't have any context. They then decide to ban the books.
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Ava
10/12/2022 09:09:07 am
Columbus is a "great" guy, and he "discovered' the America's. I believe that all of his wrong doing out did the "good'. I can't go into much more detail or I will get extremely mad, but Columbus killed 5 million people. Hitler killed 6 million. Yet we praise Columbus, Columbus didn't even know where he landed!
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