Veteran's Day Columbus Day

          As we approach Veteran’s Day I always think about my time in the navy. While my time was not anything near as dangerous as the army guys in the jungles of Vietnam, it was not particularly without hazard. A year of flight duty off the coast of Vietnam and chasing typhoons across the wide Pacific, including penetration of those typhoons was not a walk in the park either. Two cruises working on the flight deck of the Kitty Hawk in support of air strikes on Vietnam was not without hazard. That said I came through it all without physical injury, unlike 58,000 others who lost their lives there.

          This brings me to my point. We have Columbus Day celebrating a man who left on a journey to find another closer route to India to plunder that nation’s labor and wealth. He bumped into America and was not smart enough to know America was not India. He got credit for being the first to discover our shores when historical evidence shows the Vikings were here 400 years earlier. They were preceded 20,000 years earlier by people of Asian descent who crossed the Bering Strait and populated America becoming what we now call Native Americans. None the less we celebrate a holiday for Columbus and banks, government civil agencies and schools close for that day.

          Now Veteran’s Day, the same communities close for yet another holiday, but what about the Veterans? Veterans don’t get either day off. Whom do you think was and is more important? I think all veterans should get the day off with pay for veterans and we should just eliminate the holiday for Columbus Day.

          If I am wrong, please let me know.