(Revised 10/26/12)
Although Mr. Bolos has already created a blog post like this one, I feel the topic is pertinent enough to create another one similar to it, but with a whole different twist.
To many students across the nation, Columbus Day is just another break in the schedule of their school years. In my mind however, this day does not deserve the recognition that it has received.
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| Cristoforo Colombo and crew |
Leif Eriksson discovered America 500 years before Colombo did and hasn't received even close to the amount of recognition Colombo does. Well, Leif Eriksson does have his own day of recognition, but it's hardly known at all and happens to be the day after Columbus Day.
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| Leif Eriksson |
Americans in general tend to favor being regarded as a civil and progressive. The Spanish undoubtedly were civil and progressive at the time of Colombo's discovery of America, whereas the Vikings weren't as much. For these reasons, I think that Columbus Day is widely commemorated. Why not just credit the discovery of America to respected and notable Spaniards instead of the less impressive Vikings? It's truly a highway robbery.
In contradiction, Americans love being first, the best, however you want to describe it. With this said, it comes as a shock in my mind that Americans continue to regard Columbus as the first person to discover America. With our incredible transfixion on being the first person or people to do something, it would only seem like the American norm to commemorate the first person to discover America -- Leif Eriksson. However, this is not the case and Columbus Day, celebrating the "runner-up", is continued annually; directly contradicting the strong American value of being first.
What do you think? Do you believe that Leif Eriksson day should be celebrated to conquer American values instead of Columbus Day? and or, should Americans continue to celebrate Columbus Day for purposes of relation with a progressive culture? Please weigh in with your thoughts.
Andrew, Nice job blogging overall this quarter. You have a good number of posts and a good range of topics. Here you begin to explore something interesting -- American obsession with being first, but you do so in a rather uncritical manner. Where else do you see that phenomenon? You offer no analysis of text here and only cite a rather innocuous piece on Leif E. For the rest of the post you offer unsupported and uncritical historical conjecture. The Spaniards were "civil and progressive?! Why would a celebration of Leif be a "conquer[ing] of American values"?
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