I have this idea that heroic biography is another word for propaganda. My chief evidence being the honors we bestow on Christopher Columbus, the man who brought disease, slavery, and genocide to the Americas. I refuse to celebrate this creep, but I hope you folks that get it enjoy your day off.

Here's a quote from his journals: "Let us in the name of the Holy Trinity," Columbus later wrote, "go on sending all the slaves that can be sold." You may be surprised that Columbus was sending, not Africans but Native Americans back to Europe as slaves. Think about that for a minute. Also think about the fact that the Arawaks, the first people to greet Columbus, are extinct.

I propose we change the name and purpose of the holiday to something similar to what Hawaii and five or six other states have done, a day to celebrate all the cultures and people that have come together to make America. I could get into that.

If you want to read something fascinating and revolting at the same time here is the journal from Columbus's first voyage. The man is very different from the picture of him in your history books.

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