October 9, 2006
Columbus Day.
In 1934, President Roosevelt gave Christopher Columbus his own holiday.
On the second Monday in October, Americans across the world celebrate the man who "discovered" The United States Of America. We sit back in quiet reflection pondering the man who started it all.
“In 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue.”
That’s the one date everyone remembers, the date in virtually every school child’s history textbook. But do people realize who exactly this man was? Do people understand that the man we hold in such high esteem was actually a cold-blooded killer? Do people realize that the land Columbus so called "discovered" had people living on it long before 1492? Do people remember that Columbus kidnapped twenty-five Indians and took them back with him to Spain? Do people know that the slave trade Columbus created destroyed whole Indian nations?
Not to be rhetorical, no. Few realize who Columbus really was.
