[Wikipedia-l] Lir and Christopher Columbus

[Poor, Edmund W]

Sean Barrett wrote:

> Lir is now at work on the VANDALISM IN PROGRESS page, deleting any
> references to herself, while accusing all other editors of the
> Christopher Columbus page of being vandals.
> 
> But far be it from me to suggest that anything be done about it!  I've
> learned my lesson.

Lir is not a "vandal" -- but a contributor who disagrees with other contributors. I just spent an hour yesterday trying to fix up the Columbus article myself -- trying to minimize any addition of my own POV and focusing mostly on grammar, sequence and neutrality. I haven't even taken a look at this morning's version yet, though.

I read all Lir's talk page comments. Nothing anti-Wikipedia there. She says Columbus was a slave-trader, and she won't shut up about it; well, as I suppose LDC would agree, we have free speech on the talk pages. Also, I did a little googling and found 2 online sources that say Columbus transported slaves from the New World to Europe. Unless he "donated" the slaves to a museum or something, he probably got paid -- and slave transport + got paid = slave trader.

I had never heard about this in grade school or even high school. I always thought Columbus was a pure, noble adventurous hero -- who well deserves an annual holiday. But if he kidnapped people into slavery, I gotta downgrade his heroism at least one notch (on my own personal list of historical figures).

And the article should say that "some sources" indicate that Columbus initiated the [[Transatlantic slave trade]].

I'll see if I can straighten this out. 

Ed Poor
Amateur and Utterly Unofficial Self-appointed Neutrality Umpire