Happy Columbus Day!

Well another year, another Colum­bus Day. As I real­ized that this day has to mean more than just another day off for me right (thank you Jesus for gov­ern­ment employ­ment)? Surely this man of the same first name as I accom­plished great things right? Why else would we cel­e­brate a day in his honor? Let’s take a look at the resume of Christo­pher Columbus.

We cel­e­brate a day in his honor as he is the one who “dis­cov­ered” the Amer­i­cas. The worst part is that he also decided to do all this in the name of Jesus.

Your High­nesses, as Catholic Chris­tians and Princes who love the holy Chris­t­ian faith, and the prop­a­ga­tion of it, and who are ene­mies of the sect of Mahoma and to all idol­a­tries and here­sies, resolved to send me, Cristo­bol Colon, to the said parts of India to see the said princes, and the cities and lands, and their dis­po­si­tion, with a view that they might be con­verted to our holy faith; and ordered that I should not go by land to the east­ward, as had been cus­tom­ary, but that I should go by way of the west, wither up to this day, we do not know for cer­tain that any one has gone.
Christo­pher Colum­bus, Jour­nal of His First Voyage

His record of mur­der, enslave­ment (send­ing back over 500 natives after his sec­ond voy­age), bring­ing dis­ease to the natives, and using them for all their mate­r­ial wealth has led "The National Council of Churches declares the anniversary of Columbus 'not a time for celebration' but for 'reflection and repentance' in which whites must acknowledge a continuing history of 'oppression, degradation, and genocide.'"

Despite the fact that there is evi­dence of pre-Columbus trans-atlantic con­tact, and the fact that he never “dis­cov­ered” our very coun­try that cel­e­brates the holiday—it makes you won­der why do we cel­e­brate this man? Can I get a “woot, woot” for the real natives?

I will con­tinue to be amazed at what our coun­try cel­e­brates as “heroic.” It seems like a day when peo­ple are actu­ally con­cerned with truth and admirable causes that the cause of social injus­tice will con­tinue to be cel­e­brated by Amer­i­cans hap­pily and naively. Put Jesus in a man­ager, make the res­ur­rec­tion about a bunny, cel­e­brate a mur­der and rapist, have a hol­i­day about occult prac­tices, and don’t for­get that always cheer­ful flag day!