Christopher Columbus

To the "politically correct," the 500th anniversary of the discovery of America is no cause for celebration. And even before 1992 began, their protests resulted in a significant victory: the naming of an American Indian as co-grand marshal in the 1992 Rose Parade. Parade officials caved in to critics, who denounced the tournament committee when it first named as grand marshal Cristobal Colon, a direct descendant of Christopher Columbus. But the actual target of those critics was not simply Colon; it was Western civilization.

The politically correct view is that Columbus did not discover America, because people had lived here for thousands of years. Worse yet, it's claimed, the main legacy of Columbus is death and destruction. Pasadena's vice-mayor, Rick Cole, branded Columbus's descendant "a symbol of greed, slavery, rape, and genocide." And one Indian leader likened the celebration of Columbus's arrival to a celebration of Hitler and the Holocaust.

Did Columbus "discover" America? Yes, in every important respect. This does not mean that no human eye had been cast on America before Columbus arrived. It does mean that Columbus brought America to the attention of the civilized world, i.e., the developing scientific civilizations of Western Europe. The result, ultimately, was the United States of America. It was Columbus's discovery for Western Europe that led to the influx of ideas and people on which this nation was founded and on which it still rests. The opening of America brought the ideas and achievements of Aristotle, Galileo, Newton, and the thousands of thinkers, writers, and inventors who followed. What they replaced was a way of life dominated by fatalism, passivity, superstition, and magic.

Prior to 1492, what is...

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...m: it will continue to create even more racism. As Ayn Rand observed in "Global Balkanization" (The Voice of Reason), "the advocacy of 'ethnicity' means racism plus tradition, i.e., racism plus conformity. There is no surer way to infect mankind with hatred--brute, blind, virulent hatred--than by splitting it into ethnic groups or tribes."

The immigrants who built this country in the 18th and 19th centuries came here not to wallow in "ethnic pride" nor to repeat mindlessly the ways of their ancestors. They embraced the essence of Western civilization. They were "at least implicitly" individualists.

Individualism is the only alternative to the racism of political correctness. We must recognize that everyone is a sovereign entity, with the power of choice and independent judgment. The values of self-esteem and Western civilization should be proudly proclaimed.