Originally Posted By Spree "Today, we celebrate Columbus day for what it accurately is. Columbus did discover the existence of the New World for Europeans who until then, believed the world was flat and ended somewhere in the Atlantic. And, the focus is more upon discovery of the "New World", and less upon Columbus himself. " ...source unknown. ------------------------------------------------------------------ One can Discover something that others already know about if one is part of a group of people who don't know anything about it. Ie; "I just discovered this wonderfull little boutique in the village today" would not be called a false statement by most anyone. No one ever said that Columbus discovered a land devoid of humans and no one has ever denied that other earlier explorers came in contact with the Continent earlier.....but Columbus was the start of the European exploration of the Americas. Columbus Day is not just a US Holiday. It is celebrated in just about every Spanish speaking country on Earth, Italy and Canada.
Originally Posted By StillThePassHolder Well, Ursula, you're in the wrong line of work then, because I'm off today. Gotta love the government. Extra days off makes up for the public sector pay.
Originally Posted By Kennesaw Tom Actually Columbus wasn't the first European to discover this continent, the Vikings did.
Originally Posted By Lisann22 Well, depending on what you believe the Indians walked to this land way way before even that.
Originally Posted By Kennesaw Tom I agree that Native Americans where here first to greet the boat. Thats why I specified European.
Originally Posted By TomSawyer Christopher Columbus was the first illegal immigrant. That should stir thing up.
Originally Posted By DlandDug >>...source unknown.<< <a href="http://www.holidayinsights.com/other/columbus.htm" target="_blank">http://www.holidayinsights.com /other/columbus.htm</a>
Originally Posted By Kennesaw Tom Correction Chris Columbus could not have been an illegal alien as he didn't stay.
Originally Posted By SuperDry Well, at least by today's standard, an illegal alien is any "out of status" individual in the US, regardless of whether they "stay" or not. That is, you're an illegal alien from the moment you hop over the fence (assuming you arrive via a land border) and don't go through a port of entry. Another way to look at it is that "alien" under US law basically means any non-US citizen - it doesn't speak one way or the other toward desire to immigrate. So, Columbus wasn't an illegal alien because there was presumably no law at the time preventing him from being here, not because he didn't intend to stay.
Originally Posted By trailsend Hey, when I clicked on DlandDug's link, it said I was the winner of $50. So, DlandDug, where's my money?
Originally Posted By SuperDry <<< I was kidding SuperDry. >>> I was responding more to the notion that some people have that "all furriners are bad" rather than anything you said directly. I know several people who have the attitude that "we should close the borders to all foreigners" while at the same time having close friends that are aliens (even though you might not guess it meeting them on the street, which is all the difference as far as they're concerned). It's a very thin line indeed between "we need to keep Osama's terrorists out of the US" and "foreigner go home." People have all sorts of crazy ideas, whether it be that we should just seal up the borders of the US, or that entire classes of citizens im the US should face madatory sterlization (there really are people that think this, if you can believe it). These notions need to at the very least be casually opposed, even if by a single post on LP. I was reacting to this general mentality espoused by some rather than your particular comment about Columbus.
Originally Posted By DlandDug >>Hey, when I clicked on DlandDug's link, it said I was the winner of $50. So, DlandDug, where's my money?<< Here, apparently: <a href="http://www.holidayinsights.com" target="_blank">http://www.holidayinsights.com</a> /other/columbus.htm (I will tell you where to PayPal my finder's fee after you've collected!)
