DCentric

Yesterday, we asked whether Columbus Day should remain a federal holiday. And the majority of you responded “no,” in our admittedly unscientific poll. Alternatively, about 27 percent said it should remain a federal holiday, mostly because “we can’t vilify historical figures based on today’s moral standards.” The majority disagreed, voting that we shouldn’t have the day off to honor Columbus either because it’s offensive or because he didn’t discover anything:

A number of you offered additional thoughts on the issue. Some groups have been lobbying for the day to be commemorated as Indigenous People’s Day instead of Columbus Day. Reader Guest had a different suggestion:

I think we should go a step further and change it not to Indigenous People’s Day, but to American Genocide Day.  We honor veterans who have died in our wars, why not have a solemn day to commemorate the truth about American history?  I am afraid that “Indigenous People’s Day” will still miss the point and result in more cultural objectification of Native Americans without acknowledging the wrongs that they suffered at the hands of the colonists.

Allison wrote, “It’s a quaint relic of post-war America. Kind of like smallpox.” But another commenter, Tired…, wrote that Americans have “more practical things to focus on” than discussing the origins of Columbus Day, adding:

If anyone buys into the “I should feel guilty for something that I didn’t do that didn’t happen to anyone alive today” philosophy, I have a solution: give your property and belongings to the group you feel most guilty for, and then move back to the farthest back you can trace/guess your orgin [sic] to be.  Though I must warn you, if you go back to far [sic], and do some reading on whatever people you claim to originate from, you might find that as long as humans have been recording history, they have been waging war, and as a result, taking land, culture, food, property, etc. from each other.

Even though Columbus Day has passed us, you can still cast your vote in our poll and offer your own comments below.