Monday, October 10, 2022

Just one more thing...

 








As we all know by now, without running down the list of infamy, it is completely inappropriate to have any holiday celebrating Christopher Columbus, or anything he did. While his tale is surely not to be forgotten, it is most distinctly not to be lionized.

But what, I ask you, are we to do with the day now?

Commonly in these situations we flip the story. And I think the boat has already sailed on this one. October 10, 2022 is now the federal holiday known as Indigenous Peoples' Day. But this doesn't set well with me. Oh, absolutely I think we should have a federal holiday for Indigenous Peoples' Day. I just think it should be its own thing, a new holiday. I am certain we don't have nearly enough holidays, and few of them sufficiently supported enough to have real meaning. Besides, the economy of switching from something fundamentally celebrating an Italian to celebrating the people he ushered in a genocide for seems, oddly, too easy, and maybe weirdly inappropriate? Is it Indigenous Peoples' Day, or the Indigenous Peoples' Memorial of their Tragedy Day? Let's have an Indigenous Peoples' Day on its own merits. Maybe we can let Indigenous People decide what that is and what it means. And maybe we can give them Senators and Congress people and a decentralized state and reparations along with that.

I don't know, really, I'm just throwing ideas out there.


But what to do with Columbus Day then?

There is no reason not to celebrate the rich contributions of Italian Americans to our culture. We just chose one of the worst ones possible to do that with.

So how about we make it Columbo Day, after the great, fictional detective, a positive Italian American role model?

He solved murders! He brought justice. He was endearing!

And who didn't like Peter Falk?


So as far as I'm concerned then it is Columbo Day, and it is unfair and hostile to Italian Americans that I am working at the library on that day. 

The entire County Management could use a long bout of Cultural Sensitivity Training to tell you the truth. 

But I guess we all knew that by the way they keep assigning it to everyone else.









No comments:

Post a Comment

If you were wondering, yes, you should comment. Not only does it remind me that I must write in intelligible English because someone is actually reading what I write, but it is also a pleasure for me since I am interested in anything you have to say.

I respond to pretty much every comment. It's like a free personalized blog post!

One last detail: If you are commenting on a post more than two weeks old I have to go in and approve it. It's sort of a spam protection device. Also, rarely, a comment will go to spam on its own. Give either of those a day or two and your comment will show up on the blog.