Originally published at writelarge.com. You can comment here or there.

I just want you all to know, today, I took the bold “I’d sooner celebrate Slobodan Milosevic” line out of my newspaper column condemning the practice of Columbus Day because I was afraid of offending the knights of Columbus– So don’t talk to me about selling out. I didn’t want the phone calls, that’s all.

Here’s an informative if not biased web page that basically sums up why I would write such a thing, and the rest of the column, for those of you who don’t read the paper, is available here.

There’s a reason nobody sends ‘Happy Columbus Day’ cards
Today is Columbus Day, and since I’m ever so slightly of an Italian heritage, let me write about one of my favorite days of the year.
OK, maybe I’m being a bit facetious. You probably wouldn’t believe me if I said that I would rank Columbus Day above Christmas and the Fourth of July.
And you would be right.
Columbus Day is one of those weird quasi-holidays where the bank is closed and the mail doesn’t come, but you still have to go to work. That’s the definition, in my opinion, of a bad holiday.
But Columbus Day is a bad holiday for other reasons, too. Let me ’splain.
I just spent some time in St. Augustine, Fla., so this is fresh in my mind: neither the Spanish, nor the English, nor the Americas were kind to the aboriginal people of “the New World.”
Columbus was a slave trader, a brutal leader, and is alleged to have played a major role in the systematic extermination of the indigenous people of the Caribbean Islands.
I would no sooner celebrate Christopher Columbus than I would celebrate Slobodan Milosevic.
Now, I certainly would never want to stand accused of saying that we should have fewer holidays here in America, but when we’re talking about Columbus Day, let’s face it - it’s not like you get the day off or get Columbus Day presents or anything.
However, I have my reasons why I feel that we should continue to observe Columbus Day.
By continuing to observe the holiday each and every year, we have an opportunity to remember the crimes and horrors that are alleged to have been committed by those exploring “the New World.”
And by remembering those horrors, maybe there is hope that they can keep from being repeated.