Why I celebrate Columbus Day

I celebrate individuals who are remarkable, not mundane and ordinary.

I celebrate courage, not cowardice.

I celebrate independence of thought, not mindless conformity to the dictates of social norms and political correctness.

I celebrate things that are meaningful, not meaningless. 

I celebrate things that are interesting, not bland, dull, and gray.

I celebrate people who stand up to bullies. I don’t celebrate bullies. 

I celebrate a beautiful man – in body, mind, and spirit – not those who cruelly smash and rip and tear his body to pieces. 

I don’t celebrate people who strangle, drown, burn, and lynch others for being quirky and eccentric and different and thinking for themselves. 

I don’t celebrate people who inflict horrific and excruciating pain.

I don’t celebrate the deliberate infliction of harm for no other reason than thinking you are superior to other people because you are part of the majority and they are part of the minority.

I don’t celebrate contemptuous, self-righteous intolerance.

I don’t celebrate people who seek to obliterate the cultures, perspectives, viewpoints, and stories of others.

I side with people who have actually been harmed, oppressed, discriminated against, wronged, traumatized. Not with people who just pretend that they have.

Therefore, I celebrate Columbus Day, not Indigenous Peoples’ Day.

If that makes me a white supremacist, so be it.