A major reason why Italian Heritage month pops up in October is this event in 1492 (give or take a day, they didn’t have NTP servers or GPS). For the last couple decades, the fair-weathered Liberals (usually college students who later transform into Republicans, find religion when they get older, LUGs and hypocrites thanks to parental bill-paying drying up) have decided to bash the occasion. Common criticisms are the frequent litany of: Columbus didn’t discover anything; Columbus was a genocidal killer; variations of these themes. Ergo, we should have a celebration of the indigenous peoples as per Seattle’s government.
The counter arguments from older Italians don’t do much good because they probably entail “shut up you (fill-in-the-blank)!”
I don’t have a problem sharing the holiday. Obviously, it’s not a point of joy for the American Indians. Columbus’ arrival was a recon mission that would eventually lead to a long-term invasion by the Europeans. Then again, I want to ask these same American Indians (the term indigenous or native is inaccurate now; I’m at least a third generation resident here, aren’t I a “native”?) if they will back a counter protest for the Turks celebrating their takeover of Istanbul/Constantinople? How about the founding of Israel? William of Orange’s victory over the Irish Catholics? The list can go on in the political correctness snit wars.
What Columbus did was horrendous and I’ll never deny it. I also remember, he was a pretty standard 15th century European coming from an area accustomed to the horrors he inflicted; Spain had just completed a decades-long campaign to expel the Moors (aka Arabs) from the peninsula. I’m not making excuses nor defending Columbus. I’m pointing out the encounter wasn’t going to end well given their mindsets circa 1492. I highly doubt the more technologically advanced civilizations in the Americas, given the opportunity to discover Europe, were more enlightened, see the civilization of Central Mexico we usually label the Aztecs.
We should use the opportunity to reflect on the damage done, remember not to do this again if we go to other planets (before we destroy ourselves). HG Wells’ novel was based upon the European colonizations of America and Australia. Besides, the same people trashing Columbus forget, they wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for him, namely the White Limo Liberals and a certain LUG at Illinois State around 1992.
Columbus Day is messy nowadays too. We don’t know what he looked like, he never had his portrait painted. He wasn’t a very good navigator, the brothers commanding the other vessels were more skilled sailors. Some accounts said he didn’t even speak Italian well. The worst myth purported about him is his career ended in failure. No. Columbus did alright. His 18th-generation descendent retains an honorary title in Spain these days which comes with a good salary. He also figured out wherever they landed had to be something different because most people already knew the world was round and the educated had a rough idea how large our planet was. Many more interesting facts can be found in the book Lies My Teacher Told Me.
I seriously doubt changing the label on the holiday will miraculously transform the American Indians’ situation. Casinos didn’t.
I lean toward this gentleman’s suggestion.