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Let the Europeans honor Columbus Day! It was their idea to begin with!

Cristoforo Colombo, known as Cristbal Coln, also known as Christopher Columbus sailed under the Christian cross for Spain. If current day US honestly practices separation of church and state, then there is no valid reason for honoring Columbus Day, as it was a religiously funded conquest by Europeans. I have no problem with an account of the conquest in history books as I feel proving flat to be round is something spectacular and religious violence in the name of God an interesting topic. The US, as a country 516 years later has more to do with British colonization than a false-discovery of continents already inhabited. So, let Genova, Italy and Madrid, Spain honor Columbus Day as the oxymoron seed of Catholic globalization and scientific discovery and let Plymouth, England honor it for watering the seeds into what we now know as the US globalization.

As an American with Italian roots, I always found Columbus Day to be a celebration of pride for first generation immigrants, whether from Italy, Portugal or South America. One side of the arguement is why eliminate a day off from work to celebraten? The other side is that Americans need a reason for celebrating, in which we can all relate to. If you think of it, Columbus Day is sort of a special interest group day. We are all from different backgrounds, so why not celebrate Leif Ericson Day or Native American Day for preparing everything for the Europeans? Oh! Thanksgiving Day symbolically does this. Do the Spanish honor the great Moor, Tariq ibn-Ziyad for leading the Moors into land that is now current day Spain? No! So, lets honor our own to unify the US rather than divide it.

The US should celebrate historical significances that happened in the US by US Americans, like landing on the moon and inventions like the paper clip by Samuel B. Fay of the United States in 1867. These large and little details that fill up our short history as a country are more unifying and carry no regional or historical scar. Columbus Day does not directly mean anything to the US today. We should be honoring National Immigrants Day, because every US citizen stems from immigration from another country. This day would signify the plight of all our ancestors that made it possible for us to be US citizens today, regardless of whether they came over from the Mayflower, Santa Maria, or Air Lingus. The parades would be more multi-cultural than they are at a Columbus Day parade and more people would be represented.

Learn more about this author, Salvatore Oliva.
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