As a kid, I – of course – loved Columbus Day. No school. Generally decent weather. A much needed break after 4-5 weeks of having a ton of nonsense drilled in to my head, courtesy of the nuns at Our Lady of the Angels. (Sure, they also drilled some worthwhile stuff in there. I can still do mental arithmetic.)
As an adult, I was a bit more ‘meh’ on Columbus Day. It was a holiday at some places, but gradually the day after Thanksgiving took over as a holiday, and Columbus Day became one of those you-choose, optional days off. If you didn’t have to get into a car to get there – traffic being generally insane in these parts on this day - it was actually a pretty easy-peasy low-key day to work.
But, in general, for me, Columbus Day has been a nice little do-nothing holiday that came with no obligations whatsoever. What’s not to like about a holiday that doesn’t require shopping, wrapping, cooking, card addressing, etc?
Make that it has been a nice little do-nothing holiday as long as I actually didn’t have to think about Christopher Columbus who, rather than the hero of Nina-Pinta-Santa Maria doggerel, was apparently a nasty, racist old git.
Anyway, a couple of years back, I proposed that we jettison Columbus Day and replace it with Immigrants Day. I still think we need an Immigrants Day – now more than ever. But I’ve come around to swapping out Columbus Day and swapping in Indigenous Peoples’ Day. God knows we own those folks something for the terribleness we’ve rained down on their heads over the centuries.
For my part, I plan on “celebrating” the day by taking in Michael Moore’s new film, Fahrenheit 11/9.
That should put me in an excellent mood…
Nonetheless, Happy Indigenous Peoples’ Day. Sorry about all that rotten treatment, even though my immigrant peeps arrived way to late to take part in it.
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