Columbus Day: a holiday of mythsDate: 10/16/2015 I don’t know about your Facebook feed but mine was abuzz with posts this weekend about why we should have a holiday honoring Christopher Columbus and his “discovery” of the New World.
I know that some people want to ignore historical facts about Columbus and how he treated the people he found when he landed in what is now the Dominican Republic. The word “genocide” sort so sums it up.
I also know that people want to also pass by the fact that Europeans had already been to North America well before Columbus mounted his expedition to find a new sea route to trading markets in Asia. We don’t celebrate “Viking Day” now we do we?
Of course another fact that is overlooked is the word “discovery.” That means that no human being was here before Columbus and of course we know that was wrong. There were plenty of human beings here. The New World had been “discovered” centuries before Columbus set eyes on it.
Of all of the federal holidays, Columbus Day seems the least defensible. Yes, I think Washington and Lincoln should get recognition as the first president and the president who preserved the union, respectively. Were they saints? No. Are there grounds today to criticize them? Sure. But we honor them for specific reasons: the founding and the preservation of the nation.
Thanksgiving, July Fourth, Veterans Day, Memorial Day, Labor Day and Martin Luther King Day all have concrete meanings that are relevant today.
Columbus Day? Not so much. Why have a holiday that lacks meaning? How would I explain its significance to my grandkids?
“Columbus was a guy trying to find a way to sail to Asia from Europe. He wasn’t trying to ‘discover’ America. He did some terrible things to the people who were living here, like killing them and helped create the slave trade. We get a day off to honor him.”
Doesn’t work, does it?
I do like having a day to honor the native people of the Americas and provide a day to reflect on how European attitudes affected them. I’m sure, though, there would be plenty of ‘Mericans who would be in opposition to that.
Gun questions
My piece on international reaction to gun violence brought forth some interesting response. One reader asked what were the core issues I wanted discussed.
To me the issue of gun violence rests on two main issues: how to we keep illegal guns from the hands of people who want them to commit crimes and how do we keep guns, legal or not, out of the hands of people who are mentally ill.
You notice I’ve not suggested about taking away guns from legal and responsible owners, which is the greatest fear some gun owners apparently have. I don’t wish to see that happen.
For years I’ve heard the president is coming to take away someone’s guns. Has that actually happened? No, but let’s stir up some hate and fear. It will be good for gun sales.
The question is how do you monitor people with mental illness to ensure they don’t have access to firearms? And with illegal guns how do you stem the flow of them if the gun laws of one state are different than the laws of a neighboring state? Or do we just forget about any reform and allow the status quo to continue? Is the threat of violence simply part of our lives and we must endure it?
Agree? Disagree? Drop me a line at news@thereminder.com or at 280 N. Main St., East Longmeadow, MA 01028. As always, this column represents the opinion of its author and not the publishers or advertisers of this newspaper.
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