Our nation celebrates the day Christopher Columbus opened the Americas to European colonization, but why? Columbus was a genocidal mass murderer and war criminal. Columbus and those under his command tortured, raped, enslaved, and murdered over a million indigenous people. This set a precedent for Europeans to persecute Native Americans. Christopher Columbus deserves the same infamy that was given to Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Mao Zedong, and Pol Pot.
What should be celebrated is the great scientific and technological achievement of landing a man on the moon. For the first time ever, humans set foot on another celestial body. Apollo 11 Day will inspire young people to go into the STEM fields and give them pride in their country without celebrating the evils of Columbus.