Monday was Columbus Day. It caught me by surprise, and I’m sure most of my friends didn’t know about it. No one I know did anything special for it. The only people I saw doing anything in relation to the day were the indigenous people and their supporters.

Protesters take offense that there is a holiday dedicated to Christopher Columbus. I understand that and I agree it should be eliminated. But the majority of people don’t even care that there is one. They don’t celebrate it, and they don’t talk about it.

Say we change the name to Indigenous Peoples Day, or just have an Indigenous Peoples Day, still no one will care. The only recognition the holiday gets is a day off work, and some federal services are shut down. People will just be glad to have another day off, no matter what the reason.

I don’t plan to ever celebrate Columbus Day. I’m not going to hand out muffins, wear party hats and chant, “Hurray for Columbus. Down with indigenous people.” Likewise, if there was an Indigenous People Day, I wouldn’t care. It is another day off for the government, not us. Go protest to them, not us. We don’t design calendars or assign national holidays. We aren’t ignoring you, we just can’t do anything.

Start a petition or something and I’ll sign. Just focus your efforts on something that will make a difference. Right now I’m sure almost no one outside of State News readers knows you held a protest at the rock on Farm Lane.

Jerry Moerdyke
computer science and engineering sophomore