Columbus Day - Feh
"Christopher Columbus, as everyone knows, is honored by posterity because he was the last to discover America." James Joyce
I so don't care about Columbus Day. Not to rank on my friends of Italian descent, but really, a federal holiday for a man who in fact didn't discover America?
We celebrate ethnic heritage in this country. Which is a good thing. St. Patrick's Day, Pulaski Day, Cinco di Mayo, even Bastille Day. No reason not to have Columbus Day too.
But to close down government offices, banks, schools, many corporations and the stock exchange is excessive and expensive. Plus, it perpetuates a historical myth. Not the best way to educate our children.
Congress creates federal holidays. Who got to them about Columbus? I have an equal discomfort about Martin Luther King Day and have said so here.
Our country is lousy with holidays. Here's the one I'd most like to see Congress create:
END WAR DAY
Labels: Blog Bursts, Holy Days and Holidays, Political Polemics
posted by Sally Swift at 2:54 PM
1 Comments:
According to Simon Weisenthal's Book, Sails of Hope, Columbus was Jewish as well as most probably from Italy. He was a cartographer, and only Jews were cartographers at that time. That being said, the import of murder, mayhem, syphillis and whatever other maladies the invaders from Europe brought to the already occupied/discovered peoples of the Western Hemisphere did not and do not deserve reward and recognition beyond a disdain for another greedy colonization by spoiled royalty.
You're right we don't need a celebration of Columbus, but not only because he didn't "discover" America, but because he opened the doors to ravagers like Cortez who ruined the cultures they conquered for all time.
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