Opinion of "once a year" Native American activists

[Reginald]

Columbus is criticized mostly because he's the symbol of colonialism in the Americas, as alluded to already. The notion that he was personally responsible for the Amerindian demographic collapse is misguided, to say the least; any other European expedition would likely have led to more or less the same result.

[Sol]

Of course Columbus Day should be abolished. But that shouldn't be treated like it's the most important issue facing Indians today- the focus should be more on things like addiction and poverty combating, reinstatement of treaty rights, returning of lands in some cases, etc.

In addition to the excellent points raised by The Dead Flag Blues above, way too many Americans just focus on Columbus, even when equally evil historical people have a much more intrusive presence in their everyday lives - see Lord Jeffrey Amherst and the town named after him. Or Juan De Oñate or Andrew Jackson, for that matter.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Columbus is also a very easy target on the grounds that he's just plain overrated in general. He never set foot on the modern day US, and he was entirely wrong about everything that he argued and only accomplished anything (and didn't die) because of complete accident. He was laughed out of getting funding by almost everyone in Europe for reasons which were in fact entirely correct and as everyone knows now, had nothing to do with anyone believing the Earth was flat.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

Columbus Day, besides from the obscenity of its celebration of a nasty tyrant, is also a celebration of inner city political corruption. IIRC, wasn't it founded as a cheap method to gin up support from Italian American voters?

[MaxQue]

What about Knights of Columbus?

[politicus]

"The strangest holiday in America":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKEwL-10s7E&list=PLmKbqjSZR8TZa7wyVoVq2XMHxxWREyiFc

"beginning a long tradition of obnoxious white people visiting Caribean islands and acting like they owned the place"