A holiday by any other name: Columbus, go home?

Last Monday, tens of thousands of federal workers, from Austin to Boston, in Chicago and Los Angeles and Huntsville got the day off. It was Columbus Day Same for feds in D.C, New York, Spokane, Washington and Duluth, Minnesota.

The holiday was named for a government contractor, an Italian working for the Spanish crown. He’s credited with discovering America, even though there were millions of people here when spotted his first coconut.

But for non-emergency feds in several cities, including Seattle and Minneapolis, the paid federal holiday, by order of their city councils cities — is known as Indigenous People’s Day! U.S. government workers in San Francisco and Oakland got Columbus Day off, whereas their counterparts in nearby Berkeley were celebrating IDP.

Some people find the situation amusing or bewildering. Some take it very seriously. Like this Internal Revenue Service worker who says Columbus Day is all wrong:

“Why does the federal government, a supposedly national symbol for diversity, continue to celebrate Columbus Day? This holiday does little to promote diversity and inclusion for American Indians/Alaska Natives. It celebrates the legacy of a man, Christopher Columbus, who committed egregious atrocities against Indigenous people. Could this be a contributing factor to American Indian/Alaska Native federal employees having the lowest engagement levels of any racial group in the federal government?

“You may be asking yourself the following question. If American Indian/Alaska Native federal employees don’t like observing Columbus Day, why not ask their supervisor to allow them to work on that day and take another day off as annual leave? Unfortunately, federal workplace regulations do not allow non-essential employees to work on federal holidays due to the lack of workplace protections like workman’s compensation.

“Several state governments do not observe Columbus Day like AK, AR, CA, DE, FL, HI, MI, MN, NV, OR, SD, TX, VT, WA, WI and WY.

“Tribal governments do not recognize Columbus Day at all. If you call their offices on Columbus Day, someone will answer the phone. Some tribal governments like those in Oklahoma commemorate Columbus Day as “Native American” day or a day named after their Tribe.

This month, Seattle became the second major U.S. city along with Minneapolis, to officially change the name of the Columbus Day holiday to “Indigenous People’s Day.”

“Imagine you are sitting in your favorite restaurant and you are eating a sandwich. The person sitting next to you says, “You took my sandwich.” You reply, “No I didn’t, I discovered it.” That is essentially what Columbus did through the use of the doctrine of discovery, a land grab by his religious sponsors. It is the same legal doctrine that Supreme Court Justice John Marshall used in 1823 when he decreed that American Indians had rights to their land by occupancy but whites had the superior rights to the same land through “discovery.” Without knowing it, Columbus had a hand in the creation of the federal reservation system that we know today.

“Who are the only two people not former presidents who are honored by a national holiday — Martin Luther King Jr. and Christopher Columbus? Between the two, who do you think was the better ambassador for inclusion?

“How did we get to this point as a federal government where we would honor someone who condoned slavery, colonization, genocide, racism, religious fanaticism and human and environmental degradation? These cruelties are as American as apple pie. Columbus Day is just the ice cream on top.” — R at the IRS

        Read more: Mike Causey

NEARLY USELESS FACTOID:

By Michael O’Connell

Children in the State of Illinois get a day off from school on the first Monday in March. Casimir Pulaski Day honors the man who recruited Benjamin Franklin in the American Colonies’ fight for independence from British rule. Pulaski also acted as chief of cavalry during the American Revolution.

Source: Fact Monster

MORE FROM FEDERAL NEWS RADIO:

Acquisition workers as critical thinkers: A change that has to happen
In Federal News Radio’s special report, Missing Pieces of Procurement Reform, the Defense Acquisition University, the Federal Acquisition Institute and other experts say a new kind of acquisition worker is needed. One that brings business acumen, understands technology and knows the FAR forward and back. The ever-evolving training regime for federal acquisition workers is no longer just about the hard skills of acquisition.

Successful DoD acquisition programs start with funding for the workforce
To maintain the world’s finest military, the Department of Defense needs three things: high quality people, realistic and constant training, and cutting-edge technology and support from industry. If we have the first two but not the last, we risk losing our ability to protect our national security interests around the world. Rapidly falling defense budgets underscore the need to achieve major reductions in the costs of what we acquire as well as the costs of acquisition processes and organizations themselves.

Copyright © 2024 Federal News Network. All rights reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.