Tuesday, October 7, 2014
Mediated Communication #3 - “Seattle to celebrate Indigenous Peoples’ Day on Columbus holiday”.
I heard part of a story on a news station the other day about Seattle, Washington changing Columbus Day holiday to Indigenous Peoples’ Day. The story intrigued me and I wanted to know more so I went in search of the story. I found an article on Al Jazeera entitled “Seattle to celebrate Indigenous Peoples’ Day on Columbus holiday”. I read the article several times. It is a very interesting idea to celebrate this holiday and dedicate it to the indigenous people who were here long before Christopher Columbus ever learned how to sail a boat. I think it is only fitting that we celebrate the people who survived and thrived here long before anyone ‘discovered’ this land. Apparently, this is also being done elsewhere such as; Bellingham, Washington that celebrates Coast Salish Day, Minneapolis celebrates Indigenous Peoples’ Day, and South Dakota which celebrates Native American Day. I found myself in agreement with this idea and irritated by the Italian-American’s who feel disrespected by this action. The Italian-American’s feel that “America wouldn’t be America without Christopher Columbus”. I don’t know about that but I do know that there were already many groups of people living on this continent when Mr. Columbus discovered it and I think they deserve recognition. I thought the article was well written and it explored ideas and asked questions I hadn’t thought of, which always makes for interesting reading.
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Great points made to this article. I agree that it is important to have certain days that celebrate people of our heritage. I think the argument is that it is being done on the same day. There are 364 other days a year they could have chosen. Why did they choose that day? They wanted to make a statement. There would be no confrontation if they chose another day for Indigenous People Day. That is the only way I would be in support of it.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting to see why Columbus Day came about considering Columbus never landed in the States. According to NPR (http://www.npr.org/blogs/codeswitch/2013/10/14/232120128/how-columbus-sailed-into-u-s-history-thanks-to-italians) there is a purpose for calling it Columbus Day, which does make sense that Italian Americans would take offense for those who change it. I agree with Sean why not choose another day for other cultures?
ReplyDeleteI found this on Senate.gov, "Christopher Columbus was seen by Congress as battling great obstacles with remarkable determination. By commemorating his voyage to the New World, the nation would be honoring the courage and determination which enabled generation after generation of immigrants from many nations to find freedom and opportunity in America. Such a holiday would also provide “an annual reaffirmation by the American people of their faith in the future, a declaration of willingness to face with confidence the imponderables of unknown tomorrows.” I think that Columbus Day is necessarily about Columbus but about all individuals who came together and made us the country we are. Maybe, now knowing how Columbus treated the indigenous people that he came in contact with, the name should be changed. http://www.senate.gov/reference/resources/pdf/Federal_Holidays.pdf
ReplyDeleteHmm, this gets tricky! Obviously, they were making a statement by celebrating this on Columbus Day, and yes there are 364 days to recognize others. However, I can see their point as to why Columbus would get his own day when this land was already established. However, would this country be what it is now if Columbus did not land here? Both sides could be cogently argued. I think that Columbus did do a lot for establishing our country and we should keep the day Columbus Day.
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