Truth.

Some view Trump and Trumpism as an aberration of what America is. Yet, nothing can be further from the truth. Trump's agenda is not new. Trump is evil, but he is the product of the corruption found in America spanning centuries. During the early history of America, the Constitution designed my people as 3/5s of a person and women didn't have the right to vote. Even as late as the 1960's, in some states, a woman couldn't own a bank account (or get a loan) without a man's permission. That's illogical and wrong, but that was the law in many states back then. America itself was established on the enslavement of black Africans and the genocide of indigenous peoples. Again before 1965, many people restricted non-whites from coming to America. During the late 19th century and early 20th century, Chinese people weren't allowed to go into America. Even the Supreme Court once condoned Jim Crow apartheid, racial slavery, and Japanese American internment. During this year alone, the Supreme Court has once again endorse evil policies like upholding the Muslim ban, harming unionism, etc.

Today, Trump has banned certainly majority Muslim nations from sending its citizens into America for immigration. Back then,  internment camps housed Japanese Americans including some German plus Italian Americans. Today, many undocumented immigrants, including children, have been detained at internment camps, which is cruel. Back in the 1920's, Klanspeople marched in the thousands in Washington, D.C. Black people experienced lynchings and police brutality back then, and today, many black people still, unfortunately, experience brutality and racism. Recently, in 2017, neo-Nazis and neo-Confederates marched in Charlottesville, Virginia to spread racism, anti-Semitism, and bigotry. Not only has Trump praised these racists, but he has called on the police to be abusive against suspects. From Trump's disgraceful response to Puerto Rico (during the aftermath of Hurricane Maria) to his support of the liar Kavanaugh, we face a continuation of the reactionary threat to our human liberties. We have to be focused and vote. We are concerned about real issues like education, healthcare, our civil liberties, our communities, and the preservation plus the strengthening of our social safety net. Therefore, this is our land too, and we have the right to have justice and freedom.

Today is undoubtedly a unique day. While many people on this day praise a war criminal, others appreciate the heroic resistance of the indigenous peoples of the Americas against imperialism. Christopher Columbus was an imperialist, a supporter of racism, a supporter of rape, and he allowed his vindictive allies to murder innocent Native American human beings. He worked under the Spanish monarchy to organize a trade route in expanding European colonialism and imperialism worldwide. He used religious deception plus lies as a way for him to advance his goals too. Columbus was born in Italy. He established four voyages to go to the Caribbean. Christopher Columbus never traveled into the continental United States of America. During his first trip, he came into the Bahamas and then Cuba where he found the Lucayan, Taíno, and Arawak Native Americans human beings.

Michele de Cuneo, who was part of the 2nd voyage, admitted in a letter that Christopher Columbus kidnapped a Native American Carib woman and his crew raped the woman with a rope, etc. After an attack by more than 2,000 Native Americans, Columbus had an underling, Alonso de Ojeda, bring him three Native Americans. Columbus ordered the Native Americans to be publicly beheaded. Ojeda also ordered his men to grab another Native American, bring him to the middle of his village, and "cut off his ears." Columbus enslaved more than one thousand human beings from Hispaniola. Columbus lusted for gold and threatened the indigenous people about it.

By 1548, only about 5000 Native peoples lived in Hispaniola (which was a result of warfare against them, harsh enslavement, diseases like smallpox, etc.). Caribs and Taino peoples suffered tyranny as a result of European imperialism. Columbus also ordered the whipping of even Spanish people including women in graphic terms. Many of them were lashed with whips too. Many returning settlers and sailors lobbied against Columbus at the Spanish court, accusing him and his brothers of gross mismanagement. Columbus had some of his crew hanged for disobedience. He wanted to enslave Hispaniola indigenous peoples for economic purposes. Other reports show Columbus doing other grotesque actions against women and men that I can't mention here. It's that graphic. Christopher Columbus was a known slave owner. In just two years under Columbus's governorship more than half of the 250,000 Arawaks in Haiti were dead. Therefore, Christopher Columbus was no hero. We shouldn't celebrate this wicked abuser of humankind.

We should celebrate the courage of the indigenous peoples instead on this day. That is why many American cities have renamed this day from Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples Day. It isn't surprising that Trump has praised Columbus (who allowed his soldiers to murder, rape, and harm Arawak, Taino, and other indigenous human beings. The Arawak resisted occupation too courageously) since Trump is in league with authoritarianism and xenophobic far-right nationalism instead of progressive human liberation. Columbus was a notorious terrorist and a disgraceful person. On the date of October 8, 2018, we express our further commitment to freedom and justice.


By Timothy