Word: columbus
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...Madrid the Association of Indian Cultures announces that it will mark the occasion with acts of "sabotage." In the U.S. the Columbus in Context Coalition declares that the coming event provides "progressives" with their best political opening "since the Vietnam War." The National Council of Churches (NCC) condemns the "discovery" as "an invasion and colonization with legalized occupation, genocide, economic exploitation and a deep level of institutional racism and moral decadence." One of its leaders calls for "a year of repentance and reflection rather than a year of celebration...
...left, the year comes just in time. The revolutions of 1989 having put a dent in the case for the degeneracy of the West, 1992 offers a welcome new point of attack. The point is the Origin. The villain is Columbus. The crime is the discovery -- the rape -- of America...
...attack does, however, present the left with some rather exquisite problems of political correctness. After all, Columbus was an agent of Spain, and his most direct legacy is Hispanic America. The denunciation of the Spanish legacy as one of cruelty and greed has moved one Hispanic leader to call the NCC's resolution "a racist depreciation of the heritages of most of today's American peoples, especially Hispanics...
That same resolution opened an even more ancient debate between Protestants and Catholics over the colonization of the Americas. For Catholics like historian James Muldoon, the (Protestant) attack on Columbus and on the subsequent missionary work of the (Catholic) church in the Americas is little more than a resurrection, a few centuries late, of the Black Legend that was a staple of anti-Catholic propaganda during the Reformation...
...crusade continues nonetheless. Kirkpatrick Sale kicked off the anticelebration with his anti-Columbus tome, The Conquest of Paradise. The group Encounter plans to celebrate 1992 by sailing three ships full of Indians to "discover" Spain. Similar merriment is to be expected wherever a quorum gathers to honor...