Columbus Day Redux

It's so nice to see kids out celebrating Columbus Day!

National holiday, today-- Columbus Day.  My kids don't get off school, so it just means that the banks are closed, which is an inconvenience more than anything.  Really, it's pretty pathetic for a holiday.  Kind of like Charlie Brown's Christmas tree.  Makes you want to take it home and cuddle it.

But when something is pathetic, many people just want to beat it into the ground.  Like kids who beat up winos.  Gotta hit them when they're down.  Even so, poor Columbus Day is really getting it every year.

And I guess Columbus might deserve it.  After all, he came to a new land and enslaved the people, searching for gold. He was, like, the worst guest ever.  And to celebrate Columbus is, to a degree, to affirm the policy of land theft and slavery.  Kinda uncomfy position to take, to say the least.

But it seems to me that complaining about the holiday is pretty useless.  Columbus died in the early 16th century.  I don't think he's going to change his ways because he doesn't have any ways.  We can say that we shouldn't celebrate an oppressor, and that would make sense.  After all, we don't go around saying, "Happy Stalin Day!" or "Let's have a party to celebrate the onset of slavery!"  Of course, we don't do much at all for Columbus, either.  We close the banks.  And tell me, is that really a bad thing?  Isn't that just another way of saying, "Hey, maybe we ought to shut down the oppressors for one day."

It seems to me that if we were serious about celebrating an alternative Columbus Day, we ought to be reflective of how we us our power to oppress people and to figure out ways to stop it.  Maybe we can Google our use of Apple or Nike products and how we are perpetuating horrible labor practices.  Maybe we can have a rally in opposition to modern slavery.  Maybe we can think about how we treat our children, our employees, and our pets better, without yelling or violence, but serving them to support their needs.  Maybe we should think about how to better treat immigrants, illegal or otherwise, because our nation celebrates one of the worst illegal immigrants in history.

Or maybe we can consider how, like Columbus, our intentions may be right and honorable, that we want to glorify God and to do the right thing, but we still screw it up in the end for the people that really matter-- the poor, the weak.  Maybe we can think about who we think of or treat as less than human and realize that they are just as human, and just as important, as we are.  Maybe we can learn to love our enemies just a little bit more.

Maybe we can actually learn from the mistakes of others, and not just complain about them.

On the other hand, I have a deposit that I should really make today.  Dang that Columbus!