I’ve uploaded this video to help promote one of my favorite books, and because somehow in the America we still recognize today as “Columbus Day”. Thanks to this book – in particular, the final third of this excerpt – I’m encouraged to place my pride specifically where it most belongs, and where it belongs with greater understanding and passion.

I’m all for us having the extra day off; also, I’m thoroughly supportive of Americans taking pride in our country.

Curiously, many Americans have either forgotten or never learned that by dumb luck, and for the most selfish reasons, Christopher Columbus plundered, enslaved, raped, and tortured an overwhelmingly accommodating and peaceful civilization into extinction.

He had no notion of America. He held dear none of the values we admire or respect.

Would we admire a conqueror of a different name doing the same to us today?

Over five centuries later, we can take pride in our country for the right reasons or we can take pride for the wrong reasons. By definition, and by any decently intelligent, moral person, the methods of Columbus must be seen as wrong reasons.

Columbus does not deserve a day named in his honor. As proud Americans, we should respect ourselves and our history far more than that.