Acknowledge Columbus

Hip Hop rapper/executive Shawn “JAY-Z” Carter once quipped, “The only Christopher we acknowledge is Wallace” alluding to his slain fellow rapper and friend Christopher “Notorious B.I.G.” Wallace. Nevermind the fact that he has supported in apparel and song the “virtues” of Ché Guevera or decried policeman, this leftist line of thinking is supremely toxic.

Christopher Columbus had his foibles. He allegedly was cruel to non Catholic people. He treated the people he found in the New World with disdain. These should not be dismissed or overlooked. What, however, should be celebrated is the fact that Columbus explored a land that had been completely foreign to most Europeans.

While some explorers may have briefly encountered the place which would one day be America, Columbus underlined and set in bold the expedition of a lifetime. He generated enough favor in order to launch an adventure which would lead to the powerhouse that is the United States.

Leftists grumble that Columbus’ trip led to the carnage and slaughter of inhabitants of the continent. But what were they doing before he even ensured that other human beings lived there (without allegedly setting foot on land)? These primitive savages essentially scalped themselves and ran amok. They fought each other over land and resources that were largely underdeveloped. While some tribes had found peace, still others thirsted for war among groups.

The touch of civilization that the idea of Columbus represents extended to the Founding Fathers, the abolitionists, and the great industrialists, often maligned as “robber barons.”

Without the thought of Columbus, there would be no road to prosperity that millions of Americans enjoy today. This land would still be uncultured and uncivilized. Columbus ought to be championed not for his faults but for his rigorous and robust character in seeking out and finding the new, the now, the next.

The statues of Christopher Columbus ought to stand erect against the elements of not just weather but leftists who seek to damage or destroy them. Columbus was a great figure because of his notions of discovery and expanding the field of possibilities. When he embarked on his trips to the New World, he didn’t know what he would encounter. He used his wits to find what few on the European continent could have ever imagined.

By being first to open the trade routes to the Caribbean and the Americas, he ought to remain at a level of celebrity and nobility that justifies his placement in history.

With all of his navigational credits, Columbus statues ought to be protected and built all over the United States. In a time where we have Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, two Americans who are exploring the spatial frontier, it is because of Columbus that these men can venture off past this blue orb. None of it would be possible without the exploratory skills of Mr. Columbus.

Ships built centuries ago represent the initial placing of rocket ships that will break the bonds of the Earth. Because of Columbus, it is not a fantasy resting in the mind like some fever dream. What these women and men are doing at SpaceX and Blue Origin is rooted in the spirit of Columbus. He lives on in the adventurous souls of those who wish to keep going with the idea that humans can go further past our constraints.

So for mixed rappers to spout that capitalism was made up recently, or that a brutal murderer like Guevera ought to be recognized as a folk hero, it’s important to view the line between vicious slavers like the members of the Confederacy and a hero like Columbus.