It is becoming less and less acceptable in our country to celebrate Columbus Day. I know that many claim the reason for this is the many injustices that our ancestors visited on those who lived here before we did. Many that hold this view would have us believe that our country is nothing but the story of one evil thing done to virtuous natives after another.The reality is, many of those who found, and founded, this country did so as a response to what they believed was a call to avoid oppression, to build a country founded on the rule of law and an unprecedented system of justice, simply because they believed God called them providentially to come here and build this country.
One such man was Christopher Columbus. Consider some of the words of Columbus writing about his desire and inspiration for his voyages of discovery:
“At this time I have seen and put in study to look into all the scriptures, which our Lord opened to my understand (I could sense his hand upon me), so that it became clear to me that it was feasible to navigate from here to the Indies; and he gave me the will to execute the idea… I have already said that for the execution of the enterprise of the Indies, neither reason nor mathematics, nor world maps were profitable to me; rather the prophecy of Isaiah was completely fulfilled. And this is what I wish to report here for the consideration of your highnesses.”
“The working out of all things was entrusted by our Lord to each person, {but it happens} in conformity with his sovereign will, even though he gives advice to many…I found our Lord well-disposed toward my heart’s desire, and he gave me the spirit of intelligence for the task. . .Who doubts this illumination was from the Holy spirit? He {the Spirit}, with marvelous rays of light, consoled me through the holy and sacred Scriptures, a strong and clear testimony,…encouraging me to proceed, and, continually, without ceasing for a moment, they inflame with a sense of great urgency.”While it is not in vogue in many circles to talk about Columbus (perhaps as much because of his idea of where his inspiration came from as the au courant revisions of history), I still celebrate this holiday. Primarily because I believe that, in spite of the faults, mistakes, problems, and even flashes of evil that are part of our history, our country was providentially ordained and is the best country that ever was on the planet and I am still proud to be a part of it.
So, what sort of food does someone eat to celebrate Columbus Day?
7 comments:
YOU ROCK. Columbus Day is well under-celebrated! I heard a fantastic story recently about the divine intervention that lead him to be shipwrecked on the shores of Italy and gain audience with Ferdinand and Isabella....all leading to the eventual establishment of our country!
I have trouble celebrating Columbus because of the contradiction of his words and his actions. He claimed divine inspiriation from God, which may have been true. He then enslaved and oversaw the murder of hundreds of thousands of Natives as he fiended for gold.
I think sometimes we pretend the bad didn't happen because we like to think well of ourselves, when we should be learning from the bad with the promise of never letting it happen again. Think of how ridiculous we think holocaust deniers are, we don’t deny the fact that our country is the result of up to 12 million dead natives, we just don’t like to talk about it much...in fact sometimes we celebrate the opposite.
So to celebrate, I suggest lemon's, if you coat them with sugar they won't leave a sour tast in your mouth and they fight scurvy.
With love.
Looks like you got a LePeau comment afterall. :)
Dave baiting should not be allowed.
Lol, ok I was feeling ornery. Apologies if that was harsh.
Naw, not harsh at all. We were just waiting for the comment, so it was funny when it finally came.
And I liked the lemon thing. Unfortunately, much of history, to include the good things that have happened, often occurred in spite of jerks, scoundrels, evil men and good men that sometimes gave into their evil natures.
I don't mean to whitewash history. Sometimes we just need to remember that good things did happen and God uses even nasty people and works through even nasty circumstances to accomplish his will and way. I think it is very fashionable now to focus on the bad that occurred and ignore the good things that occurred.
That being said, most movements throughout history are an exaggerated pendulum swing away from previous thought, attitudes, etc. So maybe we have not owned up to the darker side of our history enough.
All things in moderation, I suppose.
So it seems I was the one baited after all.
Despite my comments, I am a big fan of moderation.
I hope you had a wonderful Columbus Day.
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