During Columbus's time in Haiti, he and his men hunted the Taino Indians for sport, beating, raping, torturing, killing, and then using the Indian bodies as food for their hunting dogs. 

Should We Celebrate Columbus Day?

from Education World ®

Subjects: Language Arts, Social Studies

Grade Levels: 6-8, 9-12

Objectives Students will:

Keywords research, evaluation, collaboration, media literacy, Columbus, debate

Explain to students that they have been hired by town officials to consider whether the town should continue to recognize Columbus Day as a holiday. In recent years, protests from Native American groups have increased and town officials have been under increasing pressure to stop celebrating Columbus Day.Those groups argue that Columbus's legacy is one of murder and theft and is not worthy of memorializing. On the other hand, many other community members feel it is unfair to judge the morality of a man who lived 400 years ago by today's standards. They argue that Columbus was a man of his times, when expansion and conquest were accepted as normal. They further argue that even if Columbus was not a moral icon, it is really the spirit of adventure, exploration, and innovation that we celebrate on Columbus Day.

Tell students that in the course of their research they will have to determine exactly how much is known about Columbus and what he did. They will have to evaluate the actions of the man and the results of his actions (i.e., present-day American culture). Finally, they will have to decide the best course of action the town can take to resolve the conflict between its residents.

Tell students to divide their conclusions into three sections:

Have students work in groups to put together an action plan. The action plan should list:

Tell students to submit the action plans by the end of the first day. Grade each group based on how detailed the plan is and on the quality of the questions.

Tell students that each group should hand in its final report and "division of labor" sheet by the end of the week. The division of labor sheet should list what each group member did on the project and should look similar to the information provided in the plan of action. The information in this document should reflect whether each group member met his or her responsibilities within the group.

Tell students that each group may send one member to the computer center or library during class time. Point out that, although they can find an enormous amount of information about Columbus on the Internet, they should not use only the Internet for their research. Some Web sites that might be useful include:

Because this was the first major assignment of the year and many students were unfamiliar with this type of project, many had trouble understanding exactly what I expected. I strongly suggest creating a model (perhaps on a related but separate topic) or displaying a student project example from a previous year to give the students an idea of the required format.

Evaluate students on the written quality of the final project. Additionally, consider the quality and depth of the questions asked and the students' ability to provide answers.

Copyright © 2007, EducationWorld.com

Teaching about the Voyages of Columbus 

 ERIC Digest.

THIS DIGEST WAS CREATED BY ERIC, THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER. FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT ERIC, CONTACT ACCESS ERIC 1-800-LET-ERIC

The voyage of Columbus in 1492 is a turning point in world history. After 1492, peoples and civilizations of long-separated regions began to develop connections that have led to the incipient global community of the 1990s. It is their global significance that justifies a prominent place in today's school curriculum for the four voyages of Columbus to the Western Hemisphere, not the mere fact of their 500th anniversary in 1992 and thereafter. Educators, therefore, should use the Columbian Quincentenary as a ripe time to renew and reform teaching and learning about these events of long ago that still affect most peoples and places of our world today.

THE COLUMBIAN EXCHANGE

The far-reaching and transforming interactions of peoples in the Western and Eastern Hemispheres, which occurred after 1492, are known today as the "Columbian Exchange," the title of a seminal book by Alfred W. Crosby.

Crosby has provided an ecological perspective on the conditions and consequences of the Columbian voyages that should be included in the school curriculum. He has examined how plants, pathogens, and animals moved from one hemisphere to the other and changed natural environments and cultures. He has described the devastating effects of Eastern Hemisphere microbes on Western Hemisphere peoples and the subsequent shifts in the genetic composition of populations in the Americas. However, Crosby has emphasized that the "Columbian Exchange" has not been one-sided. Certainly European and African plants, animals, goods, and ideas have affected the Amerindians. But peoples of the Western Hemisphere have influenced the Europeans, Africans, and Asians too, especially in their cultivation of crops and preparation of foods.

Elementary and secondary school teachers should use Crosby's concept of the "Columbian Exchange" to help their students acquire an ecological perspective on world history. Thus, they will learn how cultural diffusion and social changes have shaped our modern world. And they will understand Crosby's most important message: Once begun, the "Columbian Exchange" cannot be reversed. The Columbian voyages and the subsequent Age of Exploration and Discovery have forged inseparable bonds between once separated peoples and civilizations, and there is no turning back.

GEOGRAPHY IN HISTORY

Ideas of geography are indispensable aids to interpreting and understanding events and developments of history, such as the Columbian voyages and their consequences. This point is made convincingly by D. W. Meinig in his ground-breaking project, THE SHAPING OF AMERICA: A GEOGRAPHICAL PERSPECTIVE ON 500 YEARS OF HISTORY. Teachers should consult Meinig's work to understand how ideas in geography can improve explanations of events associated with the Columbian voyages and their global consequences.

Teachers should also use the five themes developed by the Joint Committee on Geographic Education. These five themes are location, place, relationships within places, movement, and regions. They have been endorsed as foundations of geography education by three prominent organizations: The National Geographic Society, the Association of American Geographers, and the National Council for Geographic Education. These five themes, applied to inquiries about the Columbian voyages, can be used to bring a geographic perspective to events and developments in history.

THE PERSON IN HISTORY

As educators bring the often-neglected ecological and geographical perspectives to the study of the Columbian voyages, they must be careful to remember the importance of the great or prominent persons in history, such as Columbus. The term "great person" in history is not used here to denote extraordinary goodness or virtue; rather, it is applied only to those who have had the most far-reaching effects on the shape of our world. Thus, Columbus can be considered a great man because his decisions and deeds have had great global impact, from his era to our own times.

One key to understanding the Columbian voyages and their consequences is accurate information and interpretation about Columbus and his deeds. Teachers and students need to distinguish the many myths from realities about the life and times of Columbus. They should, therefore, consult the best biographical literature on Columbus. One recommended source is the time-honored biography by Samuel Eliot Morison, ADMIRAL OF THE OCEAN SEA, which emphasizes the skills of Columbus as a sailor, leader, and visionary.

A new biography by Felipe Fernandez-Armesto has won high praise from scholarly reviewers for its judicious treatment of Columbus within his European context, as a man of a particular era, culture, and place in history. In this balanced and unbiased biography, Columbus's strengths and weaknesses are examined. Thus, for example, the author reveals Columbus's extraordinary achievements as a navigator and explorer and his great failures as a colonizer and administrator. Fernandez-Armesto's scholarly biography is a blend of sympathy and antipathy about the trials and triumphs of Columbus, who is shown to be neither a pure villain nor an undiminished hero. Teachers ought to follow the example of Felipe Fernandez-Armesto in developing realistic classroom portrayals of Columbus.

MULTIPLE VIEWPOINTS

A persistent threat to accurate and balanced treatments of the Columbian voyages is ethnocentric or monolithic interpretation. The school curriculum has often ignored or glossed over the diverse viewpoints of Amerindian and African peoples. Improved teaching and learning about the Columbian voyages must include the various voices of this fateful encounter between the diverse cultures of four continents and three races.

An excellent scholarly source of knowledge about Amerindian viewpoints on the European invasion of their lands is CULTURES IN

CONTACT: THE IMPACT OF EUROPEAN CONTACTS ON NATIVE AMERICAN CULTURAL INSTITUTIONS, edited by William Fitzhugh. Teachers and students should also examine Amerindian perspectives discussed in TWO WORLDS: THE INDIAN ENCOUNTER WITH THE EUROPEANS, 1492-1509 by S. Lyman Tyler.

African and African-American views of the Columbian voyages are closely tied to a far-reaching and profound consequence of the "Columbian Exchange"--the Atlantic slave trade. Two highly recommended sources for teachers are Phillip D. Curtin's (1) THE ATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE and (2) THE TROPICAL ATLANTIC IN THE AGE OF THE SLAVE TRADE. In addition, Basil Davidson's THE AFRICAN SLAVE TRADE is an excellent source that presents the African context of the trade in human beings.

In presentations of multiple viewpoints about the conditions and consequences of the Columbian voyages, teachers should emphasize both diversity between groups and diversity within groups. For example, the great variations in responses of Amerindian people to their encounters with Europeans should be stressed in the school curriculum.

MOVE BEYOND THE TEXTBOOK

If teachers are to provide a multiplicity of viewpoints and perspectives on the Columbian voyages, they must move beyond the textbook to use various educational materials and resources. A recent survey of standard textbook treatments of Columbus, by Carla Phillips and William Phillips (1991, 27-30), reveals their serious limitations. The authors demonstrate that teachers must expose students to more accurate and profound examinations of the Columbian voyages than are provided in the typical textbook.

Development of classroom lessons based on primary documents is one way to provide realistic and detailed treatments of diverse viewpoints. THE LOG OF CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS is one primary document that can be the basis for challenging and illuminating teaching and learning activities.

"Columbus and the Age of Discovery," a well-designed seven-program documentary video series about Columbus's voyages, provides another excellent means of moving beyond the textbook to enrich teaching and learning in the classroom. These video programs, produced by the WGBH Educational Foundation of Boston, were broadcast initially on PBS in October of 1991. They will be shown again on PBS channels in October of 1992 and in 1993. The director of this video series, Zvi Dor-Ner, has also written a companion book to his television programs, COLUMBUS AND THE AGE OF DISCOVERY.

Dor-Ner's book is first rate in its presentation of the European context of the Columbian voyages, the key events of Columbus's life, and the global consequences of his deeds. In both his video programs and book, Dor-Ner avoids the flawed extremes of uncritical glorification and super-critical denunciation of Columbus, which have distorted too many treatments of his life and deeds. Thus, teachers should make ample use of Dor-Ner's videos and companion book in developing lessons and research projects for their students.

Write to WGBH for information about their video series, COLUMBUS AND THE AGE OF DISCOVERY, and an accompanying TEACHER'S GUIDE: 125 Western Avenue, Boston, MA 02134. You can purchase this series directly from the WGBH collection, P.O. Box 2053, Princeton, NJ 08543; (800) 828-WGBH. An interactive video disk (for IBM and MacIntosh) has been developed by Optical Data; contact WGBH of Boston about its availability.

Successful education in schools about the Columbian voyages depends upon the solid and ever-expanding knowledge base of the teacher. Elementary and secondary school history teachers, therefore, must accept the never-ending challenge of reading and learning about the life and times of Columbus to provide themselves and their students with accurate information and interpretations.

REFERENCES AND ERIC RESOURCES

The following list of resources includes references used to prepare this Digest. The items followed by an ED number are in the ERIC system. They are available in microfiche and paper copies from the ERIC Document Reproduction Service (EDRS). For information about prices, contact EDRS, 7420 Fullerton Road, Suite 110, Springfield, Virginia 22153-2852; telephone numbers are (703) 440-1400 and (800) 443-3742. Entries followed by an EJ number are annotated monthly in CURRENT INDEX TO JOURNALS IN EDUCATION (CIJE), which is available in most large public or university libraries. EJ documents are not available through EDRS. However, they can be located in the journal section of most libraries by using the bibliographic information provided below.

Crosby, Alfred W. THE VOYAGES OF COLUMBUS: A TURNING POINT IN WORLD HISTORY. Bloomington, IN: ERIC Clearinghouse for Social Studies/Social Science Education and the Indiana Humanities Council, 1989. ED 312 213.

Crosby, Alfred W. THE COLUMBIAN VOYAGES, THE COLUMBIAN EXCHANGE,

AND THEIR HISTORIANS: ESSAYS ON GLOBAL AND COMPARATIVE HISTORY.

Washington, DC: American Historical Association, 1987. ED 303 417.

Crosby, Alfred W. THE COLUMBIAN EXCHANGE: BIOLOGICAL AND CULTURAL CONSEQUENCES OF 1492. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1972.

Curtin, Phillip D. THE TROPICAL ATLANTIC IN THE AGE OF THE SLAVE TRADE. Washington, DC: American Historical Association, 1991.

Curtin, Phillip D. THE ATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1969.

Davidson, Basil. THE AFRICAN SLAVE TRADE. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1980.

Dor-Ner, Zvi. COLUMBUS AND THE AGE OF DISCOVERY. New York: William Morrow and Company, 1991.

Fernandez-Armesto, Felipe. COLUMBUS. New York: Oxford, 1991.

Fitzhugh, William, ed. CULTURES IN CONTACT: THE IMPACT OF

EUROPEAN CONTACTS ON NATIVE AMERICAN CULTURAL INSTITUTIONS.

Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1985.

Fuson, Robert H., editor. THE LOG OF CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. Camden, ME: International Marine Publishing Company, 1987.

Ibero-American Heritage Curriculum Project. LATINOS IN THE

MAKING OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: YESTERDAY, TODAY, AND

TOMORROW. Albany, NY: New York State Education Department, 1990. ED 324 184.

Joint Committee on Geographic Education, GUIDELINES FOR GEOGRAPHIC EDUCATION. Washington, DC: Association of American Geographers and the National Council for Geographic Education, 1984. ED 252 453.

Meinig, D. W. THE SHAPING OF AMERICA, A GEOGRAPHICAL PERSPECTIVE ON 500 YEARS OF HISTORY: ATLANTIC AMERICA, 1492-1800. Volume I. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1986.

Morison, Samuel Eliot. ADMIRAL OF THE OCEAN SEA: A LIFE OF CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1942.

Nielsen, Lois L., and George R. Nielsen. "Preparing for the Columbian Quincentennial: An Annotated Bibliography." SOCIAL STUDIES AND THE YOUNG LEARNER 3 (September-October 1990): 13-15. EJ 426 378.

Phillips, Carla R., and William D. Phillips, Jr. "The Textbook Columbus: Examining the Myth." HUMANITIES 12 (September/October 1991): 27-30. EJ 442 191.

Tyler, S. Lyman. TWO WORLDS: THE INDIAN ENCOUNTER WITH THE EUROPEANS, 1492-1509. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1989.

-----

John J. Patrick is Director of the ERIC Clearinghouse for Social Studies/Social Science Education, Director of the Social Studies Development Center, and a Professor of Education at Indiana University.

-----

This publication was prepared with funding from the Office of Educational Research and Improvement, U.S. Department of Education, under contract no. RI88062009. The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the positions or policies of OERI or ED. 

Title: Teaching about the Voyages of Columbus. ERIC Digest. 

Document Type: Information Analyses---ERIC Information Analysis Products (IAPs) (071); Information Analyses---ERIC Digests (Selected) in Full Text (073); 

Target Audience: Teachers, Practitioners 

Descriptors: Curriculum Development, Educational Change, Educational Objectives, Educational Resources, Elementary Secondary Education, Geographic Concepts, Historiography,

History Instruction, Instructional Materials, Social Studies, Teaching Methods, World History 

Identifiers: Columbus (Christopher), Columbus Quincentenary, ERIC Digests

2003

Christopher Francis Princetonian Columnist

Many will celebrate Christopher Columbus today, five hundred and eleven years after his arrival Some of us are told his arrival marked the "discovery" of a new continent and a new nation without mention of Columbus' legacy of colonization and exploitation. Christopher Columbus washed ashore frightened and lost, he destroyed lives, enslaved, tortured, killed and oppressed. The celebration of Columbus on this day seriously questions our capacity for human emotion and sympathy. Rather than honor Columbus' actions and image we should honor the brave and innocent men, women and children who died and those who survived his influence of centuries of conquest, colonization, slavery and religious persecution.

 If we celebrate, we must also remember. We must remember all those who died from violent and destructive attacks on our soil and to those who died defending it. The arrival of Columbus marked a huge turning point in American history, a history that includes Native Americans, Western-European colonizers and the Unites States. The colonization of the Americas was extremely bloody. The struggle for power and domination in the "new world" destroyed the souls of those unable to defend themselves against such militarily aggressive authorities. Too many innocent men, women and children were violently oppressed and killed and such acts of terror need to be remembered and not celebrated.

 The battle for indigenous survival continued well after the colonizing period and eventually all Indian people began fighting the same enemy. After centuries of fighting each other, Indian people and the United States agreed to live in peace. Reluctantly, the United States government rightfully agreed to protect and to provide for the needs of Indian people and recognized the sovereign status of over 500 Indian nations. Today, Indian nations across the United States are fighting legal and political battles to hold the U.S. government accountable for the agreements previously made to them in exchange for the land and resources that have made the United States of America the strongest military and economic power in the world. The government-to-government relationship between Indian nations and the federal government is unequal and unfair because it has become a government-over-government monopolistic enterprise of abuse and unjustified neglect.   Indian people have the same rights as all citizens of the United States, but too often these rights do not protect their desire to preserve Native languages and cultures. Indian people simply want to teach younger generations their heritage, while having the resources and rights to maintain their culture. They want the right to determine their own destiny without the fear of having something taken from them. Native Americans constitute a larger percentage of the U.S. armed forces, proportionately, than other groups. The duty to defend and protect against attacks on American forces and on American soil is highly felt in Indian communities because Indian people are committed to defending their elders and their children from the evils out to destroy them and their way of life.

 Indian people have survived centuries of mistreatment and disregard for their way of life. The celebration of Christopher Columbus only justifies unethical and immoral acts against humanity. Although the image of Columbus may represent discovery and conquest, the image of Columbus to the indigenous people of the Americas, Africa and all colonized continents in the world, is of countless souls and bodies beaten to death for power, economic exploitation and religious domination. These souls deserve a sincere apology for attempts to celebrate such hate and violent disregard for their culture, race, religion and simple existence. The celebration of ethnic genocide and disregard for human rights committed against Indian people is gravely disrespectful and hurtful. Rather than celebrate this evil man, we all must remember the millions of indigenous people who had their lives violently stolen after his arrival.

 Our future as a free and just nation should not include the praise for or glorification of Christopher Columbus, but it should include the story of the Indian fight for survival and struggle for peace. In a world mentally, physically and spiritually scarred by such hate and evil, we must remain united. We must all unite to protect our rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness as members of this great nation and of the free world. Let us unite to remember all those who died for these rights and condemn all those who did nothing but fight to destroy them. On behalf of all Native people, I ask you, today, to remember those who are no longer with us and to celebrate the survival of those of us who are still here.

Eric Kasum http://bit.ly/columbusCrueltySlavery

Once again, it's time to celebrate Columbus Day. Yet, the stunning truth is: If Christopher Columbus were alive today, he would be put on trial for crimes against humanity. Columbus' reign of terror, as documented by noted historians, was so bloody, his legacy so unspeakably cruel, that Columbus makes a modern villain like Saddam Hussein look like a pale codfish.

Question: Why do we honor a man who, if he were alive today, would almost certainly be sitting on Death Row awaiting execution?

If you'd like to know the true story about Christopher Columbus, please read on. But I warn you, it's not for the faint of heart.

Here's the basics. On the second Monday in October each year, we celebrate Columbus Day (this year, it's on October 11th). We teach our school kids a cute little song that goes: "In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue." It's an American tradition, as American as pizza pie. Or is it? Surprisingly, the true story of Christopher Columbus has very little in common with the myth we all learned in school.

Columbus Day, as we know it in the United States, was invented by the Knights of Columbus, a Catholic fraternal service organization. Back in the 1930s, they were looking for a Catholic hero as a role-model their kids could look up to. In 1934, as a result of lobbying by the Knights of Columbus, Congress and President Franklin Roosevelt signed Columbus Day into law as a federal holiday to honor this courageous explorer. Or so we thought.

There are several problems with this. First of all, Columbus wasn't the first European to discover America. As we all know, the Viking, Leif Ericson probably founded a Norse village on Newfoundland some 500 years earlier. So, hat's off to Leif. But if you think about it, the whole concept of discovering America is, well, arrogant. After all, the Native Americans discovered North America about 14,000 years before Columbus was even born! Surprisingly, DNA evidence now suggests that courageous Polynesian adventurers sailed dugout canoes across the Pacific and settled in South America long before the Vikings.

Second, Columbus wasn't a hero. When he set foot on that sandy beach in the Bahamas on October 12, 1492, Columbus discovered that the islands were inhabited by friendly, peaceful people called the Lucayans, Taínos and Arawaks. Writing in his diary, Columbus said they were a handsome, smart and kind people. He noted that the gentle Arawaks were remarkable for their hospitality. "They offered to share with anyone and when you ask for something, they never say no," he said. The Arawaks had no weapons; their society had neither criminals, prisons nor prisoners. They were so kind-hearted that Columbus noted in his diary that on the day the Santa Maria was shipwrecked, the Arawaks labored for hours to save his crew and cargo. The native people were so honest that not one thing was missing.

Columbus was so impressed with the hard work of these gentle islanders, that he immediately seized their land for Spain and enslaved them to work in his brutal gold mines. Within only two years, 125,000 (half of the population) of the original natives on the island were dead.

If I were a Native American, I would mark October 12, 1492, as a black day on my calendar.

Shockingly, Columbus supervised the selling of native girls into sexual slavery. Young girls of the ages 9 to 10 were the most desired by his men. In 1500, Columbus casually wrote about it in his log. He said: "A hundred castellanoes are as easily obtained for a woman as for a farm, and it is very general and there are plenty of dealers who go about looking for girls; those from nine to ten are now in demand."

He forced these peaceful natives work in his gold mines until they died of exhaustion. If an "Indian" worker did not deliver his full quota of gold dust by Columbus' deadline, soldiers would cut off the man's hands and tie them around his neck to send a message. Slavery was so intolerable for these sweet, gentle island people that at one point, 100 of them committed mass suicide. Catholic law forbade the enslavement of Christians, but Columbus solved this problem. He simply refused to baptize the native people of Hispaniola.

On his second trip to the New World, Columbus brought cannons and attack dogs. If a native resisted slavery, he would cut off a nose or an ear. If slaves tried to escape, Columbus had them burned alive. Other times, he sent attack dogs to hunt them down, and the dogs would tear off the arms and legs of the screaming natives while they were still alive. If the Spaniards ran short of meat to feed the dogs, Arawak babies were killed for dog food.

Columbus' acts of cruelty were so unspeakable and so legendary - even in his own day - that GovernorFrancisco De Bobadilla arrested Columbus and his two brothers, slapped them into chains, and shipped them off to Spain to answer for their crimes against the Arawaks. But the King and Queen of Spain, their treasury filling up with gold, pardoned Columbus and let him go free.

One of Columbus' men, Bartolome De Las Casas, was so mortified by Columbus' brutal atrocities against the native peoples, that he quit working for Columbus and became a Catholic priest. He described how the Spaniards under Columbus' command cut off the legs of children who ran from them, to test the sharpness of their blades. According to De Las Casas, the men made bets as to who, with one sweep of his sword, could cut a person in half. He says that Columbus' men poured people full of boiling soap. In a single day, De Las Casas was an eye witness as the Spanish soldiers dismembered, beheaded, or raped 3000 native people. "Such inhumanities and barbarisms were committed in my sight as no age can parallel," De Las Casas wrote. "My eyes have seen these acts so foreign to human nature that now I tremble as I write."

De Las Casas spent the rest of his life trying to protect the helpless native people. But after a while, there were no more natives to protect. Experts generally agree that before 1492, the population on the island of Hispaniola probably numbered above 3 million. Within 20 years of Spanish arrival, it was reduced to only 60,000. Within 50 years, not a single original native inhabitant could be found.

In 1516, Spanish historian Peter Martyr wrote: "... a ship without compass, chart, or guide, but only following the trail of dead Indians who had been thrown from the ships could find its way from the Bahamas to Hispaniola."

Christopher Columbus derived most of his income from slavery, De Las Casas noted. In fact, Columbus was the first slave trader in the Americas. As the native slaves died off, they were replaced with black slaves. Columbus' son became the first African slave trader in 1505.

Are you surprised you never learned about any of this in school? I am too. Why do we have this extraordinary gap in our American ethos? Columbus himself kept detailed diaries, as did some of his men including De Las Casas and Michele de Cuneo. (If you don't believe me, just Google the words Columbus, sex slave, and gold mine.)

Columbus' reign of terror is one of the darkest chapters in our history. The REAL question is: Why do we celebrate a holiday in honor of this man? (Take three deep breaths. If you're like me, your stomach is heaving at this point. I'm sorry. Sometimes the truth hurts. That said, I'd like to turn in a more positive direction.)

Call me crazy, but I think holidays ought to honor people who are worthy of our admiration, true heroes who are positive role models for our children. If we're looking for heroes we can truly admire, I'd like to offer a few candidates. Foremost among them are school kids.

Let me tell you about some school kids who are changing the world. I think they are worthy of a holiday. My friend Nan Peterson is the director of the Blake School, a K-12 school in Minnesota. She recently visited Kenya. Nan says there are 33 million people in Kenya... and 11 million of them are orphans! Can you imagine that? She went to Kibera, the slum outside Nairobi, and a boy walked up to her and handed her a baby. He said: My father died. My mother died... and I'm not feeling so good myself. Here, take my sister. If I die, they will throw her into the street to die.

There are so many orphans in Kenya, the baby girls are throwaways!

Nan visited an orphanage for girls. The girls were starving to death. They had one old cow that only gave one cup of milk a day. So each girl only got ONE TEASPOON of milk a day!

After this heartbreaking experience, Nan went home to her school in Minnesota and asked the kids... what can we do? The kids got the idea to make homemade paper and sell it to buy a cow. So they made a bunch of paper, and sold the paper, and when they were done they had enough money to buy... FOUR COWS! And enough food to feed all of the cows for ONE FULL YEAR! These are kids... from 6 years old to 18... saving the lives of kids halfway around the world. And I thought: If a 6-year-old could do that... what could I do?

At Casady School in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, seemingly "average" school kids raised $20,000 to dig clean water wells for children in Ethiopia. These kids are heroes. Why don't we celebrate "Kids Who Are Changing the Planet" Day?

Let me ask you a question: Would we celebrate Columbus Day if the story of Christopher Columbus were told from the point-of-view of his victims? No way!

The truth about Columbus is going to be a hard pill for some folks to swallow. Please, don't think I'm picking on Catholics. All the Catholics I know are wonderful people. I don't want to take away their holiday or their hero. But if we're looking for a Catholic our kids can admire, the Catholic church has many, many amazing people we could name a holiday after. How about Mother Teresa day? Or St. Francis of Assisi day? Or Betty Williams day (another Catholic Nobel Peace Prize winner). These men and women are truly heroes of peace, not just for Catholics, but for all of us.

Let's come clean. Let's tell the truth about Christopher Columbus. Let's boycott this outrageous holiday because it honors a mass murderer. If we skip the cute song about "In 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue," I don't think our first graders will miss it much, do you? True, Columbus' brutal treatment of peaceful Native Americans was so horrific... maybe we should hide the truth about Columbus until our kids reach at least High School age. Let's teach it to them about the same time we tell them about the Nazi death camps.

While we're at it, let's rewrite our history books. From now on, instead of glorifying the exploits of mass murderers like Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Genghis Khan, and Napoleon Bonaparte, let's teach our kids about true heroes, men and women of courage and kindness who devoted their lives to the good of others. There's a long list, starting with Florence Nightingale, Mahatma Gandhi, Rev. Martin Luther King, and John F. Kennedy.

These people were not adventurers who "discovered" an island in the Caribbean. They were noble souls who discovered what is best in the human spirit.

Why don't we create a holiday to replace Columbus Day?

Let's call it Heroes of Peace Day.