Originally posted October 8th, 2007.
This post should have been Friday’s. But with my schedule, I usually have no idea what holiday it is until I find out something I need is closed. As far as Americans are concerned, let’s talk about the most important failure of all: Christopher Columbus! Today is a day to celebrate man’s refusal to ask for directions, a day to celebrate someone “discovering” a place with people already live, a place that was actually discovered hundreds of years earlier by someone else. It the most screwed up holiday of all! From Wikipedia.org:
Columbus’ voyages across the Atlantic Ocean began a European effort at exploration and colonization of the Western Hemisphere. While history places great significance on his first voyage of 1492, he did not actually reach the mainland until his third voyage in 1498. He discovered the island accidentally while trying to find an alternative route to India, hence the Native Americans being called “Indians”. Likewise, he was not the earliest European explorer to reach the Americas, and there are accounts of European transatlantic contact prior to 1492.
So let’s celebrate one of the most fortunate failures in American history. Fortunate for everyone except the Native Indians, I guess.
But, hey, let’s not let that ruin a day off.
