Columbus is both loved and hated for his accomplishments. His voyage is viewed as spectacular, not only because of it's length and the risk it involved, but because it led to "the discovery" of America. It is known that other explorers such as the Vikings sailed to America long before Columbus did, but it was his journey that became of much significance to Europe, beginning major contact between the two worlds and inspiring explorers from other nations as well. .
Columbus is also praised for proving the world was not flat. Even though he had little formal education, he study up on many geniuses of the past, such as Aristole. Many ideas of Greek scientist and philosophers he read about support his therories, but back then people who believed the ocean led to more then the edge of the earth, and those who dared to think such things were laughed at or jailed. But Columbus stood by his beliefs, and proved the beliefs of the time he lived in wrong. For this he is acclaimed. .
America might not even have Columbus Day if Columbus was not Italian. It was the large Italian population in New York City that bought about all the celebrations for their "native son". The next year, more parades, banquets, and dances were held in other cities by Italian organizations. In 1892 president Benjamin Harrison made a commerative proclaimation on October 12. 13 years later Colorado became the first state to observe Columbus Day as a day for celebration, and in 1937 Franklin Roosevelt declared every October 12 Columbus Day. In 1971 Congress declared it a federal public holiday on the second Monday of October.
Although there are some positive aspects of what Columbus did, the majority of opinions on this so-called holiday seem to sway in a more negative direction. In an editorial written to a page titled "Letters to the Editor", one person said "When I was young we never spent a lot of time discussing the real Christopher Columbus.
