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That Is Columbus Day | Poem


Editorial

9 October 2000

Columbus Day
by Ken Peters

For most of us it just means a three day weekend. To really appreciate Columbus Day we need an analogy that uses terms we understand. Let's say you live comfortably with your family in a nice house on a quiet street. Your family has lived there for years. "Gang(sters)" have a club house a few blocks to the east of your house and the gang members frequent a bar a few blocks west of your family residence. The gang members love this bar because of the spicy food and exotic dancers there. One day a gang member is lost and stumbles into your neighborhood. He stops at  your house and asks for directions. You give him a glass of iced tea and a  sandwich. He goes back to the gang club house and tells his buddies he has found  a great place to hang out. Other gang members start coming to your house and when you object to their raids on the refrigerator and their muddy boots on the living room rug they beat you up and kill your grandfather. Eventually they move into your home and force you to live in a tent behind the house on a patch of dirt that is not even good for a garden. Every year the gang celebrates how they  have found your house. That's Columbus Day.

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