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