Column: Challenge your assumptions

Never assume, a pertinent lesson to learn as we approach Columbus Day.

Christopher Columbus, an Italian explorer and navigator sponsored by the Spanish crown, set out in 1492 to find sea passage to the Orient of Far East Asia.

Landing on an island in the Caribbean Sea, Columbus at first assumed he had come ashore onto Southeast Asia, known then as the Indies.

In fact, the detailed accounts of Marco Polo's travels deep into Mongol-controlled Asia inspired Columbus in his quest to find a shorter route to the Orient.

But Columbus soon realized that his voyage had actually run straight into the western hemisphere, the continental expanses of North and South America standing in his way.

The region he had arrived in was later named the West Indies, distinguishing it from the East Indies where Columbus thought he had sailed to. The indigenous people of the West Indies were referred to as Indians, an association that stuck for centuries afterward.

Columbus took some of the aboriginal people captive and sailed back to Spain with them, beginning centuries of mistrust, disrespect, mistreatment and even hatred between tribal Americans and European colonists.

Assumptions were made by both people about the other. All indigenous people were considered savages, unfit for civilization and the entitlement to fundamental human rights. Likewise, all white settlers were labeled as greedy two-tongues, who promised peace but only wished to take the land out from under the tribes.

Centuries of bloody conflict was the unfortunate consequence of these assumptions, and should serve as an object lesson for us today.

But I don't think people, in general, have learned this lesson.

I hear it on television whenever pundits or politicians open their mouths. I see evidence posted all over the Worldwide Web; social media, most especially.

The things people say to each other online, or about one another is shameful enough. Add gross assumptions to our vitriol, and interpersonal dysfunction is the end result.

During conversations with another person earlier this year, a number of assumptions were made about me. My conservative views were a notable point of contention for this person, who assumed that I took hardline or extreme right-wing positions simply by virtue of association with a political persuasion.

Although I set the record straight, my relationship with this person hasn't been the same since, largely because of assumptions.

Assumptions get people into trouble, and we are all guilty at times of making them. Left, right or center, we are all accountable to catch and correct ourselves when our assumptions are wrong. More often than not, they are.

When we don't keep our prima facie judgments in check, they not only form pre-conceived notions of others, but also influence how we choose to interact with them. The natural human inclination is to feel uncomfortable, get defensive or become guarded around those who are different from us.

This then affects how we treat others. Social media is full of mistreatment, and I use that term diplomatically. The evidence, frankly, shows people have gone way beyond simply mistreating one another. We now seem intent on malicious injury.

The mistakes made by colonists and indigenous people are demonstrable examples of how not to react toward others different from us. But I see little evidence that we have learned from this gross object lesson in history.

We continue to peck at each other, targeting our deepest held convictions especially. There is no honor among thieves, who spew forth their predictable rhetoric in an effort to injure or discredit one another; or worse, assassinate someone's character.

Many people have been duped into following these pitiful examples, particularly on social media, where they seem to think they are impervious to repercussions.

What we say or do, however, catches up to each and every one of us eventually.

If we fail to learn from the lessons of history, then we will be doomed to repeat the same mistakes.

But there is still hope.

We don't have to follow suit. We can choose to be better than the corruptibles, who seem to monopolize face time and sound bites.

Next time the talking heads start yelling over each other, making assumptions and trying to score points, remember that we are better than this. We don't have to make the same mistakes they repeatedly do.

We can learn from their recklessness and decide not to be so careless. We can choose to take each person as they are, measuring individual worth by deeds and actions, not by labels.

Assume nothing about anyone, and presume first that you know nothing about someone else.