It’s Time to End Columbus Day

Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492. We’ve been hearing this since elementary school. But we never hear anything about, “As Columbus searched to seize, he went and spread nasty disease.” As kids, Columbus was seen as a hero almost, we failed to recognize the horrors Columbus truly brought to the Americas.

Christopher Col-DUMB-bus, as history teacher Eric Greving calls him, was a horrible person. When he came over to the Bahamas and Central/South America, he enslaved the natives, mutilated them, and killed them. The Tiano, one of the tribes Columbus and his men encountered, were peaceful. They happily traded with the voyagers and then BAM! They were enslaved and put to work. If the poor Tiano people didn’t collect enough gold for the greedy Spanish, they had their limbs chopped off. On top of this, the disgusting barbarians brought over diseases. Between the mutilation and the diseases, the Tiano population was killed off. 

These actions were brought to the King and Queen of Spain’s attention, and they had Columbus imprisoned for his actions. So why is it that we celebrate an imprisoned murderer? Is it because he found America? If that’s your reasoning, you are dead wrong my friend.

Columbus didn’t find the America we know, love, and live in. He landed in the Bahamas, the islands down near the Gulf of Mexico. If we should celebrate a person, it should be Lief Erikson. 

Leif Erikson first set foot in North America 500 year before Columbus, in 1001 A.D. according to mnc.net. Don’t believe me? Look up “who first set foot in America” the first link is to npr.org, stating that the true founder really is Erikson. 

However the argument could be made, “why celebrate a founder at all? There were already people here.” Yes, yes there were. That’s why many states celebrate or recognize Indigenous People Day. Seventeen of the 50 US states do this, and props to them for doing so. Colonizers throughout the Americas’ history have been horrible to those already living here. They deserve a day to be celebrated.

So no, we shouldn’t celebrate Columbus Day. I want to celebrate those who were here before us, or our true founder. Not some overrated murderer.