After centuries of informal and state celebrations, Columbus Day became a federal holiday in 1970. It was a day to celebrate country, history and the spirit of adventure. Italian-Americans rejoiced in their heritage. Recently the holiday has fallen into disfavor among the academic elites and politically correct. Brown University has become the latest institution of supposedly higher learning to banish this American tradition to the dust bin of history.

At the request of the student body, the faculty voted to replace the Columbus Day recognition with a Fall Weekend celebration. One has to wonder where these students got the information on which they based their righteous indignation. Some would see the possibility of manipulation of these students trying to find their way on their own for the first time in their lives.

The historical revisionists have now chosen to emphasize some of the things that may have gone on between Columbus and the native Americans over the magnitude of his accomplishment. One web site explains this thinking by telling us it “rejects the celebration of Christopher Columbus and his legacy of domination, oppression, and colonialism. We also reject historical misconceptions regarding Columbus and his ‘discovery’ of the Americas.” He is called a savage and castigated as a slave trader.

What is interesting is that many of the most vocal opponents of Columbus and his discovery of the new world have long ago expressed deep admiration for revolutionary butcher Che Guevara. The same people who are loudly critical of Columbus alleged brutality admire the very same qualities in the communist guerrilla. Guevara’s victims are well documented, and I’ve never met one of his fans that will argue that he was not a ruthless killer.

It looks like it’s not the action these people really object to. Could it be that one resulted in the birth of the greatest free nation on earth, based on Christian values and the other was trying to tear down certain levels of freedom and substitute the iron hand of communism? How revealing is this?

Nothing takes place in a vacuum. Are the students (and faculty) rejecting Columbus because of his supposed deeds, or because of what he represents: the spread of western civilization – the benefits of which they all enjoy? Do these same people so admire Che because he lived the life of a terrorist, killing innocent people, or because he was trying to tear down western civilization? The next time you see a kid with his cool Che Guevara t-shirt, you may want to ask him that.

Christopher Columbus wasn’t perfect, but he was a man who had the courage to go where no European had gone before. He was the James Kirk of his day. He was one of leaders in the creation of a civilization that was to be the lighthouse to world. Those who would argue with this must think that the idyllic Middle Ages were the peak of man’s existence with their bleaker living conditions and significantly shorter life spans. Surely they could not be looking at communist regimes that killed millions of people around the world to maintain their dictatorial power, only to ultimately fail anyway, as the model we should be working toward, along with the likes of Guevara. Unfortunately many of them do!