This past Monday was Columbus Day, one of 11 federal holidays in the United States. Back when I attended Fort Dearborn Grammar School in Chicago's South Side Brainerd neighborhood, the holiday was celebrated on October 12th, and since I hated school, I welcomed every holiday I could get. These days, of course, Columbus Day is very controversial due to Columbus' mistreatment and enslavement of indigenous people. It is also very complicated. In Illinois, Columbus Day is still celebrated, but in the City of Chicago, it is now Indigenous Peoples' Day. Here in Colorado, it was eliminated as a state holiday and replaced by Mother Cabrini Day, celebrated on the first Monday in October. Back when I was going to school, I really don't think I would have cared if the holiday celebrated Satan, as long as I got the day off. I took the photograph above, by the way, on the walk home from Fort Dearborn one long ago afternoon. I don't remember the name of the kid on the left, but in the center is John Kloak, who lived across the alley from me, and on the right is Neil Finn, who lived down the street from our house on Aberdeen Street. And yes, students in Chicago still get Columbus/Indigenous People's Day off, but students in Colorado do not. And they don't get Mother Cabrini Day off, either. What a ripoff - I suggest that they definitely stage a walkout next year. And perhaps, for good measure, they should do so on both of those very special days.
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