This year Columbus Day is observed on Monday, October 8th. While enjoying your celebratory Columbus Day Italian pasta and Chianti, why not ponder a bit of history? Here’s a salute to Norwegian Leif (pronounced “lafe”) Erikson, the original discoverer of North America:
In Celebration of Leif Erikson’s Discovery of North America
In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue.
But nearly 500 years before, Leif Erikson came to North America’s shore.
He soon sailed home and gave up his claim,
So Columbus received all the wealth and the fame.
Columbus got the movies and the specials on TV,
But he also brought back tobacco and VD.
And Leif Erikson . . . didn’t.
~By Kristine Stephenson Hunt
Bill Gram-Reefer is Editor & Publisher of Halfway To Concord, founded in 2004. Halfway To Concord is the leading online source for community-driven political news, events, and opinion for Contra Costa County and the San Francisco East Bay.
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What are you 12? Grow up dude!
Actually the concept that America was ‘discovered’ precludes the concept that the native Americans discovered that there were barbaric conquerors with advanced weapons and diseases that were targeting them.
There was plenty of VD in Europe well before contact with native Americans.