The faculty at Brown University, in an act of intellectual laziness and sanctimony toward political correctness voted last week to stop celebrating Columbus Day and replace it with “Fall Weekend.”
Why replace it with another day off? There’s no secular or religious command that people must have a sanctioned holiday in the second week of October. If they wish to disrespect America’s Columbian beginnings they should at least have the decency to go to work that day...
Since Brown wishes to distance itself from really bad people of antiquity, I suggest the faculty vote to close the university. Brown University was founded with slave money. Not just from guys who owned slaves, but from guys who owned slave ships!
Even the university’s namesake family, the Browns, were slave traders. They infamously sent the slave ship Sally to Africa to trade rum for slaves, bring 4 teenage slaves home for “family use” and sell the rest in the West Indies. Of the 196 people they packed below deck — because conditions were so awful — 68 died on the voyage. Now THOSE were some despicable people, those Browns. Surely the P.C. Brown University faculty will vote to close the school immediately.
What argument will they use not to do that — that there are other redeeming things about the university to celebrate? Certainly what is not a good enough reason to honor America will not be a good enough reason to honor Brown.
And Berkeley should change its name, too. The city is named after a slave-owning Anglican priest.
A Viking day would be much cooler and more relevant to North Americans!
ReplyDeleteOf course Vikings are cooler, higher latitude. Sorry I couldn't resist.
ReplyDeleteGreat post.
What a lovely slap to Americans of Italian descent. I hope the Italian-American population will vote with their wallets and pull their kids out. What utter idiocy. So what's next? Will we replace St. Patrick's Day with some other trumped up holiday? Maybe Mardi Gras can become some sort of Equinox celebration. This is why nobody should send their children to Leftist Universities.
ReplyDeleteA slap to Americans of Italian descent? I am an Italian-American at Brown, and I can say very truthfully that Cristopher Columbus has no bearing whatsoever on my cultural identity--should I be offended every time somebody badmouths, say, Mussolini (an exaggeration, I know)? To my knowledge, St. Patrick didn't off any innocent Irish aboriginals, and Mardi Gras...is just Mardi Gras. Frankly, I don't see why it's such an enormous deal. It's reasonably clear that Columbus was a bit of a brute. If, on that basis, we don't want to celebrate him, what's the problem? It's not as though the holiday has been canceled nationally.
ReplyDeleteOk, first of all, you rock. Seco nd of all, this is the kind of hypocrisy the left is famous for. Wacko nutjobs. I would love to hear your thoughts of Earth Day this year...maybe info on its origins. I think most people don't know it's leftist beginnings and it's oversight by the founder of Common Cause. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteColumbus didn't do anything? He wasn't the first one there, and didn't even hit the US the first time.
ReplyDeleteI dont think he EVER hit the US, did he? Or even North America.
ReplyDeleteLearn a little history, while the "discovery" of America has been scaled back, Columbus was a valiant explorer who literally risked it all. I think he's a much better representation of Italian heritage than the cast of the Sopranos. So fugetabbouit.
ReplyDeleteOdin University?
ReplyDeleteUniversity of Loki?
Freya College?
Columbus was a massive failure. He set out to find a passage to India, failed, but never even knew he failed.
ReplyDeleteHard to call someone a failure who opened up a new hemisphere for European exploration. He didn't accomplish what he set out to, but his descendants are *still* called Admiral of the Seas.
ReplyDeleteIncidentally, socialist historian James Loewen states categorically that Columbus did figure out he found a "new" continent. I'll believe his history over yours.