Columbus Day is a "Good Thing!" I can take my crayons and color in the

[KoKo]

Ships and I can feel good that I'm here in America....the Land of Corporate Opportunity.

I can look at things that way....or I can say Columbus was a disgusting Racist/Bigot who tried to kill Native Americans and he was a drunk who led his men on a disastrous journey and founded a country based on pillaging, rape, looting of treasure, disease and triumph over native people who had learned how to use the land and give back what they took and be harmonius in their stewardship over what we now call the American Continent.

Or, I could look and say, that many of our ancestors here on DU (excluding our sizeable native American and African Americans) came here to get away from religious and economic oppressions in their own countries. They saw America as a Beacon of Hope and Salvation, and a chance to Start Over without the prejudice and lack of opportunity in their former lands.

If some see that Columbus Day is a day to celebrate for a NEW START......they why do we have to jump on them and make them attone for sins they may not have committed. Why shouldn't we celebrate Columbus Day, in the spirit that it was a NEW START for many while acknowledging that it was a "kiss of death" for others which caused centuries of misery.

I go both ways on this.....One side says we in America have so few real celebrations that we need to cling to this.....the other says we should declare a Day of Mourning for the Native American Peoples.

I hope we get it right at some point and can just say that this was an opening of a NEW WORLD where MANY tried to CREATE a NEW WAY OF LIVING.......A DEMOCRACY! And, that it WAS SOMETHING WORTHWHILE.......but it TOOK A TERRIBLE TOLL.

But, why not celebrate the Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria.......and that a man made it across the Atlantic and found a way to create something more than he ever imagined? :shrug:

[Stupdworld]

1. good point

i agree. why the hell are we focusing on ancestry? each year we have a new opportunity to forge a new future. hell every day we have that. anyone who sees this day as solely the exploitation of one group of people by another fail to see the big picture. something was started with the "discovery" of these lands by Europe. Yes it did take a toll. Yes these were "conquistadors" but these were explorers as well.

Were they men? yes. Were they saints? no. I celebrate the idea of a "new start", a "new america" if you will. If you want to hate columbus and hate whitey and hate Europe go right ahead. its because of the people that came after columbus that you have the right to do so. I make no excuse for the conquer of North America and its inhabitants. But I will not regret it either.

[sybylla]

2. The problem is "Columbus"

If it weren't named after him, as if we were celebrating him, I think many would have a much easier time celebrating what we are and knowing that it is a direct result of events in 1492. But I cannot ever celebrate Columbus, knowing what I know about him, what motivated him, and how he debased his fellow humans.

Yes, we are all, even the natives, a product of that day. For better or worse we are all here now. What this day should be about is moving forward together, not celebrating the divisions and humiliations of the past.