The concept of the long weekend has questionable meaning when you don't really have a job, but everyone likes a holiday nonetheless. These days, Washigton, DC overwhelmingly presents itself to the world as a northeastern city rather than a southern one. Traditionally, however, that's not been the case; a phenomenon which is represented on days like this one. Real northeastern cities -- New York, Boston, Philadelphia, etc. -- are all deeply marked by the legacy of "white ethnic" immigration from the pre-1920s era of high immigration. Cities like that, as a consequence, have genuine Irish-American traditions on St. Patrick's Day and Italian-American ones on Columbus Day. But in a town that doesn't have a Little Italy or a North End, Columbus Day signifies nothing.
« Nukes for the North | Main | Euston in America »
Happy Columbus Day!
09 Oct 2006 10:11 am
Comments (13)
it means something in places with a significant population of native americans but not so much in places where american history is taught omitting what columbus did after he got here.
"everyone likes a holiday"
The glorious workers of the DPRK don't like a holiday. They prefer to labor 24/7 for the greater glory of the DPRK military and Kim Jong-Il.
Only decadent Westerners indulge themselves in "holidays".
Next week's The Wire is really, really good.
If you're really able to resist watching it all week, there's something wrong with your impulse control. Doncha want to know who wins the primary?
Your a star-belly sneech you suck like a leech
You want everyone to act like you
Kiss ass while you bitch so you can get rich
But your boss gets richer on you
Well you'll work harder with a gun in your back
For a bowl of rice a day
Slave for soldiers til you starve
Then your head skewered on a stake
Now you can go where people are one
Now you can go where they get things done
What you need my son:
Is a holiday in North Korea
Where people dress in black
A holiday in North Korea
Where you'll kiss ass or crack
Today's a holiday? Why am I at work? Damned Americans and their non-holiday holidays.
Only soft Washignton elites have the day off.
Happy Canadian Thanksgiving, dear neighbours.
There's much to criticize in Eurpean imperialism, but Europeans didn't invent imperialism. I remember a poem from Robert Lowell's book Notebook where John Crowe Ransom comments about an exhbit of African weapons saying (from memory), "They weren't good neighbors, but at least they didn't bother the rest of the world." Yabbut, lots of non-Africans and non-Europeans did. (Say hello to my little friends the Mongolian Hordes.) And Eurpopean genocide in the Americas was mostly (with some nasty exceptions) inadvertent. (only 1 example of the small pox/blanket gag, for example.) Far more deaths were due to diptheria which the Europeans were susceptible to, as well.
As an American of European descent and (as a liberal) I just want some clarity. I'm glad Columbus got here. I'm sorry the original inhabitants died in the numbers and fashion that they did, but to refer back to the John Crowe Ransom quote, an awful lot of Native Americans were terrible neighbors as well.
I'm not sure what that all amounts to except to say that peace and peacefulness are rare and should be celebrated and re-inforced. Too many people practice forgetfulness and self-forgiveness when they set about determining the fate of their neighbors and the rest of the world.
It's not that DC didn't have the wave of pre-1920s immigration (although it took place on a smaller scale, because DC is smaller), it's that urban renewal projects (like in Southwest where I live), and federal government expansion wiped out some of those neighborhoods, plus people tended to move to the suburbs as they became more affluent, and then everything went to heck with the riots in 1968.
In any case, the church near my home had some kind of festival today, but since most of the participants were African American I doubt it had much to do with Italian heritage. Certainly, the food was pure soul.
And DC is not a northeastern city. It's south of the Mason Dixon line, for crying out loud. There's just too darn many of you northeastern types here. And, sadly, DC boasts neither good southern nor good northeastern food.
I certainly agree that Europeans did not invent imperialism. In fact, when the Spanish comissioned Columbus's westward voyage, they were at the conclusion of a long war to secure the Iberian peninsula from the control of a West Asian power which had conquered it hundreds of years before.
As for the issue of the genocide in the Americas, it's one thing to accidently infect and kill millions of people with a disease to which they have no immunity. It's another thing entirely to follow up that inadvertant gesture by conquering the land, destroying the cities, eradicating the extant culture to the furthest extent possible and slaughtering those who resist.
I enjoyed my day off today, but this really is a bad holiday.
In fact, when the Spanish comissioned Columbus's westward voyage, they were at the conclusion of a long war to secure the Iberian peninsula from the control of a West Asian power which had conquered it hundreds of years before.
Muslim Spain had been independent of 'West Asia' for centuries. When the Abbasids overthrew the Ommayads, one of the Ommayads escaped to Spain and set up a rival Caliphate.
And in Louisiana, Columbus Day is one of the holidays sacrificed to make Mardi Gras public holidays. (This despite many white ethnics; parts of New Orleans produce remarkably Brooklyn-like accents.) Or maybe in the great holiday draft, Louisiana simply got a higher pick and could choose Mardi Gras instead of Columbus Day. Wouldn't you?
Comments closed October 23, 2006.
| 
Heads in the Sand
Signifies nothing, of course, except the onset of the greatest genocide in human history.
Posted by oljb | October 9, 2006 10:24 AM