10-12: Is Columbus Day Back To Being Celebrated Again?

A little bit of history here and the controversy or non-troversy, depending on how you, you look at this entire thing.

[smacks lips] Commemorates, of course, the landing of the Italian-born navigator, Christopher Columbus.

New World, October 12th, 1492.

Remember you used to-- You may be of my age group, and I'm Generation X, where it was always, you know, "1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue," and all that stuff.

I'm pretty sure it's been quite a while since kids were allowed to say that little nursery rhyme.

But anyways, federal holiday in the United States, observed the second Monday in October, so here we are.

Parades, ceremonies, celebrations for those who observe.

And I'm telling you, if you're not-- if you're from a different area or if you're from the South, uh, depending on the city, whatever it is, or out West, you gotta understand how massive this is.

I grew up in an area where Columbus Day was just...

It was huge.

Schools shut down, parades, festivals, feasts, a party.

And keep that in mind as we go along here.

It's important to remember that, that this is a celebration for Italian Americans.

Now, the other side of things, of course, to be recognized as well, generations of Native Americans have protested Columbus Day.

We know that.

The fact that the colonies', uh, uh, takeovers of Americans, of the Americas, starting with Columbus, deaths of millions of Native American people, forced assimilation of survivors.

We have the, the tribes going to, uh, marches and things.

Most of history can recognize that that happened as well.

Here's the thing with social movements, as I said there just a minute ago.

It always seems that the, the, the group that's pushing some sort of a cause wants to completely disparage or erase the other side of things, right? Without recognizing that both can happen.

Can't we recognize that bad things happened in that time because bad things were happening in the world without taking away the celebration of the proud Italian Americans who helped make this country what it is? Of course we can.

This is nothing new.

This is nothing new here, just things are changing recently.

In fact, do you remember this scene from The Sopranos, remember that HBO show? Not that long ago, but it was a few years ago.

Remember the boys hanging outside the meat market, and they were gonna go down and stop the protest of the Christopher Columbus, uh, statue in Newark? This is how long this has been going on.

A little bit of history here and the controversy or non-troversy, depending on how you, you look at this entire thing.

[smacks lips] Commemorates, of course, the landing of the Italian-born navigator, Christopher Columbus.

New World, October 12th, 1492.

Remember you used to-- You may be of my age group, and I'm Generation X, where it was always, you know, "1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue," and all that stuff.

I'm pretty sure it's been quite a while since kids were allowed to say that little nursery rhyme.

But anyways, federal holiday in the United States, observed the second Monday in October, so here we are.

Parades, ceremonies, celebrations for those who observe.

And I'm telling you, if you're not-- if you're from a different area or if you're from the South, uh, depending on the city, whatever it is, or out West, you gotta understand how massive this is.

I grew up in an area where Columbus Day was just...

It was huge.

Schools shut down, parades, festivals, feasts, a party.

And keep that in mind as we go along here.

It's important to remember that, that this is a celebration for Italian Americans.

Now, the other side of things, of course, to be recognized as well, generations of Native Americans have protested Columbus Day.

We know that.

The fact that the colonies', uh, uh, takeovers of Americans, of the Americas, starting with Columbus, deaths of millions of Native American people, forced assimilation of survivors.

We have the, the tribes going to, uh, marches and things.

Most of history can recognize that that happened as well.

Here's the thing with social movements, as I said there just a minute ago.

It always seems that the, the, the group that's pushing some sort of a cause wants to completely disparage or erase the other side of things, right? Without recognizing that both can happen.

Can't we recognize that bad things happened in that time because bad things were happening in the world without taking away the celebration of the proud Italian Americans who helped make this country what it is? Of course we can.

This is nothing new.

This is nothing new here, just things are changing recently.

In fact, do you remember this scene from The Sopranos, remember that HBO show? Not that long ago, but it was a few years ago.

Remember the boys hanging outside the meat market, and they were gonna go down and stop the protest of the Christopher Columbus, uh, statue in Newark? This is how long this has been going on.