Happy Columbus Day!

Today is Columbus Day – a day we celebrate a great explorer whose daring voyages across the Atlantic ignited the Age of Discovery. But the left hates this national holiday, and it has been attacking Christopher Columbus for many years now. It is sad and astonishing how we have deconstructed and denigrated Christopher Columbus. 

I remember the attacks on Columbus that occurred during the Reagan Administration. But the Gipper unapologetically defended Columbus, calling him, "a brilliant navigator, a fearless man of action, a visionary who opened the eyes of an older world to an entirely new one."

Reagan added that Columbus, "personifies a view of the world . . . not merely optimistic, but scornful of the very notion of despair."

In many cities and on many college campuses today, Columbus Day has been replaced with "Indigenous People's Day." Not surprisingly, President Biden took a cheap shot at Columbus in his official White House proclamation last year. 

Biden condemned the "painful history of wrongs and atrocities that many European explorers inflicted on Tribal Nations and Indigenous communities" and the "wave of devastation," including "the introduction and spread of disease." 

Interestingly, whenever conservatives express concerns about illegal aliens spreading diseases, the left immediately accuses them of "xenophobia."

But here's the real irony: The reason Columbus has been turned into a villain is that the left is judging him by today's progressive standards instead of the context of the age in which he lived. 

And it's even more pernicious than that. If one judged the "indigenous people" of the 1400 and 1500s by today's progressive standards, they wouldn't fare well at all. There was much about the indigenous cultures of that time that would be very offensive to modern sensibilities. 

The left is always talking about the myths of American history. Well, the idea of the noble indigenous people being peaceful, serene and in tune with nature is absurd. For example, on the island where Columbus landed, one tribe engaged in cannibalism. Another tribe engaged in slavery. 

So, the left is clearly applying a double standard to Columbus, but that's nothing new. If the left didn't have double standards it wouldn't have any standards at all!

But this is much more serious than just judging historical figures by today's standards. I can't say it enough, my friends: This is all about deconstructing the idea of America. 

The left wants your children to hate the country of their birth. To accomplish that, they have to make anyone associated with the beginning of America into an evil, white supremacist, slave-holding villain. 

So, please use this holiday as an opportunity to talk to your children and grandchildren about the real Christopher Columbus and the world he lived in.