Here’s To the Father of Genocide

One of the best things about working for Spaceley’s is their wonderful holiday policy. We get all sorts of days off, including Columbus day. Hence, blogging at 6:50 without a care in the world. Until I hear Stinky and the Moth, that is.

Speaking of Columbus, were you aware that over the last couple of decades, many Americans, especially on college campuses, have come to dub him the Father of Genocide? Here’s a pretty good example of the mindset of the folks who want to cease the celebration of Columbus Day.

Could I go on a tangent, giving counterpoint to each of these arguments? Perhaps. History ain’t my strong suit. However, Columbus day always reminds me of this revisionist view of history… and a wonderful book.

In an interview, Mary Doria Russell had this to say:

I started writing The Sparrow in 1992, which was the 500th
anniversary of Columbus's landing in the New World. That year, there was a lot
of historical revisionism going on, condemning the Europeans for their terrible
sins and mistakes, as though they had set out from Spain intending to wreck
Indian cultures and destroy whole populations. I thought, "Wait a minute
here--those guys have been dead for 470 years! It's just not fair to hold them
to standards of cultural sensitivity and appreciation for diversity that we only
pay lip-service to at the end of the 20th century."

The Sparrow is a great sci-fi book. It’s also a great philosophy book, for those of us who aren’t so great with philosophy.

I’d love to look through it again today, on Columbus Day, but both the boys are home. And since I’ve started writing this diddy, they’ve decided to arise and challenge the day.

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