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| Home Front: Culture Wars |
| No Indigenous People's Day in Portland, Maine. Yet. |
| 2005-05-13 |
| I'll bet Ward Churchill will be sooooooo pissed when he hears this... Portland schoolchildren will continue to celebrate Columbus Day rather than "Columbus/Indigenous People's Day" or "Indigenous People's Day/Columbus Day." I'd be betting on the second option... A measure that would have renamed the national holiday in October to honor both the explorer and American Indians failed to gain majority support of the Portland School Committee Wednesday. But the 4-4 vote on the proposal was encouraging to committee member Jason Toothaker, the original proponent, who said he may introduce it again next year. Got your foot in the door, right, Jason? That's the first step. Eventually you'll get it, and then shitcan the Columbus part a few years down the road. "A lot of the people who voted against it spoke in support of the idea," said Toothaker, one of three Green Party members on the committee who backed the proposal. Portland has changed, and not for the better. That's Maine, not Oregon... Toothaker said he proposed the name change because Christopher Columbus exploited and spread disease among the American Indians he encountered during his 1492 voyage. Today, many Indians view his arrival in the Americas as a tragedy. Schoolchildren at the Passamaquoddy Pleasant Point Indian Reservation, for example, do not observe the holiday. Evil, bad Columbus! School districts in other parts of the country, such as Berkeley, Calif., have removed Columbus Day from their calendars or renamed the holiday to acknowledge that indigenous peoples inhabited the New World long before Columbus' arrival. South Dakota also has renamed the holiday. Berkeley? There's a shock... In addition to Toothaker, those voting in favor of the change were Stephen Spring, Ben Meiklejohn and Tae Chong. Voting against it were Jonathan Radtke, Otis Thompson, Ellen Alcorn and James DiMillo. Toothaker said some Portland residents complained that his proposal was a frivolous distraction from more important matters facing the School Committee. He said he was buoyed by the 20 percent who supported a holiday name change on a school-calendar questionnaire that went out to all teachers."I was really surprised we had gotten one-fifth to completely support this," said Toothaker. I'm surprised you only got twenty percent. Run it by the union next time. They'll change it to "Whitey Sucks Day" if you want. All they care is that they still get it off. Some committee members said they voted against the measure because they believe that deciding which national holidays to celebrate is outside of the committee's purview."The struggle that happened for the indigenous people when the European settlers arrived was difficult and certainly a topic that needs to be addressed and considered at school, " said Thompson. Just make sure the "indigenous people" win this time... Committee member James DiMillo, who is of Italian descent, said while there should be time set aside in schools to study American Indian history and heritage, renaming the holiday was ill-considered. "We have other holidays celebrating people who are not perfect, such as Presidents Day. We still celebrate them," he said. That'll be renamed "Bill Clinton Day". One thing at a time... |
| Posted by:Sholuse Glinenter4562 |
| #7 And he's got the whistle-blowing memo to prove it. Not to mention, firsthand accounts of how Columbus was a bully and chased the Indians all across the lobby of their Casino. Note to self: Gotta go seach Google cache for Columbus' blog archives... |
| Posted by: Seafarious 2005-05-13 21:01 |
| #6 WB - you misspelled "resemble." ;-p |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2005-05-13 20:57 |
| #5 They'll change it to "Whitey Sucks Day" if you want. I resent that remark... |
| Posted by: Whitey Bulger 2005-05-13 16:51 |
| #4 "Toothaker said he proposed the name change because Christopher Columbus exploited and spread disease among the American Indians he encountered during his 1492 voyage." And he's got the whistle-blowing memo to prove it. Not to mention, firsthand accounts of how Columbus was a bully and chased the Indians all across the lobby of their Casino. |
| Posted by: danking70 2005-05-13 16:49 |
| #3 Toothaker said he proposed the name change because Christopher Columbus exploited and spread disease among the American Indians he encountered during his 1492 voyage. As Taranto would say: it's the eponymy, stupid. |
| Posted by: BH 2005-05-13 16:15 |
| #2 I've never understood why we celebrate Columbustein Day, the Santa Maria was full of Zionists ready to plunder the Carib Peoples. |
| Posted by: Abu Shipman 2005-05-13 16:10 |
| #1 "Toothaker said he proposed the name change because Christopher Columbus exploited and spread disease among the American Indians he encountered during his 1492 voyage." Oh, for cryin' out loud, that was over FIVE HUNDRED YEARS AGO. Get over it, you blubbering twit. |
| Posted by: Dave D. 2005-05-13 16:06 |