Happy Columbus Day

As one Facebook friend put it: "Today we celebrate the discovery of an already inhabited land."  It is actually a good day to celebrate today's America.  The frontier and the 'savages' are different but the method of invasion is pretty much the same.

Today's Columbuses still assume right of space.  After all, they have more right to be Americans than anybody else.  Never mind they were not the first to get here.  Never mind their grandparents immigrated here from somewhere else.  The rules should be different now.  No one else should be allowed in.

Today's Columbuses still assume right of faith. Of course, Native Americans needed proselytizing.  What did they know of higher powers and spirituality.  Today it's the Muslims who need conversion.  They are all terrorists and do funny chants when they worship.  If we can't convince them to let their women dress like Beyonce we should kill them all.  We certainly should not let them build a social service center wherever they want.

Today's Columbuses assume right of politics.  It's not good enough to agree to disagree. Anyone who disagrees with our politics are idiots.  They must be fascists, socialists, communists, anti-American or any other name we think is bad.  It doesn't matter if we really don't understand the terms.  It's really not about truth anyway; but about grabbing headlines, sewing angst and creating division.

Just like Columbus and the Pilgrims who later followed, today's Columbuses assume themselves the standard of normalcy.  Everyone else must conform. Being gay, defending a woman's right to choose when she is ready to parent, or believing in any theory other than creation is just deviant and intolerable.

We should all be happy we discovered this great land.  Happy Columbus Day.