Facebook has been a good thing for me. It has allowed me to communicate with my family on a more frequent basis, and for us all to learn new things about each other while following the day-to-day happenings of our lives.

While most of the conversations consist of variations of, "I miss you," then, "I miss you, too," or, "Look what I did today," followed by, "Wow! I wish I was there!," there are the occasional moments of spirited discussion in which I school everyone on the finer points of history.

For example, here was an exchange on Columbus Day:

Uncle #1 Happy Columbus Day! Say a little prayer for me today!
October 12 at 4:07am · 15 Comments · Like

Sister Whatcha got going on today?
October 12 at 4:09am

Friend of Uncle #1 good luck love ya
October 12 at 4:17am

Uncle #2 I have my fingers crossed forya!
October 12 at 4:41am

Friend of Everyone I SAID A PRAYER! I LOVE YOU!
October 12 at 5:04am

Karsten Columbus Day is Evil.
October 12 at 10:35am

Uncle #2 Why is Columbus Day evil?
October 12 at 1:48pm

Karsten:
For several reasons:

1) Columbus was not the first European to discover or settle the Americas. (He didn't even make it to what is today Mexico, Canada or the US.) That honor belongs to Leif Ericson, who established a settlement in Canada 500 years before Columbus set sail.

2) Columbus, immediately upon his arrival, began slavery in the New World. An excerpt from a letter Columbus wrote to the financier of his voyage, Queen Isabella, "With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want." The ones he didn't use as forced labor on the islands, he shipped back to Europe as slaves.

3) Columbus didn't know where he was. Until the day he died, Columbus thought he had made it all the way to the east coast of Asia-- hence the term "Indians" for the natives.

4) Even the Europeans who came to settle Hispañiola (today Haiti and the Dominican Republic), where Columbus landed and was appointed governor by the Spanish crown, knew he was a bad guy. For his cruelty, they arrested him and shipped him back to Spain. Not surprisingly, they do not celebrate Columbus Day.

So why do we celebrate Columbus Day? Some (most) will say it's because he discovered the New World, which is inaccurate. Others will say that he initiated the flow of European culture to the Americas. That part may be true, but as much as I like living here, that 'culture' came at a great expense to many of the people that were already here. Others will say that it's because of tradition, that 'we always have.' That is inaccurate, also. It did not become a federal holiday until 1934. Here in Nevada, it's still not a legal holiday.
October 12 at 3:22pm

Friend of Everyone WELL AINT YOU SMART..
October 12 at 3:24pm

Uncle #1 I didn't ask for all that [Karsten]. I just wanted to wish everyone a happy day - what crap you got on Christmas you bah humbug.
October 12 at 4:42pm

Karsten [Uncle #2] asked. I answered.
October 12 at 5:05pm

Uncle #1 Just play'n. You know if all our libraries burn to the ground at least we will know where to come for info. :)
October 13 at 3:34am

Uncle #2 Some of that I did not know.
October 13 at 5:19am

Friend of Everyone I DIDNT KNOW ANY OF IT. I HATE HISTORY
October 13 at 7:49am

Friend of Everyone WE LOVE YOU [Karsten]... NOW ACCEPT ME AS A FRIEND!
October 13 at 7:50am

Uncle #1 dang [Friend of Everyone] - you needing the validation? - hahahaha! Just kidding darling.
October 13 at 5:35pm

Understanding the present is impossible without putting it into historical perspective, and I enjoy educating people about history.

With that in mind, the same uncle who began the Columbus Day conversation carefully wished me a happy Thanksgiving:

retard. But I love you. Have a happy thanksgiving - if you celebrate it. :) - I am sure there is some story behind how it wasn't really the native americans and the pilgrims, but some government conspiracy to make peace with the "red man and white man.

Of course I celebrate Thanksgiving!

I am very thankful for pumpkin pie; for turkey; for football; for holiday pay; and for not being taken to jail for whatever I might be guilty of.

While it is certainly noble of us to commemorate the spirit of cooperation between the Natives and the Pilgrims, there are probably very few Americans who send a thank-you card to the Wampanoag tribespeople who still reside in Massachusetts.

Our Puritan forefathers, upon running out of beer, disembarked from their ship, carrying their Geneva bibles (What?!? No KJV?!?) and too-few supplies. Ill-prepared for the New World, they began starving, and suffering death by freezing. But ye-ha! Along came some brown people (the aforementioned Wampanoag) to save them.

All saved. Now lets kill them.

I'm sure the Natives regret helping us out, but I'm still gonna eat my damned pumpkin pie.