To the Editor:

Our current politicized education system has been hijacked by liberal educators who have deliberately misrepresented this great explorer by packaging his contribution into a simple statement of fact for students to learn... “In 1492 Columbus discovered America.” Now they have allowed the leftist mass media and ignorant protestors to attach a false narrative in an attempt to destroy his true legacy by demanding the elimination of his image in many areas of America.

The Italo-American organizations and Italo-American communities have been powerless to act in stopping this falsification of the true significance of this great Italian explorer. It is very possible that we have forgotten that Columbus was not only an explorer but he was a creative thinker who challenged the European suspicion of the existence of a huge continent that became known as America.

While there was a belief that the earth was sphere, many experts rejected Columbus’s idea that he could reach Japan in the east by sailing west. This notion was simply believed to be impossible. And if it were achieved, “such a voyage would take three years to complete.” It was unlikely that under these conditions that the ships would never return. The Tavalera Commission report to Queen Isabella concluded that she was investing in a failed expedition. “God would surely not have allowed an uninhabited land of real value to be concealed from his people for centuries.”

But the Queen Isabella would not accept their beliefs probably due to her feminine intuition and her forward thinking. This attitude convinced her to support this Italian explorer. She probably shared his vision that the expedition would be successful in spite of contrary advice and criticism. Her belief allowed Columbus to sail away with three ships and reach the new world in 33 days. This was an incredible accomplishment. And he sailed back to Spain carrying examples of new plants, new artifacts, and native inhabitants. He did not enslave these native people.

According to Dr Edward de Bono, the creator of the world’s successful method for innovation, “Lateral Thinking,” Christopher Columbus’s accomplishment was the most dramatic example of lateral thinking ever recorded. His success earned him a place in Dr de Bono’s publication, “The Greatest Thinkers.” Columbus like many other great thinkers since the Renaissance challenged the existing mindset and accumulated knowledge to make an “exploratory quantum leap.”

Columbus was a Lateral Thinker, a person who tried something not because it already made sense but because it needed to be tried. His thinking resulted in the discovery of a New World. It revolutionized European thinking. Today we are again challenged to discover new worlds in outer space. Again, there may be uncertainty as to the value of such expeditions. We will never know unless we trust in other creative thinkers to plan and execute successful explorations.

Dr Rudy Magnan

60 Watkins Drive, Sandy Hook July 7, 2020