Should Columbus Day become Native American Day?

should we have a day to celebrate Hitler? I'm sure he had his good days too. Besides, Columbus never set foot on true soil that is now the United States. The Vikings and Amerigo Vespucci were here before him. He did NOTHING for our country! And forget having a Native American day... We have a month (November) that hardly anyone recognizes anyway. Let's try to fix that first before getting a holiday on our plate.

The problem for me is that the very history that is cited is wrong. For one thing, the discovery idea is a Eurocentric one. If an aboriginal person jumps in a boat and sails to France, does that mean he has 'discovered' it? Since he would be encountering Europeans, I suppose it would not count as a discovery, since only Europeans can discover stuff. Until Europeans and their derivative counterparts the world over (USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, etc.) recognize this flawed logic, the tension between Eurocentric ideas and everything else will be at odds. We are stuck with a mythology that the HAVES believe (it has been inculcated at an early age) and it blinds them to certain important facts, such as the Americas were already occupied by human beings when Columbus arrived. The ‘discovery’ ideas is a convenient way to justify what came next.

Let's move beyond the Columbus vs. Native American debate (not that it is not a worthy discussion), and instead devote this day to the spirit of discovery, whether by young or old, the famous or the infamous, the grand discoveries of place or though or the small fascinations of a child's backyard.

Rather than single out Columbus, why not a "spirit of discovery" day which celebrates discoverers, large and small, young and old, and promotes the process of discovery and invention in human endeavor?

" ... ... ... why do we have to be stuck with this fortune hunter?"

Because he is significant in our historical understanding of America. What he did was a product of his historical times and though the idea of celebrating may be a bit absurd given his treatment of Native peoples, he nonetheless requires recognition given his pushing the limits of frontiers and what he did to make further the known world of the time. This adds balanced interpretation to the study of history. History is uncomfortable and if we eliminate Columbus from recognition we need to consider that we are sanitizing our past. Except for Native Americans we are all beneficiaries of what Columbus discovered, warts and all. I think in this day in age we tend to withhold recognition based on moral terms in despite accomplishment. Obviously he was no saint but what he did was noteworthy and should be seen as such in our history books. The fact that we have a day that acknowledges it give national credence to the discovery of North America and as we are already losing a lot of basics, we need to insure we at least understand our past, noble or not.

Perhaps Columbus Day should become a day that celebrates both Native Americans and Immigrants. I think that we would all benefit from a day to reflect on and celebrate the diverse origins of the US population so that we can do a better job of preserving this diversity for future generations.

I would just do away with Columbus Day. At the same time the treatment of the indigenous people of the Americas is an important lesson that helps explain many of the ills of the world today. The story of a kindly people creating something out of nothing is a myth. The USA (you could also name any of the colonial powers of Europe here too) is a country whose roots are bloody and exploitative. And nothing has changed since those first years - we (I am a citizen) just keep on doing our thing. When we want something we just come up with a reason to take it and it does not matter who dies or what culture is wrecked, etc. Back in the day (Pilgrim time) it was God's will, then Manifest Destiny, and now Oil (weapons of mass destruction, whoops nation building, whoops women's rights (other women not ours), whoops democracy). If we are going to continue our imperialism, let's just own up to it. Hello over there, next place we are going to exploit, better get ready because you have something we want and we’re just coming up with a pretext to attack you. And let’s drop the hero worship crap and go with what we really love, and that is money. We should have 'National Greed Day'. It would be a great teachable moment in schools. We could have all the bigger kids take stuff from the smaller ones, or have groups of kids take stuff from a weaker group while infecting them with mock diseases, or pretending (it is school after all) to end their lives. At the end of the day, the kid(s) with the most plunder get their own holiday. Yeah, that IS ugly.

Forget about Columbus Day, we need to look to the future! Who should get credit for discovering Earth?

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We need to keep our history as it is for what it is otherwise some of the more important parts of it and people could get forgotten or left out. We still need to study Columbus both for his contributions and well as his "sins'. After all he was a product of his history just like we all are.

Motivation is an important factor in assessing anyone's achievement.  Columbus was first and foremost a fortune hunter, who was willing to go to any lengths to make that fortune.  Even a non-PC huffy person can see that behavior in the world today - the BP Oil Spill, the financial meltdown, etc. all by the same kind of people.  As is always the case, bystanders get hit by the blast, and those who wish to honor this behavior yell – “Do we really have to get PC huffy?”  There are plenty of examples of the human spirit that don’t involve the exploitation of people – why do we have to be stuck with this fortune hunter?