Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - October 2, 1992, Winnipeg, Manitoba John Dafoe focus Winnipeg free press a 7 october Columbus does not deserve All the bad press by Joan Beck Chicago Tribune poor Christopher Hes a european Politi Cally incorrect on a score of counts and charged with a Litany of sins ranging from racism and slavery to Environ mental pandemics of disease and general history cant even get his name it probably was closer to Cristobal the 500th anniversary of Landing in the americas should be an occasion not for Cele bration and commemoration but for according to the american National Council of most of those who had been planning qui Centennial festivities centring on 12 have been shamed or pressured into backing has even renamed Colum bus Day As indigenous Peoples Christopher Columbus the Guy will be Lucky even to get a rarely has anyone fallen so far in the revisionism of a Century the 400th anniversary of Columbus landfall in the new world was celebrated with the great worlds columbian exposition in Columbus was seen As the embodiment of the indomitable human he was the personification of the urge to to reach out to new to go beyond the maps and the far to test the theories of science at the risk of life and he was the astronauts and the Star trek a major mover in the age of Dis covery that literally and permanently opened up a new schoolchildren were taught the lessons of pursuing an idea and persevering in the face of discouragement and great Odds by learn ing about his first the legendary and untrue Story about Queen Isabella financing the expedition by Selling her jew Els gave schoolgirls a rare suggestion of be Hindt dethrone feminist Power in a history dominated by this is the Columbus for whom North americans have named scores of cities and a major several Colleg a broadcasting a motion picture an countless Banks and a space but even before he set out to prove that the world is round by sailing West to it was Well known that Columbus was driven As much by the expectation of Honor and riches As by the Power of a great idea and a thirst for in his three subsequent voyages to the new he proved to be a impulsive and unreliable Leader he hanged rebel Lious members of his ragtag pressed natives into sought avidly for Gold and acted like a Man just this Side of the Edge of As one historian put much else is in the Columbus stories in traditional school he was of the first person to reach the the ancestors of today natives Are generally assumed to have crossed a land Bridge that once existed across the Bering sea about years although there is new evidence of human habitations dating Back to much earlier other european explorers landed on the North american Mainland decades or centuries but they Are lost in history and in but for All his Columbus Doest de serve to be pilloried for All that today revisionists see that went wrong in the last five the world Columbus opened up was not a Prepple Eden peopled by Noble innocents living in ecological Harmony with the in scarred land and with each As some revisionists the hemisphere held Many vastly differing civilizations and Cul a few of them comparable in sophist splendor and Art to european cities of the but they included some of the crudest civilizations Ever known to where torture and human sacrifice were where priests would Cut the beating hearts out of thousands of living victims in a single where Maidens were drowned As sacrifices and losing teams in basketball like games were its interesting to fantasize what might have happened had the aztecs or the May ans beat the Atlantic and tried to impose their culture on Columbus had no Way of understanding the blessings and the curses that would flow from the encounters he began Between the two worlds or the yet to be fully under stood ways disease causing organisms spread among newly exposed aids is the most recent Case in but the interchange Between the Hemi spheres was not As simplistic As smallpox for the americas gave the europeans syphilis and tobacco with All its terrible of As Well As to pumpkins and the europeans brought Christi Anity with All the sins committed in its name and a useful it is of to suppose that if it were not for the new world would have remained in innocent undisturbed by the turbulent tides of history and by the Darker impulses of he the same bursts of new knowl the Renaissance of spirit and learning that drove were surging through out if Columbus had not gone other men would have done so soon and the result is not Likely to have been so its silly to make Columbus the scape Goat for All the ills of the last five or to suppose that the abrasive interface be tween the new and old worlds with its Complex balance Between Good and evil would not have happened had he never set sail to the Columbus need not be hailed As a hero or damned As a but he should be remembered As an agent of incredible his momentous discovery does deserve to be observed on its 500th anniversary for what it really was an unprecedented encounter Between two worlds that forever changed the course of history and the lives of everyone Ever Joan Beck is a columnist for the Chicago brians and bobs Road show and Bob have got James Stewart their act together in the Quebec referendum its not getting rave re in Quebec views but prime minister Brian Roney and Premier Robert Bourassa Are belting out the yes message in loud uni sometimes on the same some times on different the message is simple a yes vote in the october 26 referendum would be a vote for assuring Quebec gains in a renewed federalism a no vote would put Quebec on the Road to Independence and Canada on the Road to the strategy is equally simple pour scorn on the separatists and pour Public Money into High profile mul Roney and Bourassa want the people to understand that federalism is and separatism is the disastrous thus it came about that Mulroney and Bourassa were both on the platform for the official opening last week of the billion Louette aluminium Plant at sept one of the provinces most de pressed the subsidized by Ottawa and Quebec to the tune of More than had done political duty twice pose for cameras Mulroney got some mileage out of the project by announcing it in the midst of his successful 1988 Campaign for Bourassa was at the site in september in the Middle of his successful Campaign for to pose for the Cam eras As he turned the first Spade Ful of then in late september of As the referendum Campaign got they went to sept Isles together to inaugurate the Plant which had been in operation for three months and to sing the praises and profits of they have since Sung the same either Solo or in about a planned program of federally subsidized Public works about Sev eral millions of Federal dollars in interest free Loans to Rolls Royce Canada in Mont real about the inauguration of a new Mel Amine Plant at Lake Megantic and a new research Centre at on a More local the Quebec government has suddenly found million for old age Homes and scattered millions for reception centres in key the no led by parti quebecois Leader Jacques is accusing the Federal and Quebec governments of trying to buy yes and of practising the politics of Bourassa and their with straight reply that they Are merely conducting Normal government activities and telling people the truth about the con sequences of voting wayward anglophones so Quebe cers dont seem to be listening very either to the sound of falling Money or to the dire warn ing of the danger of voting against the Charlottetown the no Side mostly Sovereign lists and nationalists but with a smattering of disaffected liberals and even a few wayward More than holding its a poll late in september gave the no 49 per cent of decided the yes 37 per and 16 per cent that was before the yes Campaign re ally unloaded its big and before the Royal Bank weighed in with its doomsday forecast of economic disaster for All canadians if the country comes but it was after former prime minister Pierre Trudeau bad tempered attack in a cleans and act unite on Quebec master and by Imp Lica on the Charlottetown most close observers including some expect the yes Side to improve its position during the but it looks like a close race to the finish if Quebe cers can be persuaded that a Quebec no would have no More serious consequences this time than the no had last they might Well reject the that what the no Side is trying to do with its Campaign at that its implying that Quebec ers would simply be rejecting a package that int quite Good but that theme cuts two As do Many issues in the referendum Campaign in Parizeau separatists dont just want the package Defeated for they will want the defeat to be pretend As a vote for eventual ind Epen who has been somewhat erratic As Leader of the no admitted As much when he said rejection of the Charlottetown agreement by Quebe cers would open the Road to that statement probably scared More Quebec ers than it and gave Mulroney and Bourassa leave to characterize a no vote As a vote of no right to speak Parizeau has also made himself look bad to moderates by trying to raise the ghosts of English by playing up to francophone extremists on and by urging the Quebec government to penal ize the Royal Bank for daring to produce an analysis of the effects of As though the Bank had no right to free sex that raised some disturbing questions about what life might be like under presi Dent and As the Campaign Prog those questions May become Central if the yes strategists cant sell the Charlottetown Accord on its own they will surely try even harder to sell it on the demerits of Jacques Parizeau Sovereign its hard to remember Why memory is important by Dave Shiflett Scripps Howard news service it is natural enough to laugh when a besieged politician hides behind a faulty Mem hugging it like a child hugs his Teddy Bear in a lightning these Days Bill Clinton is blaming faulty recollection for his varying explanations of How he avoided Mil itary he no doubt Hopes he can hide deep in the memory Hole until the dogs go maybe till but we might be for Given a touch of scepticism regarding Clinton after this is the fellow who has so Viv idly recalled the time As a boy he stood Down his Drunken so far As to make a video about the now he wants us to believe that when it comes to re calling his successful Effort to avoid the he is subject to its not Nice to go around calling people i even if they but its hard to believe that Clinton has forgotten How he escaped the military Quicksand after it was a Brilliant and surely not the easiest Job he Ever be sides the stakes were pretty High for All Clinton knew a failure might have proved fatal to both himself and his eve important political one generally Doest for get the particulars of such important but Clinton says he forgot and we might As Well believe Well have to write him off As a and the presidential Campaign already has enough candidates with credibility in it is True that the modern Era Hast been a Golden age for once know As the Mother of the development of memory was once considered an Art the Only acquired artistic capability and a Means by which humanity could encounter the divine mind these Days it has become a sort of intellectual appendix something whose presence might have once been but now serves no positive anyone who deals with contemporary school officials knows How hostile some peo ple have become toward the re collective Many educators seem to think it is a form of child abuse to ask a youngster to pack his head with or other mental we try our Best to believe but then we keep running into the products of the no facts policy empty headed individuals whose chief asset is to make life easy for the worlds charlatans and Back in the old before people got Wise enough to know that they would be bet Ter off with an empty developing a Strong memory was taken in a Survey of this dark historian Daniel Boorstin in whose mind much information roosts recalls several titans the elder Seneca 55 a famous teacher of was said to be Able to repeat Long passages of speeches he had heard Only once Many years he would impress his students by asking each member of a class of 200 to recite a line of and then he would recite All the lines they had quoted in reverse from last to Saint who also had begun life As a teacher of reported his Admi ration of a Friend who could recite the whole text of these such a Talent would be thought Odd the sort of thing that might get a person top Billing in a Freak but that about what happened Boorstin Points out that books lessened the need to Socrates himself warned of the havoc books would cause this discovery of yours will create forgetfulness in the learners because they will not use their memories they will Trust to the external written characters and not remember of the specific which you have discovered is an Aid not to but to and you give your disciples not but the semblance of truth they will be hearers of Many things and will have Learned nothing they will appear to be omniscient and will generally know nothing they will be tiresome Compa having the show of Wisdom without the weve come a Long Way since Socrates these educators tend to vilify fact filled dismissing much of the enclosed data As Jane director of san Francisco Bay area research underscored the Point in a recent attack on standardized test ing on one teachers Are being asked to teach their students to to forsake superficial coverage of Content for depth and on the other they Are still judged publicly and privately by standardized tests that emphasize isolated facts and Rote school officials flee in panic from the very presence of As if they were carnivorous a Colorado Edu Cator put it this Way right knowledge is doubling every 30 by the year knowledge will double every so i think As schools develop curriculum we have to keep that in perspective if we just teach a certain group of facts when knowledge doubles that none of us would be Able to sustain All that info that line of thinking led another educator to remark that knowing about events such As the holocaust really int that after the holocaust is just another not too Long a person under attack for being ignorant or naive would Duffily print out that he want born these you might As Well have Dave Shiflett is assistant editorial Page editor of the Rocky Mountain news doonesbury by Garry Trudeau 51 its a Long Chip ;