America discovers Columbus, and it’s often no holiday
Staff writer
This Monday — the second Monday in October — will be Columbus Day. Or perhaps it’ll Indigenous Peoples Day. Or perhaps it’ll be nothing at all.
The United States is divided about many issues; whether to celebrate Columbus Day is among them. While the city and county of Marion take Columbus Day off, and so does the federal government, the state does not. Nationwide, only 16 states continue to celebrate the holiday. And that can make things confusing for the different levels of government.
The complication grows with a recent push to scrap Columbus Day for Indigenous Peoples Day.
Advocates of Indigenous Peoples Day suggest that Columbus massacred and deceived Native Americans on his expeditions to the New World, and that honoring him with a holiday would be misguided.
New Mexico disposed of Columbus and adopted Indigenous Peoples Day in 2019. Kansas’s northern neighbor, Nebraska, celebrates both Indigenous Peoples Day and Columbus Day. Missouri recognizes only Columbus Day. Kansas celebrates neither.
Marion County commissioners offered varying opinions regarding the holiday.
“It’s always been Columbus Day to me,” Commissioner Kent Becker said. “[But] people can call it whatever they want. It’s a free country.”
Becker said he wasn’t aware of the different holidays taken by the different levels of government.
“I didn’t know they had a different calendar,” he said.
But there is quite a bit of variation between schedules.
While the federal government honors George Washington’s birthday, for example, the state and county do not.
While the state and county take two days for Thanksgiving, the federal government takes only one.
The county takes two days for Christmas. The state and federal governments take only one.
And while the federal and state governments celebrate Juneteenth, a holiday which commemorates the abolition of American slavery, the county does not.
“It’s been there since I’ve started. Can’t really say I know why,” Commissioner Randy Dallke said of Columbus Day. “We all think we know about Columbus, but we don’t really know anything, because we just know he sailed down to America.”
Although the state doesn’t celebrate Columbus Day, Dallke said that “the county responds to the state” — that if the state takes a day off, the county won’t be able to function well.
“We just voted not to take one that the national government’s coming out with,” Dallke said in reference to Juneteenth.
The reason counties and states choose to tinker with holidays is typically for cultural or economic reasons.
Marion County is 1% African-American, for example, so it’s fair to say the population has less connection to Juneteenth than Wyandotte County, which is 23% African-American and does celebrate the holiday.
Holidays also close businesses, and closed businesses don’t drive local economies. A county concerned with its finances, as Marion is, might opt for fewer holidays as a result.
“Our county government is a business, and trying to make it stay functionable with other businesses is sometimes a chore,” Dallke said.
Asked whether he’d be in favor of replacing Columbus Day with Indigenous People’s Day, Dallke declined to give an opinion.
“I’m not able to speak on that,” he said.
Dave Crofoot, vice-chairman of the commissioners, had a much stronger view.
“I’m against that,” Crofoot said. “I think we need to celebrate white people day, because we’re the minority now.”
Asked to elaborate, Crofoot said that white people were outnumbered “by all the other nationalities. The Mexicans, the black people, the Chinese.”
Census data shows this to be untrue. As of July 2023, non-Hispanic white people made up 58.4% of the U.S. population. In Marion County, that number was 91.7%.
Crofoot also claimed that minorities have more rights than white people, particularly when it comes to businesses like Western Associates in Marion, where he works.
“We’ve been catering to them,” he said of minorities. “You know, if you [are] a pregnant black woman, you got a lot more rights than I got.”
While Crofoot is vehemently opposed to Indigenous Peoples’ Day, he’s not too passionate about Columbus Day either.
“I’m from the old school. I never take a day off,” he said. “I have my own business; I work six, seven days a week.”
He plans to be at Western Associates at 8 a.m. sharp this Columbus Day — at his desk, ready to answer the phone.