[conspire] Federales in Portland?

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Ruben Safir (ruben at mrbrklyn.com):

> That is not where I was going with that, but since we are here, most of 
> what you wrote here is true.  I think he used copper tokens around the
> neck.

Correct.  The copper token signified 'I've paid my mandatory gold 
quota for this year.'  If the next deadline got missed, then the token
got swapped out for the unfortunate resident's severed hands.

> Regardless, he was not more brutal than others in his day,
> unfortunately.  I got to get out but if I get a chance I can more fully
> explain that.

Well, I cannot honestly think of any others who were that sadistic and 
murderous.  This was not warfare; it was extra-cruel slaughter and
genocide.  Pizarro killed lots of people in battle.  Cortes killed 
lots of people in battle.  But those were conquistadors who conquered
empires, not torturers and mass-murderers who preyed on, and wiped out, 
an entire nation of helpless islanders.

We don't go around making a point of erecting heroic statues of sadistic 
torturers and genocidal mass-murderers.  Which is my point.

But, speaking of context, the statues of Columbus and the institution of 
Columbus Day were _not_ in knowledge of those facts, as they weren't 
widely known at the time.  Truth to tell, it was strictly 1930s
Italian-American ethnic boosterism, and as such it wasn't really about
Columbus at all.  Italian-American civic leaders merely glommed onto 
Christopher Columbus as the very most accomlished and famous Italian
in history, and proposed to have a public holiday (and statues) as, 
in effect, celbrations of Italian-ness.  This is the way politics works.

Now that it's better known what a cruel and murderous bastich the man
was, it's predictable that cities, etc., are rather likely to quietly 
tuck away those statues.  But, since those aren't _my_ cities, I 
consider it a local matter for local residents.