Columbus Day

Is it still a holiday? I don't think kids even learn about Columbus anymore, except as an example of bloodthirsty colonialism.

At least Denver still has a Columbus Day parade. As you might expect, though, there were angry protesters with bullhorns. And fake blood. And dismembered baby dolls. You can't have a parade in America without somebody protesting our evil past.

Columbus was brave, and he did bad things. The same is true of the British and French, and Native Americans, Germans, whites, blacks, Muslims, Christians, Jews, atheists, capitalists, socialists, kings, commoners, civilized, barbarians, and every other collection of sentient beings who have ever walked the planet. Some were worse, some were better. Human history is the story of various groups of people fighting each another for land, resources, and power. Everybody has taken turns stomping on others and being stomped on in return. None are guiltless.

America gets trashed regularly by all kinds of people because it's our culture that has survived and is currently at the top of the heap. If I were a Native American, I'd probably hate Columbus Day, too. But building your identity around an attitude of perpetually outraged victimhood doesn't change history, doesn't help anyone, and keeps you stuck in the past. It's a sad way to live, and a sorry way to remember history -- both the good and bad.