Columbus Day

[Karen]

And it is every bit as much an over-generalization as can be. To lay the sins of hundreds at the feet of one man is just plain willful ignorance.

(Mind you, I theoretically am part Native American on one side, but it was just a family story from a few generations back, no paperwork to prove it. I am also part lots of other nationalities - [Swedish, English, Norman French, Irish, Scottish, etc., etc.,] so I am a genuine American Mutt when it comes right down to it.)

And if one studies the history of the indigenous peoples before the "Europeans" arrived for the biggest wave of migration, one realizes that certain groups wiped each other out long before "white" people arrived.

It is a complicated issue, no doubt.

[mrspunkysmom]

And it is every bit as much an over-generalization as can be. To lay the sins of hundreds at the feet of one man is just plain willful ignorance.

(Mind you, I theoretically am part Native American on one side, but it was just a family story from a few generations back, no paperwork to prove it. I am also part lots of other nationalities - [Swedish, English, Norman French, Irish, Scottish, etc., etc.,] so I am a genuine American Mutt when it comes right down to it.)

And if one studies the history of the indigenous peoples before the "Europeans" arrived for the biggest wave of migration, one realizes that certain groups wiped each other out long before "white" people arrived.

It is a complicated issue, no doubt.

Amen, sister.

I am part Native American and am on the rolls. My dad was German and Indian. I am also Norwegian and German Jew on my mom's side. Maybe a few other things thrown in for good measure. Oddly enough with all that dark skin, I have blonde hair and lighter skin. SO did dad. My brothers and mother are much darker hued. I can actually trace back my father's side to colonial times before the revolutionary war. Indian and German. Mom's side is a little murkier.

I don't hold Columbus at fault. He did what they did back then. It was their mandate. It wasn't right, but there it is. What our white gov't did to Indians in the 19th Century was probably more damaging to the Indian nations.

Exploration is necessary for a society. Perhaps we'll get better at at.

You do have to admit he was brave to travel that longitudinal line until he found land. They did have latitude coordinates back then, but not for sailing.

History of Longitude.

[Alysser]

Day off? Never!

We got stuck with everyone else's mutts till today at work, since it was a holiday weekend. Lotsa pups got picked up today though!

I also had school...blah :P

[Steve Arnold]

Except for no mail, for everyone else it was business as usual. I don't think there was anything special at all to observe it here.

[cassiesmom]

The only time I had it off was when I worked for a company that had a contract with the state, so we got all the recognized state holidays off. We would be doubly busy the next day, though.