For years children in elementary school or even earlier have learned this simple rhyme:
"In 14 hundred and 92, Columbus sailed the ocean blue."
It's still with many of us. Ask when Christopher Columbus "discovered" America and the answer comes quickly-1492
Today is Columbus Day, a federal holiday that honors the explorer and his exploits in the New World.
For most of us it's not much of a holiday. Federal and, some but not all, state workers get the day off. Students get to stay home from school. But that's about it. In cities like New York with large numbers of Italian-Americans the day is one to celebrate their national heritage. There are parades and festivals, much like St. Patrick's
Day is to Irish-Americans. But Columbus Day never spread across the country like St. Patrick's. On March 17 everybody is Irish and the party is on, whether in Los Angeles or Boston, Miami or Seattle-even right here in the Twin Cities.
But Columbus Day? Most Americans pay no attention at all. Still, there are some out there who still think it's important. And some who think it should be abolished.
At question is whether the country should celebrate the arrival of Christopher Columbus and his crew to these shores at all.
Every year when the holiday rolls around, many Native American groups and allied scholars argue that Columbus wasn't a hero at all, but a pirate whose soul aim was to loot and plunder in the name of the Spanish crown. Besides, they say. Columbus never even set foot on what we now call the United States.
And, to a great extent they're right. But too often we try to impose contemporary moral standards on historical figures. Columbus was a man of the 15th century, not the 21st, and that was a rougher, more brutal era. He was a product of his time, not ours.
We live in divisive times, with Americans lining up one side or the other about all sorts of issues. A few weeks ago it was Confederate statues. Now it's NFL players kneeling during the National Anthem. And next week? Who knows?
Some cities have replaced Columbus Day with celebrations honoring Native Americans. It's fine to honor the first inhabitants of these United States. But we see no reason that Columbus must be thrown onto the scrap heap of history. Without Columbus' journeys to this part of the world, history would not have unfolded as it did.
And that could well mean that the U.S. as we know it might not exist today. That's something to remember.
History isn't always pretty. We should celebrate the good and acknowledge the bad. We learn from both.
Happy Columbus Day.