Is Columbus Day really a good thing to celebrate?

I don't believe Columbus was a man to be celebrated. He did, of course, discover America, but he remains a man of arrogance, spite, conceit, and, above all else, selfishness & self-righteousness.

-Columbus initiated the policy of enslaving Native Americans and treating them as though they weren't human, causing the genocide of an estimated three million people indigenous to America.

-Even after he had been met with generosity by the Arawak, he still imprisoned them and sold their tribe into extinction in less than fifty years, and in his first report to Madrid he referred to their generosity as ignorance and naivet�, and only mentioned them as good for slave labor.

-He claimed the first sight of land aboard his ship, even though one called Roderigo had seen it first. He took the yearly pension of 10,000 a year for this and left his sailor to rot.

-He lied about finding mines of gold so that he could receive a title, and when he returned from Madrid he took fifteen hundred Arawak Indians and took the five hundred best of them aboard his ship to be used as slaves, and when he reached the eastern coast, two hundred of them had already died.

-His men were savages and he let them be; they took women and children for sex and labor, and once they saw two Native American boys who each had a parrot, and they each were beheaded for fun, and their parrots were taken.
(This information was obtained from a book called "People's History of the United States" by Howard Zinn)

Really, why does he deserve a day in his honor, when clearly he didn't and doesn't deserve it?

I am thankful to accept this debate.

I am debating that Columbus Day is indeed a good and important day to celebrate.
Definition
Columbus Day- A holiday on October 12 celebrating the discovery of the Americas.

All of your current information is attacking Columbus as man, as well as his deeds, but you are not attacking Columbus Day itself. It is merely a holiday in celebration of a new era of exploration. While Columbus did commit atrocities, that is not what Columbus Day is about.

I contend that Columbus Day is an important day to celebrate because it celebrates human discovery and is historically important,despite the fact that Columbus was by no means a hero.

I look forward to your response.

Thanks you for accepting my debate.

You are right, I am attacking the man and his character and actions. And I believe that human discovery is a good thing to celebrate. But is this man's name really what should represent this? This man represents a man of ignorance, who did not accept any other culture but his own. I believe that if Columbus day should be celebrated, it should be named something else. I believe Columbus Day shouldn't be celebrated, because it is indeed to honor the actions of the man it is named after - but perhaps a different name and different representation of human discovery would be more appropriate.
Anticipating your response greatly.
Thanks.

Despite Columbus's ignorance, if it had not been for his daring to make the voyage across the ocean, then it would have set mankind backwards. You are right that he was barbaric towards the natives, but in all honesty it would have been the same way for any other European who inevitably would have made the voyage, his action towards the natives was a reflection of the cruel times that man lived in. We should celebrate the holiday if not solely on the fact man has advanced past that phase.

Plus it also celebrates the beginning of an era in which mankind who develop rapidly, it is likely that if Columbus did not go, mankind would have been set back by decades.

You can say he was overly cruel to the natives but it was nothing like what would happen when the Portuguese arrived.

In the end, it also true to say that the indigenous population would have been decimated by disease no matter who came first.

Ignorance IS a disease. Ignorance and pride, I believe, is what causes many major problems in today's society. That time was cruel, yes, but when met with generosity one was usually to return the favor; in Columbus's case, however, he thought their generosity something stupid and irrational; he thought it based off of an incapacity to reason properly, which is insulting and a reflection of arrogance. His daring was of course necessary for America to be discovered, but at what cost? If he had taken the time to learn of the Indian's ways as he ought, and respect their culture, there would be no need for the millions of dead people. Eventually someone would have made it across the Atlantic - perhaps it should have waited, anyways, so that mankind could mature enough so that when the time came to face another foreign culture they would not be so inclined to treat them like animals. These were intelligent human beings that died. Tribes became extinct. Is the compromise of the indigenous people and their driving in near extinction is what progress is about, then I think progress is going in the wrong direction. Shouldn't we celebrate the day that perhaps Spain agreed to explore overseas? But, since that conquest was for riches and slaves, it wasn't anything noble. In my opinion, these things were just events that happened in the course of history; Borders are always being threatened, a country is never really secure. What are we celebrating in Columbus Day, then, really? Just another explorer in search of riches and slaves. He mad the Natives of this land slaves. So he was "brave" enough to set sail to the end of the world - I believe it was just another part of his arrogance.

"If he had taken the time to learn of the Indian's ways as he ought, and respect their culture, there would be no need for the millions of dead people."

The native people were hurt by factors such as slavery without a doubt, but you are blaming Columbus's lack of respect for their culture for the deaths of most of the indigenous people which is simply not true, regardless of his respect for their culture they would have still picked up diseases from Europe which is what truly caused the most killing, not slavery or subjugation.

You cannot entirely blame Spain for being headstrong either. We look at the Roman Empire as one of the greatest civilizations of all time yet they paid absolutely no attention to the local culture, they only cared about subjugation of the people they conquered. Spain and Columbus were very similar to the Roman Empire in this aspect.

You are making assumptions that I do not consider these people human beings which is just wrong, I'm simply saying that what Columbus did, regardless of his character, is worth commemorating as it began a new era in history and is very important to mankind's development. You still have not attacked that part of the argument, the only thing that has been attacked is Columbus as a person which is truly not what Columbus Day is about, it is about America's discovery.

Thanks for the debate, it was interesting back into history.