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To graduate from Brookings/Harbor High School, a student must take four years of a foreign language. But back to that subject in a moment.
October 13th is Columbus Day. However, there are many communities that don't celebrate Columbus. Instead, they celebrate Indigenous People.
You see, some communities realize that celebrating Columbus is an affront to thousands of people in the US. The truth is that Christopher Columbus was an instigator of the mass killing and enslavement of indigenous people. He committed genocide.
In addition, he never set foot on US soil. However, if anyone should be celebrated for reaching the New World, it should be Leif Erickson who set foot in the America's five hundred of years before Columbus reached any part of the New World.
The idea of replacing Columbus Day with Indigenous People's Day was born in 1977, at a U.N. sponsored conference on discrimination against indigenous populations in the Americas. Fourteen years later, activists in Berkeley, CA, convinced the Berkeley City Council to declare October 12 a "Day of Solidarity with Indigenous People." Henceforth, there has been a growing movement to appropriate "Columbus Day" as "Indigenous People's Day," changing a celebration of colonialism into an opportunity to reveal historical truths about the genocide and oppression of indigenous peoples in the Americas.
At least one religious organization has taken action. In 2001, the Unitarian Universalist Staff and Headquarters began recognizing Indigenous People's Day as an official holiday in place of Columbus Day.
Oh, and by the way, the foreign language that students are required to take is English, the invaders language. Think about that.
We find comfort among those who agree with us - growth among those who don't. -- Frank A. Clark
©2012, A Different Perspective™