Fortune Favors The Bold

All of the Columbus Day nonsense… please humor me in agreeing outright that the noise of the people who dispute Columbus’ praiseworthiness or accomplishments now far exceeds the volume of the people who are doing any sort of sincere commemoration… doesn’t make me feel alienated as an Italian-American (the overwhelming majority percentage of my lineage) because I have any attachment to Columbus and I’m sad to see him desecrated. I’m indifferent to Columbus. But all of it does remind me that people really don’t give a shit about Italians. They’re happy to disrespect us to our faces, with not a whiff of any of that “cultural sensitivity” imposition that’s applied to so many other nationalities and cultures. (Yeah, I also know we’re not the only ones either. Hi Jews! Hi Irishmen! Hey there Germans!) People like our food and our handbags and then openly hate everything else Italian, with prejudice. You’ll never see anyone argue as ferociously as in the following situations:

* God doesn’t exist

* The Yankees suck

* Columbus didn’t discover America and was a murderer

These are vexing positions for an Italian-American to consider. (Except if you’re a Sox fan, but the other two are still pretty brutal to be applied personally).

All considered, I’ll be staying offline most of the day today.