Guess what time it is...

It's Monday, October 14th. It has come to the point in the year when we bash of Chris Columbus. This is what Columbus did...

1. He did not discover America, neither did the Vikings or Native Americans. America was discovered tens of thousands of years ago by hunter gatherers from the Asian continent. We don't know exactly where they came from but they did spawn the great civilizations that would eventually populate North and South America.

2. He did not start slavery in the Americas. Spain already had slaves from the African continent 500 years, at least, before Columbus was born. It was a natural extension of an already existing institution. The Dutch, British, French and Spanish all had a hand in the African-American slave trade. You can't blame one man for the sins of a whole continent.

3. Columbus did not discover a direct route to Asia. While his mission was a failure, he did find two new continents to explore, yes, and to exploit. It was generations of men who followed that led to the European expansion.

We should really leave the dead man alone. Columbus Day is just a holiday in October to give the banks and federal employees a day off. Deal with it!

What did Columbus do? Why, he sailed the ocean blue in 1492...

Division

Everyone talks about division. It’s a fact of our current human condition. We love to divide individuals into groups with similar characteristics. We conveniently ignore that we are all the same species and that is the most important factor we share. It does not matter if you are white, black, or yellow. It means little if you are Anglo-American, Afro-American, Sino-American or any other hyphenated description you want to invent. You would only be different if you were the “Man from Mars” in Blondie’s Rapture. It makes little difference if you are Christian, Jew, Muslim, atheist, pagan or worshiper of the Great Individual Raindrop. Why does it matter? All it does is separate us! I am sick of gay, lesbian, bisexual and x/y chromosome confusion syndrome.  Of course, this would not be complete without normal, abnormal, crazy, “different,” or strange. Do we really have to continue this?

Of course, if you are an American, it all started when “all Men are created equal” was put to paper.  Are we illiterate enough to not understand what that means? Well for those who don’t know, the Enlightenment use of the term Man or Men refers to the human species or Homo sapiens. It did not mean the male of the species. The Founding Fathers had a vision and knew what they were doing. They were planning ahead. Jefferson believed it! He knew that the time was not right to fully force the belief of equality for all. It took the Civil War to knock down a barrier that kept slaves from being equal to their masters. It took Women’s Suffrage to remove the barrier that kept women from being equal to men. It took nearly five decades for the full recognition that all humans are equal.

 Yes, we are still having a few issues. The new issues are not easily discernible. Gender identity issues come to mind. You can no more tell the difference between gay and straight than you can tell the difference in German and Austrian. You can’t tell by looks. You can’t tell by language. You can’t even tell by their family name. So really, what difference does it make? NONE! You treat the individual as an individual and carry on. Why are we really concerned? Yes, I am ignoring the social conventions about differences, but those aren't real! They are something we made up. A proof in “made up” is the equality of animals to Man. No matter how you put it, there is and always will be a difference.

Okay, I’m a dreamer. What can I say? We will eventually get to a point in our existence that division is no longer desirable. I can tell you exactly when that is going to happen. It will happen the day we play out the opening ten minutes of The Day the Earth Stood Still. That monumental event will remove any division within the human species. We will finally be knocked off our individual pedestals and stand as one species on Earth.  Your neighbor of a different religion, ethnic background, and sexual orientation will be standing next to you and you both will understand there is no division.

VA comments on shutdown

You have seen how the politicians have pointed fingers at those they think is to blame for the government shutdown. The Veterans Administration has done the same. The VA's website blames Congress. I believe it is inappropriate for a government agency to comment on who's to blame for political made on the hill. It is not the place of any government agency to officially blame any agency.

VA Appropriations Lapse Plan