Brown University Kills ‘Columbus Day’ for ‘Fall Weekend’

The faculty of the Ivy League university voted at a meeting Tuesday to establish a new academic and administrative holiday in October called “Fall Weekend” that coincides with Columbus Day, but that doesn’t bear the name of the explorer.

“I’m very pleased,” Reiko Koyama, a sophomore who led the effort, told the student newspaper, the Brown Daily Herald. “It’s been a long time coming.”

Just in case you too have been duped into thinking Christopher Columbus enslaved and tortured peaceable Native Americans, please allow me to set the record straight: Christopher Columbus was a poor administrator, a bad leader, and a terrible PR man. But he did not himself abuse Native Americans nor did he encourage, approve or tolerate the abusive behavior on the part of the men who sailed his ships and settled somewhat in the new lands. His second or third voyage, in fact, was manned by convicts who were granted release from prison if they went, since he could not muster a crew willing to go. Hello? Send murders to America and then be surprised when they…murder?

So, instead of admiring a man who refused to give up, who remained persistent in following his dreams, who did, in fact, find a whole new world that nobody had any idea existed before (yes, he was wrong in that it wasn’t India, but 500 years later we have proven to be a much better discovery than India, doncha think?). Instead of that, we’ll blame him for the crimes of others and completely negate any of the good that he did do.

History, especially history based on gossip and lies and spin, is a harsh judge. Learn the truth, dear, wise fools of Brown, and may you be spared similar treatment at the end of your time.

Oh, and to what purpose does it serve to change the name of a holiday and still take the holiday? If you really want to protest the day off, go to class on Columbus Day.