Fair enough. I'm not saying he did nothing. I'm pointing out that he was not very good at exploring (he had no clue where he was), he crimes far outweigh his contributions, and that the task could have just as easily been accomplished by anyone else at the time. Not only that, but it's not like he personally rowed a single boat across the Atlantic, he had a crew and three ships given to him.
I think the mention of the Vikings is just to point out how people were aware of other landmasses and his 'discovery' was more a charting journey. Not only that, but you know, there were a ton of inhabitants already here. Like, no one remembers the guy that discovered the middle east for Europe, because, you know, there were already tons of people there.
It's just, what is he known for? Discovering America and leading the way to colonization. The first isn't true and even if you argue it is, he still did it by blundering his way through and with a crew of experienced people doing literally all the work. The latter is only true in the sense that he took someone else's money and funded a pleasure cruise and then wiped out most of the Taino people and other indigenous groups so there would be room for the European settlers.
Now, I get that he was the first, but at this point it's sort of like being the first to take your parent's minivan for a joyride and accidentally crash the car into a pot of gold. Why commemorate that? That's not to mention that the holiday is pretty much a big middle finger to the descendants of the people he narrowly committed genocide against.
Yeah, I don't disagree with what you said. Columbus is definitely a very controversial figure and I can totally see why some people (maybe most?) will never be comfortable celebrating him. I don't know... I try to remember that a lot of people, both in the past and presently, have horrible character flaws, but I still give credit where it's due, even if doing so is inconvenient and unpleasant. Anyway, thanks for keeping it civil. ---