And I agree that these ships were named after explorers. Despite all the bad they might have done, these were brave been and women facing the unknown.

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"A gathering of Angels appeared above my head. They sang to me this song of hope, and this is what they said..." -Styx

Aban's Illustration www.thespeakeasy.com/alanfore

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I began to think about the reasons that the creators of Star Trek would want to name a ship after a ship of a man who decimated an entire tribe of Native Americans.

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Oh, puh-leeze! And I guess Caesar should not have come into Britannia and started to civilize the natives there. Of course, isolation of cultures played a factor in the decimation of the Native Americans, and not with the Anglo-Saxons ...

But what's important is can you equate the two? Say, 1st Century Britain tibes and 16th Century American tribes. That's important in understanding the assimulation, or sometimes decimation, of cultures.

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First, I am not in favor of political correctness.

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If not in favor, you're certainly influenced by it.

Genocide is an abused term in our society. In my eyes, there about two incidents in the recorded history of man that are truly genocide. First, the Persian War. To a lesser extent, WW2 Germany. But that's a whole different argument altogether.

First and foremost, read an academic book on the topic of colonization. Then maybe you'll learn about some of the pretty grusome practices of the Aztecs and other tribes of Mexico; thus you can balance your view of this epoch in history.

Anyways, back to the topic. Star Trek script writers pull out names for their ships at random. Whatever symbolism you're trying to hint at was never intended. "Santa Maria" sounds colorful, and of Latin origin. Not unlike some other names that have appeared in Trek.

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-Small Computer Systems Interface "Scuzzy" Emperor

Operator of the Goulag Hotel, maintainer of the workhouses.

Operator of Cargill Conglomerate Publications, http://www.cargillconglomerate.com

"Woman is deprived of rights from lack of education, and the lack of education results from the absence of rights. We must not forget that the subjection of women is so complete, and dates from such distant ages, that we are often unwilling to recognize the gulf that separates them from us."

Tolstoy, on a more objective note.

[This message has been edited by SCSImperium (edited September 29, 2000).]

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Death before Dishonor!
However Dishonor has
quite a disputed defintion.

I know some history.
Events that can be equated to genocide.
Romans and the Jews, early CE
Christians and the Jews, last two thousand years
Japanese and the aborgines of Hokkaido, 600's to now
European settlers to America and the aborgines, 1400's to 1800's
European settlers to Australia and the Australians, 1800's
Ottoman Empire and the Armenians, 1916
Shoah, 1940's
China and Tibet, 1950's

Did you know that in a recent test that only two college students out of 50 could identify George Washington as the American leader at Yorktown?

Genocide has become a common theme in recent popular sci-fi movies. ID4 and Galaxy Quest are the two best examples.

Of course genocide happens in SF movies... when the big, bad, aliens try to conquer Earth, somebody's gotta die... but I wouldn't say that that's a recent development... remember War of the Worlds? Alien? Flash Gordon? hell, the "To Serve Man" episode of The Twilight Zone! Starship Troopers may be a recent movie, but it's not a recent book. Etc, etc...

As for Washington and Yorktown... that's probably because we think of Washington for more important things, and they tend not to realize that he led the Continental Army all over the place, from New York to Virginia. Really, you'd expect different generals to be in charge in so disparate theatres.

However, I knew. I also know the Brit General was Cornwallis, and that they couldn't escape because of the French fleet.

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"Ed Gruberman, you fail to grasp Ty Kwan Leap. Approach me, that you might see." -- The Master

Witness the intervention in Kosovo, targetemployee: wouldn't you consider the military action taken as preventing an attempted genocide?

I think the only people naming ships "Hitler" or "Stalin" are going to be racist skinheads, IMHO.

Seriously, as the primary shipkeeper for the Terran Empire Simming Association, I sometimes have a hard time choosing "appropriate" names. I actually DID have to use such names as Hitler & Stalin a couple times.

BTW, did the thought strike anyone that sombody else with a last name "Cortez" might come to the historical forefront in the next three hundred years?

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"...I was just up in Canada, Toronto actually. You know, they really hate you guys [Americans] up there? The funny thing is, they think you hate them back, when in fact, you just couldn't be bothered to care. Now in Ireland, it's a different story. At least we had the common decency to wait until the English invaded before we started hating them. I guess the Canadians are hating you in advance..."
-Irish Comic Ed Byrne on Canada-US relations

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"...the Incans and other tribes of Mexico." The Inca were in Peru, actually...

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Easy to blow holes in my argument when I make such a blatant error. Corrected now ... must've been very late.

Now I do often think of the Persian War when I think of genocide. Not only because of the mass murder---many events in history have that---but its importance as a whole carries weight as well. Western civilization, including any Christianity or whatnot, would not have existed if Greece fell.

And thus I conclude those deaths suffered in the mass scale war between Greece and Persia carry more importance than all the wars to occur after that combined.

Now WWII Germany probably carries no perspective, being very recent. It could very well be in another two hundred years that war will be nothing more than a footnote.

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-Small Computer Systems Interface "Scuzzy" Emperor

Operator of Cargill Conglomerate Publications, http://www.cargillconglomerate.com

"Socialists? They are industrious, commercial people; �the happiness of all� is their case. No, life is only given to me once and I shall never have it again; I don�t want to wait for �the happiness of all.� I want to live myself, or else better not live at all. I simply couldn�t pass by my mother starving, keeping my rouble in my pocket while I waited for the �happiness of all.� I am putting my little brick into the happiness of all and so my heart is at peace.

-Dostoevsky