Photo Corners headlinesarchivemikepasini.com
A S C R A P B O O K O F S O L U T I O N S F O R T H E P H O T O G R A P H E R
Enhancing the enjoyment of taking pictures with news that matters, features that entertain and images that delight. Published frequently.
A Holiday For Everyone
9 October 2023
Whether you celebrate today as Columbus Day (the federal holiday) or Indigenous Peoples' Day (the grass roots alternative), you have to admit a sizable number of people are celebrating it differently from you.
Reenactment. Joseph Cervetto Jr. as Columbus landing at Aquatic Park in San Francisco, Sept. 20 1989, by Ken Light. Processed in Adobe Camera Raw.
But you also have to admit, that leaves nobody out.
In fact, you are free to choose which way to celebrate the day, making it even more inclusive.
For many years, San Franciscans reenacted Columbus's landing. A small boat was loaded up with a costumed Columbus and a few sailors who rowed it to the beach in Aquatic Park where Queen Isabella and her court were arrayed to celebrate the occasion.
Nothing like that ever happened, of course. Columbus never made it to the Pacific Ocean and Queen Isabella never visited San Francisco. But we loved it as a reminder of how we got here.
And once landed, the party went up Columbus St. in a traditional parade.
Then things got complicated. In 1992, 4,000 turned the boat back, as the Los Angeles Times reported in Protesters Stop Mock Landing of Columbus. In 2018, San Francisco officially replaced Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples' Day.
But yesterday the Italian-American Heritage Parade went down Columbus Ave. as usual.
President Biden again issued proclamations for both Columbus Day and Indigenous Peoples' Day.
"Today, we honor all the Italian Americans who never walked away from our fundamental creed and who, for generations, have helped realize the full promise of our Nation," he said in the first. "On Indigenous Peoples’ Day, we honor America’s first inhabitants and the Tribal Nations that continue to thrive today," he said in the second.
We can do both. It could be a sort of rehearsal for Thanksgiving.
Inclusive may be a dirty word in some circles these days but for most of us, call it what you will, today is a celebration of being here.
That may not sound like much, but "here" is "home." And in an era where so many are migrants -- escaping crime, poverty, war and genocide, among other atrocities -- it is a blessing to know "home" as something other than an ideal.
Embrace the day, embrace your neighbor, love the homeland you share.