Why Columbus Day should not be a National Holiday
...measure, responsible for the genocides of the people, or “Indians,” with whom he encountered in the new land, he and his followers, raped, tortured, en-slaved, and destroyed millions of them with what seemed like no remorse or logical reason other than power and greed. Columbus, in my opinion, should be viewed with the same antipathy as one would view Hitler. It is interesting though; that I know so much about Adolph Hitler’s crimes against humanity and yet only remembered a poem about the “heroic” explorer who “founded” America. If you had asked me two months ago whether or not Columbus Day should be a national holiday I would have responded “Of Course! He marks the beginning of America!” A week ago in my pretest, after learning about the very first inhabitants of North America, I responded, “Since there were others in America first, I don’t know why we do.” Finally, now, given the chance to the respond to that same question again I can say that I can’t even begin to comprehend why we ever gave him a day to begin with, are we celebrating his crimes which go against everything America claims they stand for? Columbus helped facilitate mass destruction of the Indians, he was also not the first explorer to find North Ame...