Last May I wrote an article in these pages about Christopher Columbus not being the actual discoverer of america, but having enough forethought to understand that what he did discover was significant, unlike the many that reached these shores before him. The article generated a number of emails, both pro and con and in the process gave me lots of food for thought.
Usually, I don’t get emails about articles that I’ve written five months after publication, but last week I received an unusual number of emails from students in several U.S. states taking me to task for my view that Columbus was the only one prescient enough to do something with his discovery of america.
What was unusual was the tone and the wording the students used in their emails to castigate my "eurocentricity". I’m guessing there are not a few "history" teachers in the U.S. who have taken it upon themselves to poison their students’ minds with politically correct claptrap about Columbus’ "crimes".
What wasn’t unusual was that none of my juvenile correspondents were adept at grammar or spelling. But, boy, did they have strong opinions!
Here are some examples: "I for one am outraged with your opinions and the clarity of your statemants (sic)"
"The "so what" is that giving false credit to a man who does not deserve to be known as the founder of the US, nor does he deserve to even be mentioned in the history of america, that’s what so what (sic)."
"If destruction is the truth, then i think Christopher Columbus absolutely deserves to be destructed (sic)."
"You are obviously a person who thinks like all the other generations were taught long before kids today were taught about history (sic)".
"Your Eurocentric views on world history show that you are a person who views history as unchanging. Just because you read this in your history textbook does not mean that you still have to believe it years later."
anyway, you get the idea. We have a whole generation of kids being taught history in a revisionist context. Not only is the actual history debunked, but also in the process the characters of historical figures are assassinated to suit the new politically correct curriculum.
The obvious answer to some of these kids’ criticism of old Chris Columbus is that if it weren’t for him, then you may not be here noshing your MacDonald’s and having opinions infused into your mushy head by an adult who should know better. It’s disconcerting to encounter "kids today who were taught about history" in that there appears to be very little real thought put into their opinions, other than the transparent self-loathing they’ve managed to pick up from their obviously dysfunctional teachers. I am struck by the fact that many children today see history as a fluid series of events that can be changed at will to suit the prevailing winds.
Will our children some day be taught to believe that Hitler and the Nazis weren’t so bad after all, because of Israel’s alleged oppression of the Palestinians? We are already teaching children that use of the atom Bomb against Japan was a racist act that inflicted needless casualties on the hapless Japanese. Never mind that by using this terrible new weapon, Harry Truman put a swift end to the war in the Pacific and in the process managed to save hundreds of thousands of lives, both on the allies’ side as well as the Japanese because it shortened the war by at least six months.
I’m the last one to advocate imposing a limit on free speech in academia, despite the fact that many universities today are a breeding ground for radical leftist doctrine and anti-Semitism. at least we’re dealing with relatively mature students who aren’t so naïve and impressionable that they understand the significance of what’s happening. But when it comes to the point that innocent kids in grade school have their minds poisoned by radical america-hating educators, then maybe that’s something worth looking at.