Occasional reflections on religion, culture, politics, and anything else that comes into my mind...
REFLECTING ONCE MORE ON
THE IMPACT OF COLUMBUS
It must have been the distraction of Justice Kavanaugh’s confirmation brouhaha, but this year we’ve been largely — and blessedly — spared our annual agony over how the discovery of America ushered in the greatest of injustices and suffering.
Even Indigenous People’s Day, about which so much was made in 2017 when it received official status in Los Angeles, has gotten little attention.
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS
CHANGED HOW WE THINK
When I was a kid I always knew when Columbus Day was approaching. October 12 was also my mother’s birthday, and with my mom there was no forgetting that.
For some years now, an annual round of protests and critical statements have helped to build anticipation of the day on which we honor the great Genoese adventurer (in 2017 observed on Monday, October 9). This year in particular, there’s the proclamation of an alternative celebration in Los Angeles: Indigenous People’s Day.
This is meant to commemorate — or rather, to mourn? — that fabled moment, half a millennium ago, when Europe’s conquest of the Western Hemisphere began.