Does holiday for Columbus make sense?

Explorer’s treatment of natives casts shadow over observance

Columbus Day has been a lightning rod for controversy in recent years.

The day honors Christopher Columbus, marking the Italian explorer’s arrival in the Americans on Oct. 12, 1492, the Associated Press reports.

However, Columbus’ legacy is a complex one. Yes, he was an explorer. But according to Biography, he never actually set foot on the shores of North America. Instead, Oct. 12 marks the date that he landed in the Bahamas. He also reached the shorts of Cuba, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and Central and South America.

However, he also forced the native populations into slavery, and punished them “with loss of a limb or death if they did not collect enough gold,” Biography reports.

That has led to a nationwide movement to abolish Columbus Day in favor of Indigenous Peoples Day, which would recognize victims of colonialism, the AP reports.

But that movement has been controversial, with some Italian-Americans protesting that changing the name is culturally insensitive to Italian-Americans. It’s a hot-button issue in many communities. This year, Columbus, Ohio, took a different approach. The city — named for the explorer — decided to keep city government offices open this year, the AP reports.

Instead, this year the city will honor veterans, and city offices will close on Veterans Day. Officials told the AP that the move wasn’t motivated by the “Columbus Day vs. Indigenous Peoples Day” controversy. Instead, the city made the decision to honor the veterans who work for the city by observing Veterans Day, which was previously not observed.

The city did not drop the name “Columbus Day,” and it made the move to celebrate Veterans Day quietly. But the move is an interesting one.

It’s not surprising that some want to move away from honoring Christopher Columbus, considering his actions and behavior in the Americas. That doesn’t mean that one is diminishing the accomplishments of Italian-Americans — in fact, perhaps the next movement can be toward finding a better person to honor.

What do you think readers? Is observing Columbus Day the right move, or is it time to change it? Let us know. Share your thoughts online at www.YumaSun. com, or send us a Letter to the Editor at letters@ yumasun.com.