Columbus Day...or is it?

I’d like to say Happy Columbus Day, but the chronically disgruntled really don’t want me to try. I believe that Columbus Day unofficially became Indigenous People’s Day in Berkeley, California, heartland of neo-segregation (definition: the act of segregating people, school and civic groups, as well as academic tests or anything else they can think of into ethnic or cultural groups, except white groups, by power-seeking people who can’t bear to be with anyone different from themselves for fear of losing their ‘diversity’ or their illusion of self-power). Just a little way down the road at Stanford University, one of many modern-day bastions of socialist thinking and conservative censorship, there is a sign that reads, “Celebrate Indigenous People’s Day, not genocide.” Thinking about university speech codes, I am wondering if that is hate speech? Doesn’t that statement say several hateful things, such as, ‘anyone not indigenous need not apply—we’re celebrating without you,’ or ‘anyone who dares celebrate Columbus Day supports genocide’ (rather a broad, maybe racist stance)? Perhaps it even means, ‘All Europeans stay home or should be in jail or aren’t people,’ or maybe…it targets only people from Spain, who gave the New World the lovely conquistadors. Yeah, maybe it’s anti-Spaniard! But wait, that would mean a Hispanic community divided against itself, which is not allowed in the diversity game, so scratch that thought. I can already hear the other side screaming, “it’s the Indians, you dummy, not the Hispanics!” Well, of course, anyone with a scintilla of education knows what happened to the Indians, and anyone with a scintilla of a soul doesn’t want it to happen again. They continue screaming, “You don’t get it, you idiot. We suffered….” Mind you, these are the supposedly disadvantaged students of Stanford, for whom the world will be their oyster, who are getting their dander up (which makes me wonder again about the racist content of the banner, since they are now of the privileged ones whom they so despise). Yet the yelling continues, “We must never forget, never forget….” This makes me think that they were brought up on the following slogan, ‘Those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it,” but apparently the wise elders who taught them that slogan forgot to mention an equally if not more important phrase: those who live only in the past miss the present and never get to the future. They condemn themselves and their progeny to museum status by never developing the skills to choose the best from the present and the world’s past to integrate into a new, more prosperous future. Small amounts of the past will go into the future, but the future cannot be the past. Neither will the future go forward by posting hate-filled, exclusionary banners on the walls of universities. So I say, if we need to re-name Columbus Day, then let’s call it Ethnic Heritage Day or some such inclusive name. Say no to neo-segregation and instead give everyone something to celebrate and share with others. That way, out of any sorrow from the past is built positive contributions to the future of humanity. Happy Columbus Day!