Over one thousand years ago, Leif Erikson became the first european to set eyes upon the Americas – nearly 500 years before Christopher Columbus. Yet we still celebrate the man that was a distant second, while few know of the first. Why is this? You could say that there isn’t much evidence of Leif’s “discovery,” and you would be wrong. We have located the remains of a settlement in Newfoundland that proves Erikson and the Scandinavian people were the first europeans in North America. The landmass of Greenland was so well known at one time, that the Catholic Church was in contact with the Norse settlement there, and surely they must have been aware of the even larger landmass a short journey to the west that supplied the Norse with the timber to build the chapel. And then there is the name ‘America.’ Well, you can forget about it being the namesake of Amerigo Vespucci; Not only would this be the first and only time in history that a landmass be named after a person’s first name, but there is even some evidence as to the name ‘America’ being derived from the old Norse for “the land beyond what is known.” This means that the name was around for centuries, and Columbus was aware of at least the legend of the land to the west before he ever decided to set sail for India. And this brings us to the most ridiculous “fact” that we are continuing to teach our children; That Columbus was the only one that had the smarts to believe that the world was a sphere. This isn’t just wildly inaccurate, it is a flat-out lie. It is a fact that around 240 BC a Greek astronomer named Eratosthenes, not only knew that Earth was a sphere, but was able to calculate the circumference of it. How do we know this? Because for hundreds of years it was knowledge that was accessible through the Library of Alexandria. With so much information available, why is this history not remembered and well known? Why have we so easily forgotten our past? Most importantly – if we are capable of willfully forgetting who discovered America, then what else are we so willing to forget? What else are we capable of seeing in a different light? It is often said that; “those that don’t know history are doomed to repeat it.,” and to some extent, that is true. More accurately, “the repeating of history is as equally likely for those that don’t know it, as it is for those that do but fail to see the relevance and/or significance of it.” I mean, we wouldn’t elect a racist, sexist, xenophobic, fear mongerer promising to make our country great again like Germany did. Because we’re smarter than that, right?

Ignorance is a disease that can only infect those without access to knowledge. Stupidity is the awareness of that knowledge, but willful disregard of it. If you’re voting for Trump, which one are you? Because you are either one, or the other.

>>In the time since this was written, we have proven that we remember nothing.