Did everyone have a good Fall Holiday? No, not that fall holiday, not the one with the turkey and dressing, the new fall holiday.
Two weeks ago I detailed how losing the election threw campus into a tailspin of tears and terror. On Nov. 19, Bloomington delivered again.
At the direction of Mayor John Hamilton, the city has changed the names of Columbus Day and Good Friday to Fall Holiday and Spring Holiday, respectively. Hamilton, a Democrat, if that still needs to be said, said this is to “better reflect cultural sensitivity in the workplace.”
This belongs alongside other historic crusades for justice recently waged by the left. The struggle against the stiff bootheel of oppression that is the Washington Redskins’ name comes to mind, or perhaps Apple’s stunning and brave decision to change the gun emoji to a water pistol.
In other words, this is hollow, meaningless grandstanding by liberals in a country that has resoundingly rejected such pandering. Ask yourself, what does this accomplish? Recent election maps should remind Hamilton and others that Hoosiers have had enough nonsense. Indeed, Monroe County is one of only four counties in Indiana to go blue, against a sea of crimson deeper than IU’s.
The most realistic view of Columbus is he was an ambitious, skilled conqueror — yes, conquest implies murder — that toppled civilizations full of ambitious, skilled conquerors and opened the Western Hemisphere to Europeans, regardless of when the Vikings or Chinese first arrived.
Regardless of one’s view, this is, to say the least, historically significant. Similarly, irrespective of one’s faith, the idea of Christ and his resurrection has had a profound affect on the world. Fall Holiday and Spring Holiday, derived from Hamilton’s mind last week, have not.
Bloomington has exchanged the historically significant for the imaginary in the name of feel-goodism. IU’s whiny reaction to the election results should reveal the dividends paid when those in authority legitimize such immaturity.
Either the United States has a culture or it doesn’t. The left is happy to remind us of the importance of respecting and preserving local cultures when American citizens and companies go abroad. Surely the same logic should apply at home.
Moreover, rather than allowing the messy and unpredictable processes of assimilation and diffusion to work their magic, such actions undermine them by highlighting differences and lowering expectations that they ever occur at all.
The only way you get the sons of Chinese immigrants drinking German craft beers in a Mexican restaurant in Cleveland is when we all jump into the melting pot together. Rather than disrupting this process, the mayor’s office could be taking tangible action that helps real people, rather than their own genteel sensibilities.
The Indiana Daily Student has chronicled a rise in hate crimes recently. Though one should be skeptical of any Trump-inspired violence clustered in college towns and the Bay Area, wouldn’t it be nice if the city government were spending more time investigating this or perhaps filling some pot holes rather than applying white-out to calendars? Of course it would.
Perhaps Hamilton should ask our French immigrant community how it went last time those in power started playing with the calendar — re. Maximilien Robespierre — Bloomington should say non, focus on the real issues and keep the wonderful cultural diffusion we already enjoy chugging along.
zaochamb@indiana.edu
