To the editor:

The Columbus Day articles remind us that all Americans benefit when we examine historical figures honestly. We gain a more realistic picture of our past when seeing those who shaped history with warts and all. But it is a little amusing when amateur moralists, like a KU senior quoted in a sidebar, sit comfortably enthroned on their early-21st century mores and values in judgment of a late-15th century figure.

Columbus was no saint, but he defied all the conventional knowledge and superstition of his day and attempted to sail around a world so many believed was flat. While evidence exists that others had briefly reached the New World before him, he was the first to theorize that one could “reach the East by sailing West.” Whatever his failings, we can still celebrate his ingenuity and courage.

Our resident moralist wants to burn children’s “propaganda” books about Columbus in the street. Maybe he should climb above the smog of academic propaganda his book-burning creates and take a fresh look at history.

Michael Kanter,

Lawrence