Sarah Palin: That Wrong Thing I Did Wasn't That Wrong
For what it's worth, the independent Alaska commission that investigated "Troopergate" (and by the way, when will there be a moratorium on adding the word "gate" to every scandal real or imagined? Watergate was 36 years ago and that was the only time it was appropriate) has issued a report that while Governor Sarah Palin did not break the law in her attempts to fire the Alaska state trooper who was once her brother-in-law, she did abuse her power while doing so. Of course, the only part of the report Palin wanted to talk about while campaigning in Ohio was the "I didn't break the law" part.
When even conservative stalwarts like columnist William Kristel are saying your Veep candidate a disaster and calling for the complete overhaul of your campaign with three weeks to go until the general election, I think it's safe to say that your presidential campaign is a bit of a train wreck. I'm not prepared to call it for Obama, given America's ongoing complicated and unpleasant relationship with its racial issues, but a house divided against itself cannot stand. The McCain campaign is starting to look like that house that the divorcing Cambodian couple sawed in half. And Palin is the crazy bucktoothed kid with the banjo baying out of the basement. She'll make you squeal like a pig...wearing lipstick.
Why Do We Have Columbus Day?
One of my great pet peeves is the existence of Columbus Day. Why is it still on the calendar? Think about it for a minute: Christopher Columbus sailed west to try and find a new route to India, missing by about ten thousand miles. He claimed the "New World" for Spain introducing tobacco to Europe and smallpox to the Native Americans leading to an epidemic that wiped out hundreds of thousands of the natives. Many of the natives that weren't wiped out by disease were enslaved by the Europeans or killed as a result of the military encroachments of the conquistadores. Columbus' discovery set in motion a change of events which tyrannized two entire continents for two centuries or more. And the number one thing we're supposed to be celebrating about Columbus--that he discovered America--has been conclusively proven to be untrue. After all, the "Natives" didn't originate in the Caribbean, they migrated there from elsewhere. And Columbus wasn't even the first European to set foot in the New World. Erik the Red settled in Greenland over five hundred years earlier and he probably wasn't the first one.
So again, the question: why do some of us get Columbus Day off? What I'm about to say isn't politically correct, but bear with me people because I believe it's the truth and it needs to be spoken.
In the United States, the world's greatest melting pot, every ethnic group has a special day that they celebrate as their own, a holiday that over the generations they have either become identified with or have made their own. To not have a holiday of your own in American society is to somehow miss out on an important aspect of the American experience.
The Irish have St. Patrick's Day.
African-Americans have Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday and, to a much lesser extent, Kwanzaa.
Mexican-Americans have Cinco de Mayo.
Jews have the High Holidays.
Just about the largest ethnic group in the United States that didn't have a special holiday to call its own was the Italians, and that's where we arrive at the creation of the Columbus Day holiday. To some Italian-Americans, Columbus is a titan of history, an explorer viewed with great pride and admiration by his people (never mind the fact that he was under the employ of the Spanish at the time). Back when most Americans were taught (and believed) that Columbus discovered America, it made sense to honor the man with a holiday. Now, Columbus Day is the day that Italians have adopted as their very own, but unlike St. Patrick's Day, the High Holidays or Cinco de Mayo, there's no mail service and many schools and businesses are closed.
To me that seems like a waste, but who am I to take a holiday away from the Italians?
Peace.
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