Is multiculturalism a celebration of other cultures or a belittling of our own?
On Saturday in Denver, 600 protestors, of which more than 200 were arrested, blocked the route of a Columbus Day parade for more than an hour. So much for tolerance.
"We have a permit for the parade," Carter Barnard (must be from a matriarchal line!) of the Sons of Italy explained to an AP reporter. "We don't try to stop them from their celebrations."
Columbus uncovered a new world. The Indians didn't discover Europe. Europe discovered them. On our continent at least, no Indian tribe had invented the wheel or utilized a written language by the time the Italian explorer arrived in the New World. Columbus is a hero. The world is better because the the lands he uncovered included present-day America. How you view America usually determines how you view Columbus.
The protestors have every right to view Columbus in any manner they please. They don't have the right to deny others who disagree with them their right to do the same.
Having to use a word like "multiculcuralism" is exactly what is wrong with this country today! there is nothing greater than a country such as the one where we live were it is ok to be or do what ever you want. If people protest a Columbus day parade what is next? And by the way why was a guy quoted from the Sons Of Italy, wouldn't it make more sense to be from the K of C?
Why can't conservatives just admit that Columbus really sucked as a person and he did a lot of crappy things? It's the truth. It doesn't change just because he discovered America and have us the wheel.
I think quite a few people are proud of their country - but doesn't that sometimes fall under your categorization of an ideology that makes people stupid? Just because we are proud of who we are and what we come from don't mean we have to ignore the ugly sores that mar our past, and more importantly, learn from them. Columbus did treat the natives he found as sub-human, something I believe every conservative should find abhorrent. Freedom is based on the principle of inherent human worth - and I'd rather like to think that our culture is one of freedom, and not of just plain cultural pride.
As to the protesters – yeah, they're obnoxious. Protesting rarely solves problems and is most often just a nuisance. They got what they deserved.
Frankly, the protestors deserved to be arrested.
I admit they had a legal right to protest the parade, but they had no legal right to prevent the parade from taking place. It's similar to a pro-life protester physically preventing a woman from entering an abortion clinic AND IT IS ILLEGAL.
Dan- On a totally non-related topic:
I watched Supersize me last night. It’s a documentary about how gross McDonalds is. The director bashes Bush for the no child left behind program, saying that regulations on public schools have forced them to cut out recess which is depriving kids of physical activity.
Bush plays the companionate conservative card and ends up having both sides hate him. Even the Dems. can see problems with strict federal regulations on public schools.
The comments show a lack of study and understanding of a great man's life.
Spain was a Christian country ruled by Christian Monarchs and Columbus was their vessel to bring Christ to the natives and Christianity to large number of peoples who practiced cannabalism and human sacrifice.
Men are not perfect and Columbus was no administrator and abuses were a part of the enterprise. But the effect of Columbus and his voyages forever changed America for the good.
Bopper, you seem to suffer from a fallacy that many today fall for, the fallacy of progress. That progress may be good does justify the means by which that progress was made. If progress not by Columbus and his illicit means, then someone else by licit means. And all would have been better for it, even if progress had taken longer to occur.
Pope Julius II: You are a fool with a very thin grasp of written english. The style of your grammatical errors, in fact, is similar to those of another intellectually challenged person who posts on this site under psuedonyms in order to set up idiotic strawmen of positions he does not understand. So I say to you, DB, your train of thought is as unintelligible as your sentence fragments are ungrammatical. Get a life.
D.B you cant fool anyone in here, this place is loaded with people who, A. Know your an idiot B. can see a fourth grade spelling bee winner when they read them!
Chris Columbus didnt discover America, Al Gore Did!!
