Happy Columbus Day
Ah yes yet another federal holiday, that means no mail delivery, and for me no work (ah the perks of being a federal employee). Unfortunately, in Iowa it is not a state holiday ergo we still have class 🙁
We all know the memory aid… In 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue, but what about this Columbus day? Well, checking wikipeda (the great knowledge repository) Coulumbus day is celibrated across the America (though it is called different things… Día de la Raza (day of the race), Discovery day or even Día de la Resistencia Indígena (day of indigenous resistance) in Venezuela.
But why did it get it’s start in the US? In 1792 on the 300th anniversary of Columbus’ Landing in the new world the city of New York celebrated the first Columbus day. Then on the 400th anniversary President Harrison called for a celebration across the USA.
For those of Italian backgrounds it is seen as an cultural day, however on the other side of the coin the state of South Dakota calls it Native American day and there has been a longstanding movement to eliminate the day as a holiday. This is due to the poor treatment of the Native Americans by the Europeans.
Personally I feel that we should remember the day as an important part of our history. However, with that being said we should remember both sides of the story. The explorers inflicted great cruelty on the people who they encountered. To quote something my mom told me once, there were good cowboys and bad cowboys and good Indians and bad Indians.
Besides, can’t we all agree on the sales?