Americans of all stripes will parade Fifth Avenue today, waving Italian flags, celebrating Christopher Columbus' "discovery" of the New World. Of course, the New World was inhabited by old people's and had been 'discovered' many years earlier by Northern Europeans.
Still, we celebrate Columbus Day in an effort to cleanse the history of genocide that makes us uncomfortable. Celebrating Columbus makes it seem like a wise European made good choices and laid the foundation for a new civilization. This is true, as long as you ignore the genocide.
Oddly, this celebration of genocide and the display of another nation's flag seems acceptable to most Americans. Somehow, suburbanites think it's OK to wave another nation's flag today. However, when Mexicans want to celebrate their participation in the slaughter of American aborigines by waving their flag in public it is deemed to be unpatriotic.
Either you wave the American flag in public, or you don't. If waving another nation's flag is unpatriotic, then it is unpatriotic to wave ANY nation's flag in public, including the Italian flag (even if you voted Republican).
Waving a Mexican flag is no less American than waving an Italian flag.
Hell . . . Wave any friggin' flag you want.
America's obsession with its flag, instead of an obsession for what the flag represents, is one of the most idiotic dynamics in American culture.
Anyway . . . Happy Columbus Day!
Go Mets! Go Tigers!
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