So, it's two days after Columbus Day. Facebook, naturally, was semi-alive with commentary, as all the individuals who either cared or cared about other individuals caring came out of the woodwork to opine, as is their wont. People wrote statuses decrying that we live in a nation that would give a mass murderer of hapless innocents recognition in the form of a holiday. This in turn, naturally, prompted others to write statuses about how overly proud of themselves the former group was, considering they were making a point that virtually no one with an ounce of political correctness will argue. Pictures eventually cropped up of people engaged in actual protests, complete with signs insisting that we should call it "(National) Indigenous Peoples Day". Terrifyingly, they weren't even hipsters. This was followed by still other people engaging in debates over whether we need to recognize values dissonance in the actions of what was essentially a turn-of-the-sixteenth-century businessman, as well as whether Columbus was more evilly motivated in his murders than Cortez was. At one point, Hitler was referenced, as one does in conversations such as these.
I look at all of this and boggle for a minute. Then, I realize that there's a very logical explanation for how so many people my age can hold such disparate viewpoints.
You see, I can still distinctly remember the time in first grade when we glued cutouts of the three wee ships onto popsicle sticks so that we might be able to recreate Columbus's epic voyage for, I don't know, our finger puppet theaters, maybe. It's entirely possible that The Magic Voyage was aired on TV on the holiday in question, since kids would be home anyway. That was back when we still got that second Monday of October off from school.
I remember those days because I grew up right in the middle of that period of transition, of historical revisionism, where America suddenly became very self-conscious about just how much they were ignoring the nastier aspects of history. I remember that being a fairly confusing time, too, just because they reversed gears on us so abruptly. In the course of a year, we went from talking about "the hero who FOUND America!" to discussing (in appropriately hushed tones) "the mustache-twirling villain who MURDERED America!" It didn't help that this happened at an age where we were young enough to almost feel lied to about the whole thing, especially seeing as they stopped giving us the coveted day off which made October into a barren wasteland devoid of days off. What's more, the history books also never fully settled on just how blackly they were setting out to paint the man, whether they were going to re-revise history even though they had already redirected themselves half a decade ago. I can completely understand how different perceptions and opinions on just what Christopher Columbus was could be realized.
Still, to be perfectly blunt? I didn't even remember that it was Columbus Day until I saw a status that called out people who treat it as Be-Publicly-Appalled-At-Obviously-Bad-Things Day, as if that's a bold, impressive statement or something. For me, it was Monday. And, quite frankly, I think there's something of a solution in that.
Look. Everyone knows that there are ugly skeletons in this nation's past. Do we seriously need to bring it up every second Monday of October? Just from what I've seen over the past three days, I would argue that that only gets people's hackles up against the apologists who, to paraphrase someone on Facebook, "seek to canonize the blameless natives," despite them having not exactly been fully blameless. It's a holiday that brings the ugly side out of people, and what's more, it has none of the advantages of a real holiday. Hardly anyone gets the day off from work or school anymore. It's just there, on the calendar, waiting to start a flame war every three hundred and sixty-five days (give or take a leap year). The solution, then, seems pretty obvious: ignore it.
Now, maybe the government doesn't take it off the list of holidays. That doesn't mean you have to recognize the holiday's presence. Treat it like Flag Day: glance at the calendar, grumble about how you're still in your cubicle, and move on with your day. Or, heck, don't even remember that it was a day. Let it fade in the public consciousness to the point where nobody even bothers putting it onto calendars anymore.
I'm not saying to make light of the bad things in our past, far from it. The complicated history of Columbus and the consequences of his actions should definitely be studied in an academic context. I would just suggest instead keeping it in the classroom, is all. By bringing it up annually, on that specific day, you are, in a way, honoring his legacy. Doesn't that seem counterproductive?
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