Time to End Columbus Day
Kid’s love Columbus Day. It’s a day off for no reason – there’s no holiday to really celebrate – no uncomfortable suits to wear at church or awkward family gatherings. Just a day off. The parent may go shopping, but that’s really about it… worst case scenario you end the day with a new TV, or a couch.
We were taught that Columbus Day celebrates a great explorer, someone that fought against the group think that the earth was flat. And that he actually discovered something new.
When in actuality his discovery of ‘the America’s’ is like me ‘discovering’ that awesome Italian place in Little Italy. Sure there’s a bunch of kinda dark skinned guys with lot of gold, but it’s not really a discovery… there’s been about 15 million people hanging out there for a while now.
Just because no one ‘checked in’ on facebook does not mean that you’re the first person there.
In fourteen hundred ninety-two
Columbus sailed the ocean blue.
He had three ships and left from Spain;
He sailed through sunshine, wind and rain.
That’s about the point where the song sticks with fact – the Italian, Columbus, who left his country and went to Spain for the money and some boats tried to convince everyone that it was just a short jaunt across the ocean to India, and Japan… he was wrong. Clearly.
Yeah, and the part of the Columbus myth that he was the only one that thought the Earth was round? Also a lie – it was general knowledge at that point in history.
So after almost 80 years of celebrating a man that was not only not an American, but never actually stepped foot on the land that would become the United States of America – isn’t time to end this tradition? I won’t get into the facts of Columbus’ bloody and horrible legacy – those are well documented (while unfortunately not taught in schools) – other than to quote him speaking of the Native’s he came into contact with, and would later enslave, rape and torture.
“They were well-built, with good bodies and handsome features…They would make fine servants…With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want.”
Does this sound like someone we should be celebrating? We have Martin Luther King Day, Presidents Day that celebrates Washington and Lincoln. Columbus does not belong in the realm of these heroes.
America, it’s time to join Alaska, South Dakota and Hawaii (all who don’t celebrate Columbus Day) and stop this practice of celebrating this foreign genocidal legacy and start recognizing out true American elders.
We have thousands of American citizens that have a legacy that reaches back long before Columbus was ever born. Here in Alaska – they’re all around us – 122,000 people that all trace their family back centuries before an Italian convinced a Spanish Queen to give him a couple of boats.
It’s just a thought.
Who would you like to see as a replacement for Columbus? Please leave your thoughts below.
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For more facts on the real Columbus check out these links.
Columbus Day? True Legacy: Cruelty and Slavery
Think You Know the Real Christopher Columbus? (NPR)
The Oatmeal (who have an interesting alternative to Columbus)
And of course a book everyone should have in their library A People’s History of the United States: 1492 to Present
Did I miss a source?
I’d definitely like to see it changed to Indigenous Peoples Day, but will you forgive me for really wishing we could have Geronimo Day. He was a local boy, Goyakthley was. The Yawner. One of the toughest, bravest dudes in Pimeria Alta, and one of the best military strategists and warriors ever to show up in our nation’s history. I love C.S. Fly’s photograph of him and his handful of dusty commandos as they surrendered to General Crook over in Skeleton Canyon, just east of here. There is no sign of defeat in his face. It was just a reconfiguration of fortune that had to be met and dealt with. “Tough shit”, he seems to be saying. “Now we have to find a way to live through this.”
My maternal Grandmother had a seamed face and I used to call her Geronimo,especially when she would try to tan my hide for minor indiscretions. Had same type hairdo as the big guy,too.. Come to think of it,she was quite expert with a knife.
Where is my spear?
Its okay if I just stab it (the holiday) and let it crawl into the bushes, emitting a slow death and eventual compost back into the earth. Being of some good use, I suppose. So yeah, stab it.
Thank the aurora for snow.
Somebody just make it go away…
And don’t dress up like a Indian for Halloween. Just don’t go there.
I just don’t understand this. Advise. n
I can’t recall ever being given a day off at school for Columbus Day and my kids never had the day off either. Other than that, I agree it’s not something that I want celebrated. I love this country, warts & all, but I don’t think we need to celebrate a big wart. Too late to remove the wart but can’t we downplay it in some manner? Or do a much better job teaching about it? Preferably both.
Dagian: Sometime in October ‘Columbus Day’ was an event. We combined this Columbus thing with Thanksgiving. Until I was older, HS, I had no information to change my understanding. When I learned I have not forgotten. n
Invasion Day is not something I celebrate.
Happy Inidigenous People’s Day (simultaneously celebrated with Unhappy Indigenous People’s Day)!
Not all ‘mericans and not all parts of ‘merica are good to go with MLK Day.Isn’t Christmas based on the false belief that jeebus was born on Dec. 25th?
Sacagewea. Helen Keller. Clara Barton.
We have no holidays celebrating women.
Yes to all of those, but Helen Keller would be opposed as she was a “radical Socialist” and helped found the ACLU, as well as a birth control proponent. Paul Ryan would probably suggest the novelist Ayn Rand, I would veto that. I read a couple of her books while in college and even then, my idealist self recognized the impossibility of what she wrote. I would suggest Eleanor Roosevelt Day, or maybe First Ladies of the United States day. Who could disagree with Clara Barton? Not me.
Last week, I read the commentary at http://theoatmeal.com/comics/columbus_day I was shocked at how ill-informed I am about Christopher Columbus. I agree with you, Sebastian. Let’s dump Columbus overboard and find someone worthy of national recognition.
Taking a long look at indigenous Americans is a great place to begin. After all, they were the first Americans and already long-established here to meet those European latecomers on sailing ships just a few centuries back.