Everyone loves a holiday! No work, no school; the perfect day to kick back and relax. But I doubt that many people will truly spend Columbus Day celebrating the pioneer voyage of Christopher Columbus. I know I won't.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not an anti-Columbus activist. I'm just completely indifferent to the holiday.
As a child I learned that in 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue. But we kind of glazed over the imperialism, enslavement and brutality.
On the flip-side, we didn't spend a whole lot of time studying the overwhelming pressure that Columbus was under either. If the voyage hadn't killed him, returning to the Spanish monarchs empty-handed surely would have cost him his head.
It seems pious to judge Christopher Columbus as a slave trader and murderer when our nation didn't pass laws against slavery until 200 years ago and segregation continued until the early 1960s.
But to celebrate a man who, within a relatively short period of time, was responsible for a whole lot of killing feels wrong.
So what to do, what to do? Columbus colonized America, which is certainly worth recognizing. But Columbus was also a slave trader and murderer, which is unpardonable.
It is a difficult issue to grapple with it. Heck, Hallmark won't touch it and if Hallmark isn't trying to squeeze the last dime out of it; you know it's divisive.
Consider; there are only 10 federally recognized holidays and of these only two are named for people, Martin Luther King Jr. and Christopher Columbus.
Is Christopher Columbus more noteworthy than Amerigo Vespucci, the Mayflower Pilgrims or Lewis & Clark?
I would never completely discredit Christopher Columbus. But if people aren't celebrating his accomplishments, then maybe they really aren't worth celebrating.
That being said, I have no problem taking a day off every second Monday of October. Perhaps this Columbus Day we should all reflect on all of the brave pioneers that built this nation.
Maybe we should change the name and call it “Pioneer Day” or “Explorer Day?”
Either way, it's nice to have a break before Thanksgiving; yet another holiday with underlying controversy.
Estabrook's column appears
Mondays and she can be reached at estabrookcarole@yahoo.com.
As a child I learned that in 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue. But we kind of glazed over the imperialism, enslavement and brutality.
On the flip-side, we didn't spend a whole lot of time studying the overwhelming pressure that Columbus was under either. If the voyage hadn't killed him, returning to the Spanish monarchs empty-handed surely would have cost him his head.
It seems pious to judge Christopher Columbus as a slave trader and murderer when our nation didn't pass laws against slavery until 200 years ago and segregation continued until the early 1960s.
But to celebrate a man who, within a relatively short period of time, was responsible for a whole lot of killing feels wrong.
So what to do, what to do? Columbus colonized America, which is certainly worth recognizing. But Columbus was also a slave trader and murderer, which is unpardonable.
It is a difficult issue to grapple with it. Heck, Hallmark won't touch it and if Hallmark isn't trying to squeeze the last dime out of it; you know it's divisive.
Consider; there are only 10 federally recognized holidays and of these only two are named for people, Martin Luther King Jr. and Christopher Columbus.
Is Christopher Columbus more noteworthy than Amerigo Vespucci, the Mayflower Pilgrims or Lewis & Clark?
I would never completely discredit Christopher Columbus. But if people aren't celebrating his accomplishments, then maybe they really aren't worth celebrating.
That being said, I have no problem taking a day off every second Monday of October. Perhaps this Columbus Day we should all reflect on all of the brave pioneers that built this nation.
Maybe we should change the name and call it “Pioneer Day” or “Explorer Day?”
Either way, it's nice to have a break before Thanksgiving; yet another holiday with underlying controversy.
Estabrook's column appears
Mondays and she can be reached at estabrookcarole@yahoo.com.
The Citizens' Say
There are 2 comment(s)
longboard315 wrote on Oct 18, 2008 5:45 PM:
AJ wrote on Oct 13, 2008 4:36 PM: