Banks Aren’t Open on Columbus Day, But Maybe They Should Be

By Kelly Turner on October 12th, 2009

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Today is Columbus Day, a holiday meant to recognize the day that Columbus accidentally stumbled onto the Americas and laid claim.  For me, it means I can’t go to the bank, but for others, it means protest and a reminder of our shameful start as a country.

Hundreds of Brown University students have asked the Rhode Island college to stop observing Columbus Day, saying Christopher Columbus’s violent treatment of Native Americans is inconsistent with the values of Brown.  They asked to have a different day off of school, to avoid any connection with the holiday at all, but settled for changing the name to “Fall Weekend” because school officials did not want to interfere with anyone’s schedule.

Columbus Day has been a federal holiday since 1934, but not a popular one- Nevada doesn’t even recognize it, Tennessee celebrates if after Thanksgiving to get a 4 day weekend and many banks and schools remain open.

Now, I remember Columbus Day as a kid, which we always observed, but it was more of a history lesson than a celebration. It was the day that our teachers reminded us of how America was ‘discovered,’ by accident, and that people were actually here before us so it wasn’t technically ours. This is also when I learned that Columbus wasn’t all he was cracked up to be; he was actually a jerk with no sense of direction who thought whatever he touched, he owned, and used rape, murder, and violence to get it.  I don’t ever remember a Columbus Day class party where we celebrated Columbus as being an awesome guy, and were told we should live our lives by his example while eating cookies that resembled the scalps of slain Native Americans.  It was a warning, and a history lesson that opened my eyes to the atrocities even our dear America is capable of- and I think its a lesson we need to be reminded of every year.

History is never pretty, but you can’t censor it. Just because it makes us look bad doesn’t mean we should pretend it never happened.  But should the federal holiday commemorating it remain? Is it a slap in the face to our Native American brothers and sisters, and the American ideals in general or is it a yearly reminder of a history we never wish to repeat?