I have never been good at debate. While the best Facebook debaters probably spent their educations in classrooms debating Philosophy, English prose, and rhetoric, I was in a classroom having a giant love-fest. Yes, my years of college were spent in Social Work classes, talking about attentive listening, reflecting of feelings, and empathy. While I might not be able to carry on a debate with the best of the best, I can certainly process with someone who has had their feelings hurt in a debate by said Facebook debater. It puts me in a tricky position when there are issues and ideas that I want to express and debate, yet struggle to make my voice heard. For these reasons, I typically avoid a Facebook debate. Until Columbus Day 2010.
I saw a short clip that was beautiful and utterly moving.
Nice, right? How can anyone disagree with that? They aren't asking to have Columbus supporters burned at the stake, just to "reconsider" your ideas about Columbus and what he stood for. It seems so blatantly obviously and I don't understand how anyone could find problems with that. Well, some people did, and it ended up in some nasty Facebook debates. At one point, a guy (who shall remain nameless, mostly because I don't even know who the hell he is) suggested that the people who are sharing that video should pack up their cars with all of their possessions and electronics (tv, cellphone, ipods, etc) and drive off a cliff. I guess he was trying to say that without Columbus, we would not have any of the wonderful shiny things that we have today? His point is lost on me and I certainly don't agree with his logic. I have a hard time crediting Columbus for all of the "luxuries" that we have today. Having said that, I am not opposed to one day allowing all of those luxuries to fall off a cliff (without me in the car, of course). These luxuries of the 21st century are here for us to enjoy at the direct and indirect expense of others. We live in a world that is full of inequalities. In order for us to have these shiny things, we have to have people who make these things. The conditions and environments under which these products are made are not healthy or happy.
There are American and Japanese-owned factories along the border in Tijuana that produce televisions, electronics, and other exciting things for the fat markets in the Western civilization. Most of the workers in these factories, or maquiladoras, are women. They live in horrible conditions, make shit for money, and raise their children alone (their husbands are usually trying to scrape by in the US). The sanitation and infrastructure is awful - dirty, undrinkable water, live power lines in the streets, and shacks built from reclaimed garage doors of rich Americans who don't need them anymore. These factories also don't offer any type of unions for their workers, instead creating a union for the OWNERS OF THE COMPANIES to keep the women from creating a union and being granted rights. (The documentary on these issues can be found here).
While I don't believe that this is a direct result of Columbus, he certainly paved the way for colonization, industrialization and annihilation in the coming centuries. It is a known fact that he murdered and stole from countless indigenous people. I understand that there are lots of groups or explorers that have done this in history, but he is the only one we have a national holiday named after.
All I am asking is that people "reconsider" Columbus Day. If that means having awkward debates that I am ill-equipped for, I will do it.
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