I was recently checking out the calendar on my kitchen wall to see what my wife and I had scheduled for the upcoming three-day weekend, and I noticed that instead of “Columbus Day,” my calendar had “Indigenous Peoples’ Day” on Monday, October 14. I was quite displeased.

Back in my day, everyone celebrated Christopher Columbus and Columbus Day. We celebrated Columbus for his fortitude and bravery. We celebrated Columbus because he discovered America and set in motion what would turn out to be the greatest nation in the world!

Christopher Columbus, with his originality in thought and inspiring courage, was quite an appealing character. He made all Americans proud, particularly Italian-Americans, who shared his heritage.

As part of my Jewish experience, I learned that King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella ordered all the Jews of Spain out of their country by no later than July 31, 1492. Columbus set sail for the new world on August 3 of the same year. Even in the darkness of Spain’s Jewish expulsion, there was still the flickering light of a better future one day in America. Yes, Christopher Columbus had something for everyone.
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The late 20th-century attacks on Columbus have been unfair in my opinion. For one thing, the Columbus critics have been using a 20th- and 21st-century measuring stick on a 15th-century man. More importantly, Christopher Columbus never endorsed genocide, and historians are split on whether or not mass murder crimes were even committed under his leadership.
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The first city to replace Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples’ Day was, you guessed it, Berkeley, California, back in 1962. Since then, the list has been expanding by leaps and bounds. It has already happened in certain states, in schools, and even on many of our wall calendars! Slowly, I fear, our values, our history, and our way of life are all slipping away.