Today we in the USA celebrate COLUMBUS DAY...!

It's a Federal Holiday, there's a parade down Fifth Avenue in NYC and everything.

So even though I don't have the day off from work, I'm thinking that in the spirit of this glorious day, on the way home I'll swing by an old person's home, beat them up, give them a disease, stick any survvivors in a closet, and declare that I've "discovered" the place and declare it mine.

Who's with me?

PurpleJedi said:

Today we in the USA celebrate COLUMBUS DAY...!

It's a Federal Holiday, there's a parade down Fifth Avenue in NYC and everything.

So even though I don't have the day off from work, I'm thinking that in the spirit of this glorious day, on the way home I'll swing by an old person's home, beat them up, give them a disease, stick any survvivors in a closet, and declare that I've "discovered" the place and declare it mine.

Who's with me?

Is the food any good? I cant be bothered if the food sucks..

The kids are complaining because our school district doesn't have off, but others do.

I just keep telling them we just don't have it off, but I'm not sure why. When I first started here we did.

I'm not really allowed to express the view you stated above, but I feel the same way!

I didn't even realize what today was.

Little Italy's giving out some free food about this time.

I still feel ya though.

PurpleJedi said:

Today we in the USA celebrate COLUMBUS DAY...!

It's a Federal Holiday, there's a parade down Fifth Avenue in NYC and everything.

So even though I don't have the day off from work, I'm thinking that in the spirit of this glorious day, on the way home I'll swing by an old person's home, beat them up, give them a disease, stick any survvivors in a closet, and declare that I've "discovered" the place and declare it mine.

Who's with me?

I suggest American orgers to photowhore in loincloth in commemoration. Less aggresive, right?

I'll play the Conquistador

tinaz said:

PurpleJedi said:

Today we in the USA celebrate COLUMBUS DAY...!

It's a Federal Holiday, there's a parade down Fifth Avenue in NYC and everything.

So even though I don't have the day off from work, I'm thinking that in the spirit of this glorious day, on the way home I'll swing by an old person's home, beat them up, give them a disease, stick any survvivors in a closet, and declare that I've "discovered" the place and declare it mine.

Who's with me?

Is the food any good? I cant be bothered if the food sucks..

Well...we'll take what they have in the fridge and add to it, cook some good meals, then say that they never had a fridge to begin with.

chocolate1 said:

The kids are complaining because our school district doesn't have off, but others do.

I just keep telling them we just don't have it off, but I'm not sure why. When I first started here we did.

I'm not really allowed to express the view you stated above, but I feel the same way!

Huh?

Hands out blankets.

morningsong said:

I didn't even realize what today was.

Little Italy's giving out some free food about this time.

I still feel ya though.

Yeah...I don't fully understand the whole "Italian Pride" aspect of Columbus Day.

The dude was Italian...OK...but Italy never even joined the Imperialist/Colonization trend of the "Age of Discovery" unless you count the failed attempt to conquer Ethiopia.

PANDURITO said:

I suggest American orgers to photowhore in loincloth in commemoration. Less aggresive, right?

I'll play the Conquistador

lazycrockett said:

Hands out blankets.

...only if they're ladden with smallpox...

http://www.dickipedia.org/dick.php?title=Christopher_Columbus

I'm not complaining that I have the day off from work (even though I find it odd that we don't get November 11/Veteran's Day off), but I really don't get how they are trying to spin it as Italian-American Heritage/Pride Day. While many other nationalities have parades to celebrate, none of them get a Federal Holiday. I think they should get rid of Columbus Day, otherwise I want March 17th off too, and German Heritage Parade day, and West Indian Pride Day, and Israeli Pride Day, and hell, Gay Pride Day, too.

jone70 said:

http://www.dickipedia.org/dick.php?title=Christopher_Columbus

I'm not complaining that I have the day off from work (even though I find it odd that we don't get November 11/Veteran's Day off), but I really don't get how they are trying to spin it as Italian-American Heritage/Pride Day. While many other nationalities have parades to celebrate, none of them get a Federal Holiday. I think they should get rid of Columbus Day, otherwise I want March 17th off too, and German Heritage Parade day, and West Indian Pride Day, and Israeli Pride Day, and hell, Gay Pride Day, too.

PurpleJedi said:

chocolate1 said:

The kids are complaining because our school district doesn't have off, but others do.

I just keep telling them we just don't have it off, but I'm not sure why. When I first started here we did.

I'm not really allowed to express the view you stated above, but I feel the same way!

Huh?

If she told her students what you said about Columbus day, she'd get fired!

I still don't get the hate against Columbus / Conquistadores. The conquerors before and after them were just as greedy/expeditive.

World's history until 1945 (and many would say until 1991) is basically full of violence and bloodshed...and don't get me started with the 00s decade...

sextonseven said:

PurpleJedi said:

Huh?

If she told her students what you said about Columbus day, she'd get fired!

Ahhh-!

Got it. At first I read it as "my kids" as in her children.

JoeTyler said:

I still don't get the hate against Columbus / Conquistadores. The conquerors before and after them were just as greedy/expeditive.

World's history until 1945 (and many would say until 1991) is basically full of violence and bloodshed...and don't get me started with the 00s decade...

I'm forty years old. Growing up, I was TAUGHT that Columbus was an "sailor" who wanted to "find a path to trade with India" and "discovered" this "vast, untamed, wilderness" that is America.

- Columbus was an explorer whose imperialistic nature pretty much set the tone for the next 500 years. His accounts to the king & queen of Spain were not of "discovery" but rather conquest. A brutal one at that.

- If trade was his objective, then the shipfuls of armed soldiers that he sailed with on his subsequent trips were poor choices for "trade" if he truly believed he was in "India" as the myth is told.

- There was an estimated 250 million inhabitants in the Americas before the landing of Columbus. It's difficult to truly know because of the plagues that swept the continent after Europe exported Smallpox. There were countelss nations with trade, with agriculture, with literate societies...all reduced to a mere fraction within a few decades.

Yes...the world is chock full of conquests and empires and even genocide...but we do not hold a parade for Genghis Khan do we? We don't celebrate the fall of Byzantium with "Ottoman pride" do we? Hitler may have done wonders for the psyche of Germany and helped plot it's course towards the modern powerhouse that it has become...but the horrors of his genocide clearly tarnish ANY sort of shine to his legacy. Columbus was no better than any other bloodthirsty, gold-mongering, 15th century European "adventurer". Had he truly been a businessman seeking trade, history would have turned out so much differently. Imagine if you could, the Americas not having been raped of their natural resources in order to fund the golden thrones of Europe but rather goods and services traded back & forth between sovereign nations??? Maybe we wouldn't have had to wait 500 years for the world to get to where we are? Perhaps?

Anyway...hope I answered you properly with my rant.

jone70 said:

While many other nationalities have parades to celebrate, none of them get a Federal Holiday.

You honestly think Columbus Day was established as a Federal Holiday in the States to celebrate Italian heritage? For real?

The holiday was established to celebrate Columbus landing in the New World. It's not just an American holiday, it's also celebrated in Spain & Uruguay & the Bahamas & many other countries in Latin America - since the 1700's, long before it became a US Federal Holiday in 1937.

Italians simply chose to have their heritage day coincide with the Columbus holiday, can't blame them since both Columbus & Amerigo Vespucci were Italian and the long weekend makes it convenient. It would not be very convenient to have the celebration on St Josephs Day, since that is always just two days after St Patricks Day.

Pokeno4Money said:

jone70 said:

While many other nationalities have parades to celebrate, none of them get a Federal Holiday.

You honestly think Columbus Day was established as a Federal Holiday in the States to celebrate Italian heritage? For real?

The holiday was established to celebrate Columbus landing in the New World. It's not just an American holiday, it's also celebrated in Spain & Uruguay & the Bahamas & many other countries in Latin America - since the 1700's, long before it became a US Federal Holiday in 1937.

Italians simply chose to have their heritage day coincide with the Columbus holiday, can't blame them since both Columbus & Amerigo Vespucci were Italian and the long weekend makes it convenient. It would not be very convenient to have the celebration on St Josephs Day, since that is always just two days after St Patricks Day.

FYI - in Latin America it's "Day of the Race", celebrating culture.

I can't say for sure about Uruguay...but I'd be hard-pressed to find a Latin American who isn't Eurocentric willing to celebrate the Conquest.

PurpleJedi said:

FYI - in Latin America it's "Day of the Race", celebrating culture.

I can't say for sure about Uruguay...but I'd be hard-pressed to find a Latin American who isn't Eurocentric willing to celebrate the Conquest.

Some Latin countries changed the focus of the holiday, not many.

For example, Dominican Republic & Colombia it's Discovery Day.

Mexico it's Discovery of the Americas Day.

Pokeno4Money said:

PurpleJedi said:

FYI - in Latin America it's "Day of the Race", celebrating culture.

I can't say for sure about Uruguay...but I'd be hard-pressed to find a Latin American who isn't Eurocentric willing to celebrate the Conquest.

Some Latin countries changed the focus of the holiday, not many.

For example, Dominican Republic & Colombia it's Discovery Day.

Mexico it's Discovery of the Americas Day.

I googled "Dia de la Raza"

Yeah, apparently the day has been named and renamed frequently.

This is what I got;

Argentina = Day of Respect to Cultural Diversity (changed from Day of the Race in 2007)

Bahamas = Discovery Day

Belize = Pan-American Day

Chile = Day of the Discovery of Two Worlds (changed from Day of the Race in 2000)

Colombia = Day of the Race ()

Costa Rica = Day of Cultures (changed from Day of Discovery & Race)

Honduras = Day of the Race

Mexico = Day of the Race

El Salvador = Day of the Race

Uruguay = Day of the Americas

Venezuela = Day of Indigenous Resistance (thank you Hugo Chavez! )

Spain = Festival of Hispanic Culture(?)

España: celebró esta fecha como Fiesta de la Raza entre 1918 (mediante una ley de 15 de junio de 1918^[2] , declarada por el gobierno de Antonio Maura durante el reinado de Alfonso XIII) y 1958, año en que mediante un decreto^[6] se cambia su denominación oficial por la de Fiesta de la Hispanidad, confirmada en 1981 (en 1940, una orden ministerial^[13] había cambiado la denominación a Día de la Raza). En la actualidad es la fiesta nacional española, con la denominación de Fiesta Nacional de España.^[14] En la ciudad de Zaragoza, la festividad coincide con la Fiesta del Pilar, en honor a la Virgen del Pilar, patrona de la ciudad.

NDRU said:

I must have gone to a good school, because I was never taught he was a good person or even did anything particularly "good" Only that he did something significant. But so did Hitler. It's surprising to me that we still celebrate him.

...or your teacher ignored the textbooks...

PurpleJedi said:

NDRU said:

I must have gone to a good school, because I was never taught he was a good person or even did anything particularly "good" Only that he did something significant. But so did Hitler. It's surprising to me that we still celebrate him.

...or your teacher ignored the textbooks...

Not really, they taught the facts of his voyages, and that he did something very historically significant. And IMO he did.

But they told us about Leif Erikson, and about the consequences of what Columbus did too.

NDRU said:

PurpleJedi said:

...or your teacher ignored the textbooks...

Not really, they taught the facts of his voyages, and that he did something very historically significant. And IMO he did.

But they told us about Leif Erikson, and about the consequences of what Columbus did too.

You're in your 20's or something, right?

PurpleJedi said:

Pokeno4Money said:

I googled "Dia de la Raza"

Yeah, apparently the day has been named and renamed frequently.

This is what I got;

Argentina = Day of Respect to Cultural Diversity (changed from Day of the Race in 2007)

Bahamas = Discovery Day

Belize = Pan-American Day

Chile = Day of the Discovery of Two Worlds (changed from Day of the Race in 2000)

Colombia = Day of the Race ()

Costa Rica = Day of Cultures (changed from Day of Discovery & Race)

Honduras = Day of the Race

Mexico = Day of the Race

El Salvador = Day of the Race

Uruguay = Day of the Americas

Venezuela = Day of Indigenous Resistance (thank you Hugo Chavez! )

Spain = Festival of Hispanic Culture(?)

España: celebró esta fecha como Fiesta de la Raza entre 1918 (mediante una ley de 15 de junio de 1918^[2] , declarada por el gobierno de Antonio Maura durante el reinado de Alfonso XIII) y 1958, año en que mediante un decreto^[6] se cambia su denominación oficial por la de Fiesta de la Hispanidad, confirmada en 1981 (en 1940, una orden ministerial^[13] había cambiado la denominación a Día de la Raza). En la actualidad es la fiesta nacional española, con la denominación de Fiesta Nacional de España.^[14] En la ciudad de Zaragoza, la festividad coincide con la Fiesta del Pilar, en honor a la Virgen del Pilar, patrona de la ciudad.

Now y'all got me confused. What date are y'all talking about? With all these Latin folks celebrating there definitely going to be some good eats involved, especially in these parts, so I need to mark my calendar accordingly.

PurpleJedi said:

NDRU said:

Not really, they taught the facts of his voyages, and that he did something very historically significant. And IMO he did.

But they told us about Leif Erikson, and about the consequences of what Columbus did too.

You're in your 20's or something, right?

No I'm 39, but most people I talk to were not taught the same things I was taught in school about Columbus

I thought everyone knew!!

[Edited 10/10/11 13:32pm]

NDRU said:

PurpleJedi said:

You're in your 20's or something, right?

No I'm 39, but most people I talk to were not taught the same things I was taught in school about Columbus

I thought everyone knew!!

[Edited 10/10/11 13:32pm]

That's awesome.

You must've had hippie teachers in your area!

morningsong said:

PurpleJedi said:

Now y'all got me confused. What date are y'all talking about? With all these Latin folks celebrating there definitely going to be some good eats involved, especially in these parts, so I need to mark my calendar accordingly.

That would be TODAY.

"In fourteen hundred and ninety-two...Columbus sailed the ocean blue...everyone died...the end."

PurpleJedi said:

NDRU said:

No I'm 39, but most people I talk to were not taught the same things I was taught in school about Columbus

I thought everyone knew!!

[Edited 10/10/11 13:32pm]

That's awesome.

You must've had hippie teachers in your area!

yeah I suppose, I grew up in Malibu, which is seriously lacking in diversity, but the teaching is maybe a little more progressive