The Oatmeal has a really good comic today, and speaking as a historian I can verify all of its claims.
Columbus was a genocidal monster, and celebrating a Columbus Day is similar in spirit to having a Hitler Day. I think de las Casas would be a far more exemplary person to celebrate, although my only criticism is that we should probably celebrate a Native American at some point too. Perhaps [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiawatha]Hiawatha[/url], a Native who lived and died before European colonization, and who created a union of different polities on American soil recognized by our Congress as a precedent for the eventual United States federal government. A Hiawatha Day would be incredibly appropriate, I think, so that we're celebrating an American history that didn't begin in 1492.
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