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Take a moment and reflect on the Italian portion of my heritage and how some immigrants from Genoa were able to find a home and community I this country despite discrimination and obstacles put in their path.
That despite not wanting to leave Italy and always carrying love and pride for their home country while also fully embracing and loving their new home.
To recognize the contributions of Italians in this country while not marginalizing them.
This also provides a moment to think on modern immigrants and their story.
Columbus Day is only about Columbus to the extent that an immigrant from Genoa had pride in Genoa .... It is much more about Italian immigrants loving this country and immigrants in general
Both my high schoolers think Columbus Day is a joke. They tell some pretty funny analogies. They didn't get it from me or their teachers....I think most kids feel that way.
Native Americans are the most impoverished of all ethnic groups in America.
Highest teen pregnancy rate of any minority group
highest teen suicide rate of any minority group
highest high school drop out rate of any minority group (less then half graduate)
lowest per capita income
1 in 4 live in poverty
1 in 3 are without health insurance.
1 in 3 Native American woman have been raped or the victim of attempted rape
Yeah, they really think they are better off this way.
You're comparing Native Americans to other Americans, but the comparison you need to make is with pre-Columbian societies. Alcoholism is certainly one big negative for Amerinds living today. But by almost any other objective measure you would have to conclude that they have it better than their ancestors.
How do you imagine women lived in America in the year 1400? They almost all got pregnant as teenagers and were old women if they made it to their 30s. The poverty rate, by today's standards of poverty, was 100%. Nobody had an income, went to high school or had health insurance. If you got really sick or badly injured, you suffered and then you died. People fought a lot with neighboring tribes. If your camp was raided you might well be taken captive and raped by most of the men in the other tribe. Then you would work as a slave. Even under the best of circumstances you lived a very rough life. You were cold in the winter, wet when it rained and hungry any time the hunters had bad luck.
The losers who hate this day and want to name it after the "peace loving tree hugging hippies" fairy tale of the conquered should just shut up and quit ruining my life.
Your life must be pretty pathetic if changing the name of one holiday "ruins" it.
How about renaming it "Indigenous people day" and keeping the holiday?
No one was "indigenous" to this country/continent unless they sprouted up out of the ground like corn. All of our ancestors were explorers who migrated here from somewhere else including the so-called natives.
To those who are so enamored of Columbus Day, what did you actually do today to honor Columbus?
I usually fix spaghetti or chicken cacciatore for dinner. It totally slipped my mind yesterday.
Quote:
Originally Posted by LAappraiser
I would be in favor of cancelling Columbus Day and replacing it with Patriot's Day (911) as a federal holiday.
Too soon after Labor Day. I'd say keep the holiday where it is, rename it. 25 years ago or so, my kids' school called it "All Cultures Day". Kind of PC, but inclusive. Denver just renamed it "Indigenous People's Day" yesterday. http://www.cpr.org/news/newsbeat/den...y-proclamation
Last edited by Katarina Witt; 10-13-2015 at 09:11 AM..
To those who are so enamored of Columbus Day, what did you actually do today to honor Columbus?
Hmmm. Oh wait. I had a couple of glasses of red wine. Columbus was Italian, and he sailed for Spain, both countries that produce a significant amount of wine.
The wine I drank came from South America--The New World. The original vines had to have come from The Old World. So, in effect I observed a positive aspect of Columbus's impact by tying two worlds together with the consumption of one of the most important products produced by any culture ever.
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Very well said.
