Debunking Columbus

Today, the second Monday in October, is Columbus Day in the U.S., commemorating the arrival of Christopher Columbus in the Americas. It is a federal holiday, celebrated with parades and other festivities.

But I will not be celebrating. Here are my reasons:

What we learned about Columbus in school was not the whole truth. In some cases, it wasn't the truth at all.

First of all, Columbus did not originate the theory that the earth is round. Such had been known since ancient times.

Columbus also did not discover America. Leif Ericson and his Norsemen had built a settlement in what is now the Great Northern Peninsula of Newfoundland and Labrador some 500 years before Columbus wandered into the West Indies.

And, once Columbus got here, he enslaved the Native Americans, while helping himself to the new world's gold and other precious resources.

This is what you are really celebrating on Columbus Day.

I consider it a national embarrassment at best.