358 Comments

Just abolish all days honoring people since the reason for the greatness is they were pursuing money and happened to do something that benefited future generations but of course in the process they made someone else suffer. The indigenous weren't saints either. I think any days honoring anyone is pointless no one really thinks of Columbus its just a day off get rid of the day he's dead and gone. Plenty of work for legislatures to do but instead they do stupid shit that does nothing to improve the quality of life for people today.

Expand full comment

The indigenous weren't saints either.----------------Which can be said for most, but they didn't go out of their way to oppress and slaughter others.

Expand full comment

Not sure that's a day a native american would want to honor.

Expand full comment

On foot, I'm sure.

Expand full comment

Um, yeah they did raid other tribes fighting over territory or revenge. Some tribes more peaceful than others. They raided and killed warriors from other tribes and captured the other tribes women and children. Then they had revenge raids on each other. Didn't go to other countries probably because not all that crowded like the old world.

Expand full comment

All nations war for power or defense. U are confusing warring with capturing and genocide. It's like native americans had respect for bufflao. They only killed them for a purpose - for food and clothing. The white man nearly made them extinct because his killing was not out of need but desire. "“Kill every buffalo you can! Every buffalo dead is an Indian gone.” Native americans were slaughtered for no military reason other than being a native. This was the culture of america. The bigotry and racism whites had and largely preserved today was extreme and out of control.

Expand full comment

This reminds me of this other: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/...

The street originated as an informal footpath connecting the docks and piers along the waterfront, a major Atlantic seaport. In 1831, the Philadelphia banker Stephen Girard, died and left the City $500,000 to construct a wide boulevard in its place, to be known as Delaware Avenue.[1] The portion south of Spring Garden Street was controversially renamed after Christopher Columbus in 1992 despite opposition from residents north of Center City Philadelphia and the Lenape (also known as Delaware) nation. Many Philadelphians continue to refer to it as Delaware Avenue.[2] It's not unfair to say that South Philly in particular is well-known to have a much larger contingent of Italian than of Delaware ancestry, but this incident still makes me shake my head.

Expand full comment

You're right, jonnie! You are "uniquely unqualified" and FLUSHED.

Expand full comment

Assume already mentioned. "In actual fact, Columbus did not discover North America. He was the first European to sight the Bahamas archipelago and then the island later named Hispaniola, now split into Haiti and the Dominican Republic. On his subsequent voyages he went farther south, to Central and South America. He never got close to what is now called the United States." https://www.rmg.co.uk/stori...

Expand full comment

I picture it as a slushy drink with blood notes and octopus undertones.

Expand full comment

Or Saint Brenden, or Mansa Musa or Zheng He or the anonomous Japanese fishermen who were shipwrecked in Baja California sometime in the 12th century, or... Alas, people focus on the particular individual, and ignore the impact that particular voyage happened to have. it's the "Great Man" theory of history, rather retro compared to seeing 12 October as the "cumulation of events leading to a major event that changed things for better and worse".

Expand full comment

Know why whiskey was invented?

To keep us Irish from ruling the world.

Expand full comment

Scott Fitzgerald ... who lived there as a teenager.

Expand full comment

True, pretty bad when the people who ran the "Spanish Inquisition" charge you with excessive cruelty

Expand full comment

IF that was his name. I don't buy it, but there's a whole alternative theory gaining some traction that "Cristofo Colombo" was a pseudonym and he was Portuguese.

Expand full comment

People are shocked to find out that Chris was a nasty, brutal SOB. He was a ship's captain in the 15th century. Pretty sure most of them fit that description. It's how you got to be Captain.

Expand full comment