Argumentative Essay: Should We Celebrate Columbus Day?

There are many opinions about Columbus Day and whether we should celebrate it as a holiday. I believe the extent in which we should celebrate Columbus Day is just acknowledging him rather than dedicating a federal holiday to him. I would propose to celebrate “Indigenous People’s Day” or “Native Americans’ Day”. My opinion comes from his actual discovery of th New World and his actions after he settled in North America. One reason why I think we should not celebrate Columbus day to the extent of a federal holiday is because of the thinking that Columbus was the one who discovered North America. In the article “Leif Erikson” , Leif Eriksson, who was the son of Erik the Red, is said to be the first European to set foot in North America. There are stories about how he truly discovered North America but one story says that he sailed off course on his way back to Greenland and ended up below Greenland in North america. Another story is he heard about the fertile land of North America by an icelandic man who had sailed past it years before so Leif thought it would be a good place to land his ship. This idea of Christopher Columbus truly

Putting aside all the horrible things Columbus did, he did help colonize North America. He opened up a new world where people could go to freely express themselves, it was the land of the free. People could freely practice their religion and many could start a new life. Another reason why people don't want Columbus day to change is because of his Italian background. Many italian americans are proud of Christopher Columbus because of his italian background. But we do have to realize that he did not treat the indigenous people who were there first well at all. I feel we can like I said I think we should still acknowledge Christopher Columbus and how he civilized North America but we shouldn't give him a federal holiday because of the crimes against humanity that he