Cook monument plan divides opinion

It is dangerous to eliminate or rewrite history. Examine, critique but do not erase.
CPT (Join to see) LTC Stephen F. CPT Jack Durish CW5 Jack Cardwell Lt Col John (Jack) Christensen SPC Margaret Higgins Col (Join to see) SGT Mark Halmrast TSgt Joe C. SFC Joe S. Davis Jr., MSM, DSL SP5 Mark Kuzinski Cynthia Croft Maj William W. 'Bill' Price Maj Bill Smith, Ph.D.

There is not one square inch of the planet that has not been claimed by conquest. What makes one conquest more legitimate than any other? We took this land from nature. What right have you to take it from us? In California, we have Mexicans (of Spanish descent) who conquered lands from Mayans and Aztecs, complaining that we conquered it from them. Don't forget that the first native Americans were also immigrants who were displaced by other "native American" immigrants and so on until European immigrants conquered the land from them. And the conquered will always complain, even if the conquerors make a better world of it. Well, let them complain. They have every right to complain. But don't feel guilty. They didn't when they were the conquerors. Why should we?

One of the greatest explorers in the history of planet earth. The reality is that were it not Captain James Cook, it would have been someone else later. Exploration and knowing what is around the next bend has been a trait of mankind for a very long time. Finding local inhabitants, in many cases, meant turf wars and other actions. That was the way the world worked 250 years ago, everywhere. Almost no square inch of soil currently lived on was not explored, inhabited or them conquered by someone else.

Cook, like many explorers, risked his life for science, exploration and understanding the natural world better.