Thank You, Chris

Regarding Jan Breslauer’s article about counter-Columbus cultural activities (“Happy Quincentennial, Christopher Columbus! . . . You Should’ve Stayed Home, Cristobal Colon!” Oct. 11):

I can understand that Native Americans (who probably aren’t natives anyway, just less-recent immigrants via the Bering land bridge) are upset about the traditional version of the “discovery” of America. It’s right that they remind us that there were people living here before Columbus arrived, people with valuable cultures that have been and are continuing to be lost.

But what else could have happened? The discovery was inevitable, and so was the conquest: How could these sparse, technologically backward people, sitting on a vast amount of habitable land in a temperate climate, with tremendous natural resources, possibly hope to repel the Europeans, who were under strong population and cultural pressures to emigrate?

America-bashing is popular among ethnic artists. Blacks, Latin Americans, Native Americans and some other minorities have had a bad deal, and we should work to correct that and give these people a helping hand toward economic, political and cultural equality.

But we shouldn’t forget America’s strengths. Post-Renaissance Europe had one of history’s great flowerings of culture and art; our mainstream U.S. culture is closely connected to that tradition, bringing us great cultural riches.

I hope that on Columbus Day, in addition to remembering the costs in human suffering of the development of America, people remembered the benefits. We have a great culture and a great country.

DEAN WALLRAFF

Shadow Hills