Did you celebrate Columbus Day today?
If you did, did you know what it was you were celebrating?
The United States celebrates Christopher Columbus and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, both with federal holidays that bear their names: Dr. King, third Monday of January, on or around January 15, and Columbus on the second Monday in October, on or around October 12.
Columbus who initiated and participated in the most massive genocide ever done against an entire continent with the decimation of millions of indigenous peoples, as well as set the foundation for the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade, left a legacy of murder, theft, and brutality that caused the population of Native Americans of this hemisphere to go from 50 million before 1492, to the present day population of a few million (2 million in America, 1 million in Canada).
Dr. King who fought to destroy the vestiges of de jure and de facto neo-slavery of Jane Crow segregation, left a legacy of love and humility towards his fellow human beings, as he fought against race hate, the viciousness of poverty and despair, the end of the Vietnam War, and to make this nation eradicate the destruction of bigotry that crippled not only Blacks, but also Whites and all other racial and ethnic groups.
Columbus: a slaver, murderer, genocidist, and yes, a gold digger.
Dr. King: peaceful, faithful, non-violent, a true Christian who laid down his life for his fellow humans.
Yet, America persists in celebrating Columbus Day by honoring a butcher.
I wonder why?
Ann
