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enjoy this writing from Michael Ceraolo in the cc&d free 2014 PDF file chapbook: an Almost-Lost World (click on the front cover image or the title text to download the free PDF file)

Order this writing in the book a New Pen the cc&d Jan. - June 2014 collection book		get the 394 page Jan. - June 2014 cc&d magazine issue collection 6" x 9" ISBN# paperback book:

For a New Holiday

Michael Ceraolo

Let us disestablish the current holiday
celebrated on the second Monday in October
Let us not honor ignorance,
an ignorance
so profound it took his full complement of voyages
before he realized he was someplace new
to the European worldview,
if indeed he even realized it then
Let us not honor the lack of an actual sighting of this land;
close counts in horseshoes and hand grenades,
but
exploration,
encounter,
and
the grounds for creating a holiday
should be held to a much higher standard
Let us honor another of his countrymen,
one who actually saw this land (and knew it),
from
Cape Fear up the coast all the way to Narragansett Bay
(though
he mistakenly thought one of the many sounds on the coast
was actually the Pacific Ocean),
and
as far as is known didn’t exterminate any natives;
on all counts
an incalculable improvement over his predecessor
If
we are to celebrate the European sighting of this land,
let us honor Giovanni da Verrazano,
and
make March 1st,
date of his first sighting of this land,
the new holiday

Or,
if we want to celebrate
a day putting forward a different vision,
two possibilities:

December 12th,
Sinatra Day,
celebrating the birthday of the man
who sang the song and acted in the short film
The House I Live In,
a celebration
of a multicultural vision of America
still yet to be achieved,
and for which
he was mercilessly Red-baited by nativists
(a form of honor in itself)

Or
November 16th,
Groppi Day,
celebrating the birthdate of Father James Groppi ,
a man who worked tirelessly toward
the as-yet-unachieved dream of ending segregation,
and
worked for economic justice,
being convicted
by the Wisconsin state legislature of “Contempt of the Legislature”
(another badge of honor)
for organizing a sit-in demonstration,
a bill of attainder later invalidated by the Supreme Court

Or someone else,
almost anyone,
who would be more worthy of being honored
than the genocidal Genoan

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