Russ's Ravings: Why Are We Still Having The Columbus Day Debate?

Editor's note: The following is Patch North Jersey Regional Manager Russ Crespolini's, hopefully, weekly column. It is reflective of his opinion alone.

A few years ago, when I was running a newspaper in Essex County the history of Christopher Columbus was called into question as well as the appropriateness of a holiday to honor him.

To be clear, the good folks at Mt. Olive High School did not give me a clear picture of the man. When I reached college I started to learn more about Christopher Columbus, his accidental discovery of this "new world" and what that wrought on the indigenous people. Assault, theft and disease.

I read about the horrific ways in which settlers manifest destinied their way across the continent and how a group of people who had lived here for centuries were now relegated to small patches of land and watched helplessly as the new stewards of America poisoned the very Earth they revered.

Over the years more people have focused their animosity on Christopher Columbus and Christopher Columbus Day as a holiday. Celebrating someone who kicked off so much woe for so many seemed problematic. So a movement was started to celebrate the indigenous people who were so wronged with Indigenous People's Day.

The call also came to remove the statues of Columbus. One community I covered, a heavily Italian one, said they would take all of the discarded Columbus statues and display them in a local park. They said it was a matter of Italian-American pride.

Last year, there were dueling petitions in Parsippany to both save and remove the statue of Columbus from in front of the Parsippany-Troy Hills municipal building both said it was a matter of pride.

Now, as school calendars are amended and adjusted some districts are pondering a name change or have made a name changed with mixed results. While some applaud, many deride. In fact, I have seen some people go as far as to say the changing of the name is discriminatory against Italian-Americans.

I don't agree. My grandmother, Rose DeCaro (nee Sena) was raised in Madison with her 10 brothers and sisters during the depression. She was told to "walk on the other side of the street" by neighbors and told nobody wanted "those dirty Italian kids" around. That, is discrimination against Italian-Americans.

But regardless of where you fall on the spectrum of the debate, there is a simple way to remedy it. Eliminate it completely.

And replace it with Election Day.

So I propose we eliminate Columbus Day as a national holiday and replace it with Election Day. And here is why this works.

Those who want to celebrate Italian-American pride can still do so. Those who want to celebrate Indigenous People can still do so. Those who want to celebrate both can still do so. Those who want to celebrate neither can still do so. And those who just want to have a day off can still do so.

They can just vote first.

This also allows for a real holiday on Election Day, which would improve turnout at the polls. And isn't participation what we want for Democracy?

So instead of fighting over the day and forcing people to celebrate your way, why don't we make it a holiday about choices. Your choice of government, your choice of representation.

Certainly it has to be a better use our time than focusing on the accomplishment of a man who got lost.

Russ Crespolini is the North Jersey Regional Manager for Patch Media, an adjunct professor and college newspaper advisor. His columns have won awards from the National Newspaper Association and the New Jersey Press Association.

He writes them in hopes of connecting with readers and engaging with them. He can be reached at russ.crespolini@patch.com