Someone can have a big impact on history and not be worth celebrating.
The thing I think about all the time is that I think our holidays should have a point. Labor day celebrates the accomplishments of workers and encourages us to adopt their best traits: industriousness, teamwork, determination.
Independence Day is supposed to inspire us to be grateful for the courage showed by the founders who seceded from Great Britain, and model their (supposed) virtues, such as liberty.
Thanksgiving is supposed to celebrate harvests, gratitude, the kindness of strangers, etc. There are certainly problems with the history it exhalts, but it makes sense.
Juneteenth is a celebration of diversity, the achievements of black Americans and of abolitionists, Memorial day is about military valor and sacrifice, etc.
Columbus Day just makes no sense. Even if we ignore that Columbus was a monstrous person hated even by his peers,… what exactly is the point of the holiday? Columbus isn't known for any particular virtue at all, and the discovery of inhabited Caribbean islands by a Spanish-financed Italian explorer has no clear meaning for us as Americans. It barely has anything to do with us.
Someone can have a big impact on history and not be worth celebrating.
The thing I think about all the time is that I think our holidays should have a point. Labor day celebrates the accomplishments of workers and encourages us to adopt their best traits: industriousness, teamwork, determination.
Independence Day is supposed to inspire us to be grateful for the courage showed by the founders who seceded from Great Britain, and model their (supposed) virtues, such as liberty.
Thanksgiving is supposed to celebrate harvests, gratitude, the kindness of strangers, etc. There are certainly problems with the history it exhalts, but it makes sense.
Juneteenth is a celebration of diversity, the achievements of black Americans and of abolitionists, Memorial day is about military valor and sacrifice, etc.
Columbus Day just makes no sense. Even if we ignore that Columbus was a monstrous person hated even by his peers,… what exactly is the point of the holiday? Columbus isn't known for any particular virtue at all, and the discovery of inhabited Caribbean islands by a Spanish-financed Italian explorer has no clear meaning for us as Americans. It barely has anything to do with us.