Should Columbus Day remain a holiday?

Columbus is responsible for making this continent visible to Europe and allowing the growth of a grand nation and paving a path to building the greatest country on earth -- the United Statesof America. The demeaning atrocity of destroying this holiday is absurd.

I agree that we should still celebrate Columbus Day as is. It is a matter of history, the fact that Columbus may have acted in a way that we, in the 21st century, feel is outrageous, it misses the historical point. In that day and age it wasn't a time of enlightenment and political correctness. It was a time that the infant mortality rate was huge and life expectancy was limited. He was a product of his time, along with (I might add) Brown, the founder of the University itself. I saw the signs that suggested a University name change and I found that as appropriate as changing the name of the day. Brown indeed was responsible for similar atrocities. Columbus was motivated by greed and the desire to explore. Brown was simply motivated by greed. Please don't tell me that the slaves he traded in all lived wonderful carefree nurtured lives. We already know the history of the slave trade and the brutal, vicious, outrageous acts that the captured (previously free) men, women, and children were subjected to. The only difference is, everyone that attends Brown Univ. wants that diploma with the prestigeous name on it. I'm pretty sure they won't rename the college, but so long as it doesn't affect those diplomas they are free to pick and chose what they will and won't stand up for? Interesting. I say, leave the day alone... he was a product of his time as Brown was a product of his.

It would be a real atrocity against the Italians, Italo-Americans and the Italian heritage to change the Columbus Day Name. Lets not go into Brown and what he did. Columbus Day will always be part of our American way and no one will dare change it.

Good and evil are opposite sides of the same coin. Anyone searching human history looking for only one or the other will be disappointed.

Columbus day celebrates the spirit of exploration and the man willing to take the risk. Columbus the man took that risk and is entitled to the holiday.

Let it BE
Mike R

Columbus did nothing worse than the government of the United States of America did later. Should we also stop celebrating the 4th of July? Or change the meaning of the day? I think not!! People and nations are not perfect but that does not mean that we should not celebrate the good or valuable that has been done by those people and nations.

Perhaps there is a place for a "Native Cultures" holiday in our calendar but we should not have to reduce or remove another celebration in order to raise up a new one. Attitudes like that caused this problem in the first place.

Why did Brown U. listen to the likes of some young female student who has gripes about whether Columbus treated women back then or not in the first place? Are we now to assume that for every gripe against what our historical figures have done in the past are now to be wiped off our history books forever and forgotten, all for the glory of 15 min. of fame just because someone puts up a fuss and gets the ACLU involved in it? This is just pur horses-pit-tooey and everyone knows that but are too afraid to stand up against it! Brown U. officials should be ashamed for taking away a part of our history! What the hell is next? Take away Lincoln's birthday holiday? Oh, no, let's do better than that.....take away the holiday Christmas because it celebrates the birth of Christ, and we just can't have that because it honors a Christian figure and we can't have a holiday for just Christians, nooooooooo, we have to call that holiday....ummmmm.....let's see now......oh, I got it.....Let's call it "Winter day", yeah! That way everybody will be satisfied with that and "Christmas" won't be against any other religion (especially the Muslims!)!!!!
Gimme a break! We have to stop all of the taking away of our history!!!!!!