meditatio at the water's edge

I'm considering the idea of submitting something I wrote to theooze.com or next-wave.org ...but I would like to get some of your feedback first. You can read the article at my personal blog...click here. Then shoot me an email and let me know what you think.

Here's an excerpt...
"My great-grandparents on my mother’s side came to the United States from the Netherlands in the early years of the 20th century. My father’s side is more messy, genealogically speaking. I think they came over from Ohio. Well, that’s as much as I was ever told. I believe the name McClure comes from Ireland, but I’ve also been told it was Scotland. Regardless, the bloodlines are thin, causing me to refer to myself as half Dutch and half “31 Flavors” (ala, Baskin Robbins, the ice cream people).

All that is to say that I am a white guy living in North America. More than my skin color and ethnic background (muddled as it may be), I am an apprentice of Jesus of Nazareth, the Messiah. Being an apprentice of Jesus is increasingly messing up my life. I keep running into questions about how I should live in this materialistic, pluralistic, narcissistic culture of 21st Century U.S. America.

I wonder how I should think about people who I was always taught were heroes (Columbus, Pizzaro, etc.). I am compelled to consider the unmentionable atrocities done to people under the banner of the cross. I am compelled to consider how Jesus was perceived by the Mayans, Aztecs, Incas, and the other extinguished tribes we were never taught about in school. How should we celebrate Columbus and the rest of the explorers and ‘conquistadores’? How would I think of Columbus Day if I were a Sioux or Nez Perce?"