Last week, Gov. Phil Scott signed legislation that eliminates Columbus Day from the list of official state holidays, and replaces it with a new holiday, called Indigenous Peoples' Day.
Once again Vermont does the right thing.
Christopher Columbus was a monster.
New Vermont Law Replaces Columbus Day With 'Indigenous Peoples' Day'
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
He may have been a monster, but he stumbled into the continent of North America (well, not really, but he got us in the neighborhood) and got all our European and other ancestors eventually interested in coming here. There is nothing wrong with that. I heard on the radio a few mornings ago that a town somewhere has stopped celebrating Thomas Jefferson's birthday because he was a slaveholder and is instead celebrating something to do with slaves' emancipation.
There is nothing wrong with celebrating slaves' emancipation or Native Americans. I wholeheartedly support it. What I DON'T support is taking the credit from Columbus (or Jefferson) for what they accomplished. Why can't we celebrate BOTH?
I hate the new name "Indigenous Peoples' Day" It is totally ridiculous. NO ONE uses the term "indigenous peoples" except the Canadians and a couple of Ph.D.'s and who listens to them anyway? Hell, we haven't got the whole country trained to use "Native Americans" instead of "Indians" yet, and we're going to start using an officious, elitist term like "indigenous peoples?" The other thing is, why in hell would the Native Americans want to have their culture celebrated on the very day that spelled the demise of that culture? And if you did a survey of actual Native Americans I am pretty sure you'd find that they don't want to be called "indigenous" either.
I hate this new name. Maine has already adopted it.