When stress becomes too much for me to handle, I can always turn to reactions to my essays. Laughter, the Reader's Digest used to say, is the best medicine.

Take, for example, reactions to my little commemoration of Fortunate Eagle Day and the guy who lampooned the “Columbus discovered America” mindset.

The_Insider provided the most laughter. After accusing me of either a “Catholic or Liberal… relentless guilt trip,” T_I proclaimed, “We are responsible for racism, genocide of Native Americans, killing of innocent Iraqis and Palestinians, American peace keepers and the environment.”
How T_I could read all that into a couple of paragraphs about the notion of discovery is a wonder. Talk about guilt! Whew.

Maybe T_I, who says Europeans discovered Europe, can tell us who discovered America and why? Are Europeans superior to Americans or what?

Brian Sweeney jumped in by accusing me of “blaming Western Culture,” but didn’t say what I blame Western Culture for. Al Gore? Gadhifi?

Several folks actually got the point of the essay, including Valkyrie, who pointed out Fortunate Eagle today “would be sitting in jail for running around an airport with a weapon.” That’s my kind of humor.

I got to talk with Fortunate Eagle more than 30 years ago. Actually, he merely claimed to have “discovered” Italy, not all of Europe. He laughed but denied “Italy” was originally a Chippewa word meaning maker of pizza. But he was open to the idea that some day Alaska might sell Russia to the United States. Or should Alaska sell the United States to Russia?

Let’s see what you guys will read into that one.