Columbus Day is an insult to the heritage of Italian Americans

Question: Why do we honor a man who, if he were alive today, would almost certainly be sitting on Death Row awaiting execution? Italian Americans have many people of their heritage, who have made great contributions to medicine, science, the fine arts, music, academics, finance, etc., but Christopher Columbus is a moral stain on the Italian Diaspora. We should have a Fermi, Marconi, Puccini, Tony Bennett, or Michelangelo Day, before we celebrate a despotic barbarian such as Columbus. If we choose to celebrate Columbus Day it would only be fair to have a Hitler, Kissinger, and Stalin Day. Columbus was nothing more than a plundering imperialistic oppressor who was responsible for the death, enslavement, and suffering of millions of native people. So let us dig further into why Columbus Day was created, and why many people including myself believe that the immoral legacy left by Columbus is nothing that any group of people should be proud of. My intention is not to demean any ethnic group, but only to rail against intolerance, protest untruthful reporting of history, and to not glorify perpetrators of violence and oppression. Columbus Day was created through political pressure by the Knights of Columbus (K of C) who lobbied FDR in 1937 to create a special day for the Italian community to revere a hero. The Knights of Columbus is the world's largest Catholic fraternal service organization. Founded in the United States in 1882, it is named in honor of Christopher Columbus. Father Michael J. McGivney in New Haven, Connecticut was the founder of the K of C. The K of C has had a history of some progressive social and minority intolerance, but on a positive note is known for its community volunteerism and major charitable contributions to children and research with disabilities, and Special Olympics. In the United States, the K of C upholds the Roman Catholic Church's positions on public policy and social issues. The K of C has adopted resolutions advocating a Culture of Life, one of the largest contributors to Yes on Prop. 8, and promoting Catholic practices in public schools, government, and voluntary organizations such as the Boy Scouts of America. The Order also funded a postcard campaign in 2005 in an attempt to stop the Canadian parliament from legalizing same-sex marriage. As an alternative to the dishonest chronicling and hypocritical celebration of Columbus Day, Indigenous People's Day (also known as Native American Day) is a secular holiday celebrated in various localities in the United States, begun as a counter-celebration to Columbus Day. The purpose of the day is to promote Native American culture and commemorate the history of Native American peoples Much of the following information is abstracted from a well researched scholarly book entitled, Lies my teacher told me - by James W. Loewen. This book attempts to clear up much of the dishonest reporting of history specifically relating to Columbus, the Pilgrims, hero making, slavery, imperialism, American exceptionalism, and other polemics created as a propaganda tool to misinform and mold the minds of school age youth. Columbus wasn't the first European to discover America. Leif Ericson founded a village on Newfoundland 500 years before Columbus made his voyage to the Americas. The concept of Columbus discovering America is arrogant. Historians estimate that Native Americans discovered North America about 14,000 years before Columbus. New DNA evidence now suggests that courageous Polynesian adventurers sailed dugout canoes across the Pacific and settled in South America long before the age of Columbus and Ericson. Columbus wasn't a hero. When he arrived in the Bahamas on October 12, 1492, Columbus discovered that the islands were inhabited by friendly, peaceful people called the Lucayans, Taínos and Arawaks. Writing in his diary, Columbus said they were a handsome, smart and kind people. He noted that the gentle Arawaks were remarkable for their hospitality. "They offered to share with anyone and when you ask for something, they never say no," he said. The Arawaks had no weapons; their society had neither criminals, prisons nor prisoners. They were so kind-hearted that Columbus noted in his diary that on the day the Santa Maria was shipwrecked, the Arawaks labored for hours to save his crew and cargo. Columbus was a cruel and barbaric man who immediately seized the land of the Islanders for Spain and enslaved them to work in his brutal gold mines. As a result of his exploitation of the natives, in only two years, 125,000 (half of the population) of the original inhabiatants on the island were dead. Sadly, Columbus supervised the selling of native girls into sexual slavery. Young girls were the most desired by his men and were routinely ensalved. In 1500, Columbus casually wrote about it in his log. He said: "A hundred Castellanoes are as easily obtained for a woman as for a farm, and it is very general and there are plenty of dealers who go about looking for girls; those from nine to ten are now in demand." Many of the peaceful natives were forced to work in his gold mines until they died of exhaustion. If an "Indian" worker did not deliver his full quota of gold dust by Columbus' deadline, soldiers would cut off the man's hands and tie them around his neck to send a message. Slavery became so intolerable that many of these kind island people committed mass suicide. Catholic law forbade the enslavement of Christians, so Columbus solved this problem by simply refusing to baptize the native people. Columbus brought cannons and attack dogs on his second trip to the New World. Natives resisting slavery by Columbus, would have a nose or an ear cutoff. He was so brutal that he would have attack dogs hunt down the slaves, and the dogs would tear off the arms and legs of the screaming natives. Columbus would burn natives alive who attempted to escape from slavery. If Columbus crew ran short of meat to feed the dogs, they would kill Arawak babies for dog food. The lionized explorer’s acts of cruelty were so unspeakable and so legendary - even in his own day - that Governor Francisco De Bobadilla arrested Columbus and his two brothers, slapped them into chains, and shipped them off to Spain to answer for their crimes against the Arawaks. Greed took priority and the emporers of Spain, their treasury filling up with gold, pardoned Columbus and let him go free. It sounds like the leaders of our government pardoning people such as Libby, Cheney, Kissinger, Rich, and others who have committed high crimes. One of Columbus' men, who chronicled the atrocities, Bartolome De Las Casas, was so mortified by Columbus' brutal atrocities against the native peoples, that he quit working for Columbus and became a Catholic priest. He described how the Spaniards under Columbus' command cut off the legs of children who ran from them, to test the sharpness of their blades. According to De Las Casas, the men made bets as to who, with one sweep of his sword, could cut a person in half. He says that Columbus' men poured people full of boiling soap. In a single day, De Las Casas was an eye witness as the Spanish soldiers dismembered, beheaded, or raped 3,000 native people. "Such inhumanities and barbarisms were committed in my sight as no age can parallel," De Las Casas wrote. "My eyes have seen these acts so foreign to human nature that now I tremble as I write." De Las Casas spent the rest of his life trying to protect the dwindled population of helpless native people. Experts generally agree that before 1492, the population on the island of Hispaniola probably numbered above 3 million. Within 20 years of Spanish arrival, it was reduced to only 60,000 natives. Within 50 years, not a single original native inhabitant could be found. De Las Casas alos noted, Columbus was the first slave trader in the Americas, deriving most of his income from slavery. As the native slaves died off, they were later replaced with black slaves. Slave trading became a big family business, and Columbus' son became the first African slave trader in 1505. There should be no room in a civilized society or teaching in our classrooms of outmoded traditions, myths, and holidays that promotes intolerance, or celebrates the placing of despicable barbaric people such as Columbus in high esteem.