Gratuitously, given that Independence Day is around the corner, I read Christopher Colombus: Dead White Male, a commentary in Charles Krauthammer’s Things That Matter.
“If we are to judge civilizations like individuals, they should all be hanged, because with individuals it takes but one murder to merit a hanging. But if one judges civilizations by that they have taken from and that they have given to the world, a non-jaundiced observer…would surely bless the day Columbus set sail.”
Oh, yes! The United States has screwed up a lot. The American Indians, slavery, internment camps, our current president … are legitimate tragedies (okay, the last is hyperbole, and the jury is still out) but there was also some good done in those 241 years – not the least of which is intervention into two world wars. Just as I hope not to be judged by my worst moments, nor should the United States of America.
It occurs to me... 