Honoring Native Americans on Columbus Day is about getting it right the second time

It’s not about being politically correct when it comes to recent changes to Columbus Day. It’s just about being correct.

“We got it wrong, so let’s get it right,” said KIRO Radio’s Don O’Neill of the Ron and Don Show.

“People always say, ‘You’re changing history.’ No, you’re not changing history. You’re trying to look at it correctly,” Don said. “Or people say, ‘You’re being too [politically correct].’ It’s not about being PC. It’s about getting it right. It’s about being correct.”

Co-host Ron Upshaw agreed.

“There was a folklore around this one guy, it was written in a way that made him seem like a heroic figure and it was just wrong,” Ron said. “It’s more than 100 years later, and we’re going to say, ‘This doesn’t represent who we are anymore and we’re going to change it.'”

The City of Seattle is among a range of cities and states that are tossing Columbus Day, and replacing it with Indigenous Peoples Day. Among those cities are Albuquerque, Portland, Ore., St. Paul, Minn. and Olympia. The state of Alaska has done the same.

Seattle Mayor Ed Murray said that honoring the people who were already here, instead of a controversial historical figure, is simply part of the culture of Seattle; a city named after a historic and local Native American.

“We are named after an incredible leader and we have an incredible legacy to fulfill,” Murray said. “I hope that today is not just a day of recognition, but also a moment of healing.”

But doing away with Columbus Day is not supported by everyone. Seattle’s Frank Isernio of Isernio Sausage told Jason Rantz in 2014 that there are others in the United States who are being dishonored by removing the holiday.

“This is a state, federal law, 100 years old,” Isernio said. “And to make a point, that point is at the expense of Italian-Americans.”

Columbus Day has been celebrated by various communities in America since colonial times. It became a federal holiday in 1937. Some states and cities honored Columbus with his own day prior to that; as a man who discovered America and ushered in an age of exploration.

But as a more accurate history has been revealed, Columbus wasn’t the honorable figure folklore has made him out to be.

“America was ‘discovered’ or visited 500 years before [Columbus] and that was by the Viking Leif Erickson,” Ron said. “As far as being the first person, or first European, [on the American continent] &#8212 that didn’t really happen.”

But there is also the debate that, because Europeans found out about the American continent, it doesn’t mean too much because there were already millions of people already here; creating civilizations, trade, and culture.

“You also look at the way many Native Americans were treated by Europeans when they first got here, plus think about all the diseases Native Americans were exposed to,” Don said. “That wiped out many populations. As a result they represent 2 percent of everyone that is here now.”

“I look at this day and I can’t figure out why some people are still celebrating it,” he said. “It doesn’t make sense to me.”