Haiti

Randy Woodley 10-12-2009
Gurgen Bakhshetsyan / Shutterstock.com

Photo via Gurgen Bakhshetsyan / Shutterstock.com

As an explorer, Columbus was not the first to reach the Western Hemisphere. Native Americans had been here for 10,000-20,000 years, and Vikings and Chinese are among those others who hold prior claims. Even after four attempts, Columbus never realized his goal of finding a western ocean route to Asia. As a “founding father type figure” he never set foot in what is now considered America but landed in the present day Bahamas, Cuba, and Haiti. 

As a Christian example he enacted terrible cruelties to friendly natives: assuming unlawful rights of authority; robbing and subjugating whole nations of their freedom and entire capital; allowing his men to rape, murder and pillage at will; and deliberately leading the way for the genocide of millions, considered by many to be the worst demographic catastrophe in recorded history.

So why do Americans celebrate Columbus Day?

Cesar Baldelomar 4-03-2009
Jesus, who was a Palestinian Jew living under Roman occupation, preached a message that was anti-state and religious imperialism.
Caitlin Beidler 2-05-2009
Last week, I read this quote by John Piper: "...the weeping of the saints at the loss of precious souls is, paradoxically, the weeping of joy in God." I believe that is what God wants for me and fo
Rose Marie Berger 4-01-2008
An interview with immigrant and author Edwidge Danticat.
Jim Rice 4-01-2004
The Bush Doctrine strikes again.

Two-hundred-seventy Haitian refugees—including children—have been held for more than six months in a maximum-security prison

Clergy, labor, and civil rights groups protested with employees outside a Miami nursing home after the management filed objections with the National Labor Relations Board...

Jim Wallis 11-01-1994

What if, in front of the whole world, the U.S. pledged unequivocal U.S. support for the restoration of democracy in Haiti?