I've made it a point in the modern world of revisionist history and the cultural cancelling of our past to celebrate Columbus Day every year since Metalcloak's move to Northern California in 2009.
Columbus, in my humble opinion, is a man to be revered. Let's be brutally honest here, there was no-one at the time with even half a notion to try what he was daring to try.
Here is a bit of Columbus History I asked Grok in it's own irreverent way to put together this morning...
Christopher Columbus, the man with a dream and a questionable grasp of geography, set sail with the audacious plan to reach Asia by going west from Europe. Against the odds, and against what most folks of his time thought was sheer madness, he found not the spice markets of the East, but something far more unexpected: the Americas. His voyages, starting in 1492, weren't just a series of lucky stumbles; they were the result of Columbus's unique blend of persistence, salesmanship, and just enough navigational know-how to keep his ships afloat. After being turned down by multiple monarchs, he finally convinced the Spanish Crown to finance his wild goose chase, turning his vision into a reality that reshaped the globe.
Columbus wasn't your average sailor; he was a visionary with the tenacity of a barnacle. While his calculations about the Earth's size were off (by quite a bit, actually), and his route to Asia was a geographical myth, his stubborn belief in his westward path led to a monumental discovery. This wasn't just about planting flags on new shores; Columbus's journeys sparked the Age of Exploration, setting off a chain reaction of European adventure, ambition, and, well, let's call it "cultural exchange" on a grand scale. His adventures might have begun with a quest for spices and silks, but they ended up weaving a new thread into the fabric of world history, one that linked the Old World with the New in ways no one could have fully predicted.
Had Columbus not persisted... had he not finally achieved the financing to sail three very small boats (the Santa Maria was no bigger than today's racing yachts) across an unfriendly ocean to a completely unknown destination... had he not pushed the boundaries of what was considered possible (or sane) in his day... we (you and I) would not be here. Period.
Sure, maybe at some point, someone would have found lands across the Atlantic that would have led to their settling. And sure, history would have played a completely different hand... but, to be sure, you would not be reading this email and there would probably not be a Metalcloak proudly building products for your 4x4.
So... we celebrate our past. Our history makes us what we are today. We learn from our history both the good and the bad... we learn what to embrace and what to avoid. But we don't destroy it. We don't cancel it. We don't take down statues just because we are offended.
And we remember times when men were real men, full of courage, doing sh*t that none of us today could even conceive.
God Bless Columbus. God Bless America. God Bless You.
