Christopher Columbus – Founding Father? A Hero? Friendly to Natives? OR Christopher Columbus – A Tyrant? A Slave Trader? A Cruel Person? - Bhargav Patel

Christopher Columbus – Founding Father? A Hero? Friendly to Natives?

OR

Christopher Columbus – A Tyrant? A Slave Trader? A Cruel Person?

   Today we celebrate Columbus Day in October every year in honor of the so called “Founding Father of America” / “A great Hero”. But have we ever wondered if any of this is actually true or have we just accepted what our history teachers have spoon fed us. Are the feelings incorporated in little children today for Columbus justified? Is Columbus worthy of being honored as a hero? Are things written about him the truth or are they myths? Let’s analyze.  

                                                               

   Let me start off by tackling the story of Columbus finding America (New World). Christopher Columbus never once in his entire lifetime stepped feet in America. That’s right he never came to the North American Mainland! Crazy right, I know. Christopher Columbus spent his time in the Caribbean islands (Bahamas and Hispaniola) and claiming land for the Spanish Empire. In fact the first verified expedition to North America was done by the Vikings. The Norse expedition led by Leif Erikson was the first to land in Canada. So my question is, why do we give Christopher Columbus the Credit of discovering the “New World”? (Kasum October 11, 2010) (Strauss October 14, 2013)

   Let’s move on to another issue – Christopher Columbus, the hero? Today American children are made to think of good ol’ Chris as some hero figure. But in reality he was a no good back stabbing S.O.B. tyrant. When he landed in the tropics of the Bahamas he met three different tribal native groups - the Lucayans, Taínos and Arawaks. He jotted in his diary that these people were very friendly and peaceful. The Arawaks even helped our Hero in Distress (Chris) repair his boat by doing all the labor. And as token of his f**king appreciation he enslaved them all and claimed the land for the Spanish Empire. (Kasum October 11, 2010) (Strauss October 14, 2013)

                   

   He made the natives work in mines and 2 years after horrible work conditions and no OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) 125,000 of the 250,000 natives died. Yup, this is the Hero we should look up to kids. Christopher Columbus truly represents the Italian-American Heritage that FDR signed into this national holiday (sarcasm)! (Kasum October 11, 2010)

   Let’s flow onto Christopher Columbus as a tyrant and person even worse than most terrorists today. Natives of the islands in Bahamas were so peaceful that slavery was not tolerated and most certainly not practiced. That is until Christopher Columbus became the first person in the Americas to start this horrible tradition of slavery that would go on to cause major problems in the future. He even sold little girls between the age of 9 -11 to older perverted men and even made entries about this in his diary. (Kasum October 11, 2010)

   Things got even worse when Christopher made a second journey to the New World and with him he brought wild mad dogs. He would let loose his savage dogs on any slave who tried to escape and the dogs would eat him/her. Slaves were buried alive or raped. The most horrific thing that almost made me want to kill this guy really slowly and torture in him in the most inhumane way possible was when I found out that Christopher Columbus would feed the Arawak babies to his hungry dogs. I don’t even have words to describe the level of tyranny and satanic deeds this man has done. (Kasum October 11, 2010)

                                             

   Some of you may still find this hard to believe but there have been several documented accounts from followers of Columbus who left him due to his ways. One Such person was Bartolome De Las Casas, who turned to priesthood after seeing what Columbus had been doing.

   There may still be numerous accounts of Columbus’ misdeeds but we wouldn’t want to teach our growing children that what they learned was all a lie. A surely the Govt. doesn’t want to tell the public that they are celebrating and honoring a rapist, murderer and tyrant. But we should spread awareness about this horrible man and remove the National Holiday as he does not deserve it.

Reference:

-        -Kasum , Eric. Huffington Post, "Columbus Day? True Legacy: Cruelty and Slavery." Last modified October 11, 2010. Accessed January 31, 2014. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eric-kasum/columbus-day-a-bad-idea_b_742708.html.

-       - Strauss, Valerie. The Washington Post, "Christopher Columbus: 3 things you think he did that he didn’t." Last modified October 14, 2013. Accessed January 31, 2014. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/10/14/christopher-columbus-3-things-you-think-he-did-that-he-didnt/.

-        -http://www.real-dream-catchers.com/images/columbusarrived2.gif

Penn State Scandal

Penn State Scandal

By Aaron Roberts

In 2011, the media was notified of a scandal that had been occurring for quite some time in the Penn State football organization.  Jerry Sandusky, an assistant coach for the Penn State football team was under investigation for an alleged serial molestation of 8 boys on the Penn State campus.

According to “york daily report” Mr. Sandusky was charged on 45 of 48 counts of sexual assault on a series of 8 boys throughout a span of 15 years.  He was sentenced to 30 to 60 years in jail for his acts and gaining Penn State with sanctions from the NCAA. [1] These sanctions according to Penn State include vacation of all Penn State wins from 1998-2011, a $60 million payment over a five-year period, which will be used to fund programs for child sexual abuse prevention.  The football program is also banned for four years from any kind of post season or bowl games, with a scholarship reduction.  The school must also enter an Athletic Integrity Agreement as well as remain on probation for five years. [2]

Jerry Sandusky

Personally I feel very bad for former coach Joe Paterno, because he was such a phenomenal coach and was put in the wrong spot, yes it is his fault for not speaking up about it, but a situation like that is so very delicate as you can see since Coach Paterno and University President Graham Spanier were both fired.  Obviously sexual assault is a very serious crime and must be dealt with properly, but some of the sanctions issued by the NCAA I felt were unfair, including the vacation of 111 of coach Paternos wins.  I also do not believe it was correct to fire Joe Paterno.  Even though Paterno knew about what was going on, I still do not think it was right to fire Paterno because once Paterno gained light on the situation he called school officials who said they would “look into it”.  It isn’t Paterno’s job to fire Sandusky; it is the University’s job.  While I do think the Universities presidents firing was just, Joe Paterno did his part in reporting the incident to the school, the schools officials are the ones who deserve to be fired because they did not follow up with more investigations, they just left it alone hoping it would go away.  Unfortunately for Coach Paterno he got the bad end of the stick, putting him in the wrong place at the wrong time, which ultimately ended his career, and associating him with this terrible incident.  To me he will be remembered as a great coach and person.

Joe Paterno

[1]. “York Daily Record” last modified November 8, 2012 http://www.ydr.com/ci_19280635

[2]. “Fact Sheet on Penn State NCAA Sanctions PDF” http://progress.psu.edu/assets/content/120803_NCAA_Sanctions_Fact_Sheet_FINAL.pdf Accessed January 31st, 2014

When Did Photoshop Become Sexy? Andrea Roberts

We are constantly inundated by advertisements; they are on our TV, they are in our movies, and across our road ways. You cannot go anywhere or see anything nowadays with out being blasted with 'buy this!' The worst part, for me, is not the ads themselves but the perfection that is pushed through this media and how unrealistic it is. So many men and women compare themselves to these models, and their perfect unrealistic bodies. When did photoshop become sexy? Have we lost touch with what a 'real' woman’s body looks like? Or even a real man's body? All of us have our imperfections but I was taught as a child that those are what make us beautiful.


This has been the topic of conversation many of times between my peers and I, also as discussions in my college courses. I had given up on the media i was so fed up of seeing these women a thin as rails with triple D breasts, until this year when I saw an entire ad campaign from Arie (American Eagles lingerie store) that has banned the use of photoshop on their models!! Hallelujah! The message that Arie is pushing is a wonderful one, especially with a demographic of 18-21 year olds, this is an extremely important one to make to teens and young adults. [1] Seeing such a major ban with such a large company gives me hope, we need to be teaching our younger generations to love the skin that they are in, embrace it! As my mother always told me 'how can someone love you, if you do not love yourself.' this has been my motto for years. It is not an easy thing todo when you constantly have the media telling you what beautiful is.

My second major discovery this month was a man, Daniel Soares who resides in Germany, who has decided to take matters into his own hands and start a graffiti campaign called 'ad-busting', Soares decided to go around Germany and paste stickers onto advertisements. This latest installment 'Hamburg street art campaign' was against H & M's new swimsuit collection. Soares deiced to make stickers of the photoshop tool bar and sick them on the side of massive ads in public places. It went viral in one day! [2] He stated that he was not against the use of overly tan models, which is what H&M had been criticized for with this latest campaign, he wanted to push the use of photoshop and how inappropriate he thinks that it is. 

Both of these anti-perfection advertisements or ad-busting make me realize that its not just me who believes that we are putting our youth at such a disadvantage, its not fair. All ads need to show the average man at 5'9” and weighs 180 pounds an the average woman at 5'4” and weighs 152 pounds because these are their actual average sizes. [3] Or At least people who do not look plastic, at what point do these models just exist on a computer or in makeup and not in real life. 







[1] Ellie, Krupnick. Huffington Post, "Aerie's Unretouched Ads 'Challenge Supermodel Standards' For Young Women." Last modified January 25, 2014. Accessed January 29, 2014.


[2] Daniel, Soares. "H&M Ad-busting." Last modified January 02, 2014. Accessed January 31, 2014. http://danielsoares.me/H-M-Adbusting.


[3] "Answers.com." Accessed January 31, 2014. http://www.answers.com/topic/in-the-united-states-what-is-the-average-height-and-weight-for-a-man-and-a-woman.

The Medias Effect on Gender

By

Jesse Nussman

            From the moment we are born we are taught our gender roles. As we grow older these roles help shape us into what society wants us to be. We have all heard how boys dress in blue and are meant to be tough, while girls dress in pink and are emotional. The list can go on and on; however what is really surprising is how much the media plays a roll in determining our gender roles. First of all I should probably state what gender is in the first place. Gender is the state of being male or female based off of social and cultural differences rather than biological ones. Yet there is also considered a third gender role, which is rarely recognized by society, called androgyny, which is having both male and female qualities.

            Gender roles vary from culture to culture but for the time being I will just focus on those here in the United States. From an early age we learn how males and females are supposed to behave through the media. Commercials and advertisements make this clear. During our childhood we saw commercials with boys playing with footballs, G.I. Joes, and Legos. Those toy ads with girls usually were for Barbies, Easy Bake Ovens, and nail painting kits. Yet this is not only found in toy commercials. When looking at ads for men, we can usually see an emphasis on business man or working class careers, while ads for women usually focus on…well housewives, teachers, etc.

            Advertisements also show us what the “ideal” man and women should look like not just behave. Men must be tall, strong, and in charge. Women on the other hand must be thin (with curves in certain areas) and submissive. The medias gender roles spill into our everyday lives as we are told to ether “man up” or “Act like a lady”. While gender roles state what characteristics define masculine or feminine, there is rarely a single person who encompasses every  “necessary” quality. It becomes necessary to educate others, especially children, about the various aspects of the media and its image of gender roles. Children are especially susceptible to the medias impact with proper analysis one can better understand the media and not take every word or image that is displayed on a television set or on a billboard.

- Blumenfeld, Warren. “Examining Media’s Socialization of Gender Roles.” The Huffington Post. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/warren-j-blumenfeld/examining-medias-socializ_b_3721982.html (accessed January 30, 2014)