Posted on 10/11/2003 12:46:33 AM PDT by sarcasm
As Columbus Day approaches, not every American is gearing up to celebrate. Some are protesting.
In what has become an annual ritual, hundreds of people banded together Friday night to stand against America's celebration of Christopher Columbus.
Four groups of people, each wearing different colors meant to symbolize people of diverse races and nationalities, walked from various points in Denver starting at 5:30 p.m. and met in City of Cuernavaca Park in the Central Platte Valley.
One group, dressed in yellow, burned incense, banged drums and chanted as they marched from the state Capitol down the 16th Street Mall.
The group - over a hundred strong - wowed onlookers who weren't sure what all the noise was about.
"What's going on?" said one woman eating dinner on the patio of the Paramount Cafe on 16th Street.
Some observers realized the nature of the protest and began to stand up and clap their hands.
Others were hostile to the anti-Columbus message.
"God bless Americans. God bless George Bush," chanted a white-haired man on the sidewalk as the march passed.
In addition to the sound of drums and tribal chants, Robert Cross, a tall American Indian who stood at the head of the march, yelled, "This is our homeland. I don't care what anyone says."
Cross said he felt concerned that his children weren't being taught the whole story of Columbus.
"The Denver community doesn't recognize that this is our land, too, and they don't teach children about the mass murder that is a part of our nation's history. All we want is for them to change the name of the holiday," he said.
As the marchers came to the corner of Stout and 16th streets, a black man on the corner yelled out: "I'm with you. If I get my 40 acres and a mule, I'll give back to the Indians."
Another onlooker smoking a cigarette yelled, "Go, freaks, go!" as the marchers approached Champa Street chanting "No more Columbus Day."
The marchers, who represent more than 80 local organizations that are part of the Transform Columbus Day Alliance, believe Columbus committed genocide against American Indians in the late 15th and early 16th centuries.
But other groups, including the the Order of the Sons of Italy, believe that Columbus Day recognizes the achievements of an explorer who founded the first European settlement in the "New World."
The rift between Columbus the killer and Columbus the explorer has been growing steadily over the years as more protests against Columbus Day surface around the country.
In some places such as South Dakota, protesters have succeeded in officially changing Columbus Day to Native American Day. And 17 states have said they will stop using taxpayer money to fund the Columbus Day holiday.
Historians say the myth of Columbus has changed frequently since the official founding of the United States.
The facts surrounding the life and travels of Columbus are still debated, and that has led to portrayals of him as both a hero and a villain.
"He has been stripped of the symbolic cloak of optimism and exposed as a human being whose flaws were many and of reverberating consequence," wrote Cornell University historian John Noble Wilford in 1992.
"The Columbus legacy is not our legacy," Cross said.
Stands right up there on the altar with George Washington was a slave owner, and Thomas Jefferson had sex with blacks.
How enlightening.
Sorry Boris, etal.
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