dual allegiance

  Columbus day is just around the corner. It will always be Columbus day to me although I admit it isn't a holiday I ever celebrated a great deal. It is one I need to be reminded of before remembering when it is. It is always the second Monday in October. That was set with the uniform holiday act that made holidays a bit more convenient for all of us. President Joe Biden made that date a dual observance, adding in indigenous people day. President Trump just reversed that. So what does that mean? Trump reversed a observance that wasn't an independent observance but a joint observance, so we are back to celebrating Columbus, although Columbus never set foot on the north American continent. At least on the federal level that's the official line, various states will continue to have a dual celebration, some calling it Native American day. Columbus never interacted with any native American. But that's another whole story.

  In response to the lynching of some Italian immigrants in New Orleans in 1890 then president Benjamin Harrison established Columbus day as a means to create acceptance for those Italian immigrants. In 1934 president Franklin D Roosevelt created Columbus day as an official holiday. It began to be associated with Italian culture and heritage. Yes, it was a celebration of heritage. Today we are still hearing a great deal about celebrating heritage. We now have Kwanza to celebrate the Christmas season, although Kwanza never existed in any African nations and was in fact created in California in 1966. 

  There is also Juneteenth, a time to celebrate freedom from slavery. A Union General arrived in Texas and told those enslaved there they were now free. The 13th amendment had been ratified and went into effect on January 31, 1865. The civil war wouldn't officially end until April of that year. I know, imagine that, those holding slaves hadn't told them that the union had freed them. It became an official holiday on June 17, 2021. And we have to mention all the "heritage" months as well. I admit many I wasn't aware of. There is Black History month, Greek-American heritage month (march), National Arab-American heritage month (April), Jewish Heritage month (May) and Caribbean American heritage month (June). Strangely we do not have an American Heritage Month. 

  So we celebrate an Italian guy that was never here. We celebrate those that were here. We celebrate African cultures, at least those assuming they have African roots do, they may or may not have been from the African continent. We have months devoted to celebrating various other cultures/nationalities and even a month to celebrate sexual preferences. We don't have a specific holiday for American heritage, not even a month for that. We celebrate the fourth of July, the birth of America, that's as close as we get. But we include everyone in that celebration, we are all Americans, aren't we? Well, that's where it all gets a little murky doesn't it. Just who are Americans? 

  Google that one and you can find whatever explanation you want to find. It's a scholarly debate. As for me, I'm no scholar, just an American. Being American means embracing and adopting the cultural values and traditions of America. Those customs, traditions and values were derived from many other ethnic groups over centuries. A little of this, a little of that. Race has nothing to do with that. Ethnicity is also not a factor in being an American. In fact, that is exactly what our Federal laws say. It is what some would call assimilation when it comes to those immigrating here. If you were born here, by law, you are an American citizen. You are an American. So what is assimilation then? What do you have to do to become an American? 

  Here is what Roosevelt had to say about that:   The Duties of American Citizenship - Theodore Roosevelt 1883   Here is an excerpt from that document: 

Of course, in one sense,

the first essential for a man's being a good citizen is his possession of the home virtues of which we think when we call a man by the emphatic adjective of manly. No man can be a good citizen who is not a good husband and a good father, who is not honest in his dealings with other men and women, faithful to his friends and fearless in the presence of his foes, who has not got a sound heart, a sound mind, and a sound body; exactly as no amount of attention to civil duties will save a nation if the domestic life is undermined, or there is lack of the rude military virtues which alone can assure a country's position in the world. 

  Dual holidays, dual allegiance? I don't think so.  Just one Flag, one nation, under God, indivisible. That's my America.