It’s Columbus Day. It’s Indigenous Peoples Day. Argue over which or whether, but Utah’s in for some windy weather.
We all can agree that, “In fourteen hundred ninety-two, Columbus sailed the ocean blue.” That much is true of the childhood rhyme, like Monday being sunny, and in the north cool, while further south was the same, but warmer, too.
The Salt Lake and Tooele valleys forecast was for winds of 20 mph, highs in the mid-50s; Tuesday will be calmer, and in the mid-60s. In southern Utah, stiff winds prevailed, gusting to 45 mph, with highs around 70.
But Tuesday in the redrocks will dawn bright, and the deserts warm; the mercury will climb to the upper-70s, or near the norm.
Now goes the rest of that rhyme and refrain? “He had three ships and left from Spain; he sailed through sunshine, wind and rain.” “The Arakawa natives” were very nice, giving the sailers “food and spice.”
But it’s what Columbus and Co. gave in return, that sparked Dana W. Hall’s rewrite, of a welcome spurned.
Yes, Hall says, Columbia sailed in 1492, that much was true, but “everything else in the childhood rhyme, ignores the historic details and genocide. . . . homes and lands were taken by force, those not killed were enslaved without remorse.”
So now we have Indigenous Peoples Day, remembering what was given, and taken away.
And along with historical revision, 525 years passed since Columbus, Utah’s air quality “green” and healthy, thanks to the windblown Cumulus.