0:02 Who are you?
0:04 >> [music]
0:05 >> And where are you going? What do [music] you want? Hello and welcome to the special edition of the way to wow shows for Columbus Day 2026. I'm your host Kevin Bemel and I don't do these on a weekly basis or a bi-weekly basis like my other shows, but I do think it's important to mark these days in our country in in the
0:40 sort of timeline of our country because they are a chance for us to be together and to think about something that binds us as a people and as a nation. So hopefully you're flying your flag today. Mine is is is out there um blowing in the breeze so to speak. And as is my custom on the special editions, I'm going to talk a little bit about the history and meaning of of the holiday and then do a reading. In this
1:16 case, it's an original uh um piece that I've put together uh in in honor of the day. So uh the event um behind Columbus Day is of course um October 12th, uh 1492. Um if you were a a child in my era in 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue, right? That's how we remember that date. So Christopher Columbus was a Genoese mariner uh who believed that he could reach the markets of Asia by sailing
1:52 west across the Atlantic from Europe. And he was sponsored in that endeavor by Ferdinand and Isabella, queen King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain, even though he was Italian. None of the Italian monarchs wanted to fund his voyage. And he departed in August of 1492 with three ships, the Nina, the it's actually the Niña, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria. And on October 12th, after roughly 9
2:28 weeks at sea, the expedition reached an island in the Bahamas. Now, the the precise point of landfall is is disputed to this day, but but it was in the Bahamas. Columbus thought he had reached islands near Asia. And but it it again, as it turned out, it was what became known as North America. And his first voyage initiated sustained contact between Europe and the Americas.
3:06 So, while we tend to think of Columbus as discovering America, that's not historically accurate. First of all, there were indigenous peoples inhabiting the Western Hemisphere for thousands of years before Columbus got here. But also the there were Norse explorers who landed on areas around Nova Scotia, you know, centuries before Columbus. So, really Columbus's sort of place in history was he
3:43 inaugurated sustained contact between Europe and North America. And that's that's was really a turning point in world history. So, uh Columbus' first voyage was followed by three more voyages and by rapidly expanding Spanish exploration and colonization. Um the results were exchanges of plants and animals, technologies, peoples, um diseases, unfortunately, and ideas
4:20 between the Eastern and Western Hemisphere that were so consequential historians call it the Columbian Exchange. Um there was also uh warfare between indigenous populations and the European explorers. Um the the diseases that Europeans brought uh were in many cases devastatingly deadly to native populations because they did not have um the uh antibodies and such to resist them. And and uh um
4:56 so, you know, that aspect of Columbus coming to uh what was called the New World and and starting this sustained contact, of course, has both its its deadly and controversial side to it to this day. So, the holiday itself actually is as much about American in immigration and identity as it is about Columbus himself. So, by the late 19th century,
5:33 uh large numbers of Italian immigrants were arriving in the United States. And as was the case with virtually every new group that came to this country, the Irish, Jews, uh Catholics in general, Eastern Europeans, and then in in the 20th century, Vietnamese. Um there was quite a bit of um uh discrimination and um bias against these new new new groups, including in the as I said in
6:09 the 19th century, Italians who um who who who who were the victims of prejudice both because they were Italian, but also because they were Catholic. And so, against this background, Columbus, who himself was Genoese born, he was Italian, he he became a a figure that Italian-Americans could look to and and use as a symbol of Italian sort of being a part of the American story from its very earliest
6:47 days. So, 400 years later, in 1892, Congress authorized President Benjamin Harrison to call for a nationwide observance of the 400th anniversary of Columbus's landing in the New World. Harrison proclaimed October 21st, 1892, a general holiday commemorating the anniversary, and and he particularly encouraged schools to participate in
7:22 marking this day. Uh the anniversary became an enormous cultural event, and in fact, the World's Columbian Exposition in in Chicago, which actually opened in 1893, was really organized to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Columbus's first voyage, hence the name Columbian Exposition. So, Italian-Americans were essential in establishing Columbus Day as as a holiday.
7:58 In the early early 20th century, Columbus Columbus Day became increasingly associated with Italian-American civic identity. The Knights of Columbus, which is a Catholic fraternal organization, campaigned for official recognition of October 12th as Columbus Day. And in 1907, Colorado became the first state to establish Columbus Day as an ongoing legal holiday,
8:34 and it was followed by a number of other states. So, for many Italian-Americans, Columbus represented more than the explorer himself. Honoring an Italian-born figure really allowed this community to feel that had frequently been treated as outsiders to feel like they belonged to America. It was part of their becoming part of sort of the
9:10 the overall citizenry, if we will. So, in 1934, Congress authorized President Franklin D. Roosevelt to proclaim October 12th each year as Columbus Day, and then some subsequent presidents used that authority issued by Congress to issue an annual proclamation of Columbus Day. So, a further change came in 1968 with the Uniform Monday Holiday
9:46 Act, so that beginning in 1971 Columbus Day became a federal holiday observed on the second Monday in October rather than necessarily October 12th. And that is the federal holiday that we have today. Uh I mentioned and others I'm I'm candidly not a big fan of moving these historic days off of their uh off of their their actual dates, uh but you know, it is it is what it is. So, so that's what we do. And
10:22 Columbus Day continues to represent several things. First of all, Italian-American heritage. Second of all, immigration and acceptance. And finally, the contributions that other peoples who were not necessarily there at the founding, like the British, um the contributions they have made to the development of the United States of America. And so, despite the uh controversy surrounding
10:58 Columbus Day and this is the third year that I've I've done a show for this day. Um and I I typically get a at least a couple of people commenting negatively about it. Um I think it's important that um we continue to celebrate this day, to to mark it, and to take a moment to think about what it means for all of us um here in America, especially since most of us, me included, um my family was not here at the founding. My family came to
11:33 United States in the very late 19th century, um, when there was a large wave of Jewish immigration. And in the beginning, they were not accepted into American society, um, uh, especially by the Jews that were already here. Um, and so, um, we we have, over time, like Italian Americans and the Irish before them, um, have worked to gain our our place in the melting pot that is the United States of America. So, I'm going to do a reading. Uh,
12:08 again, it's an original one. Um, it's called the courage to go beyond the map. And I I think I hope you will find it, uh, a meaningful way to think about these this day. There is a particular kind of courage required to go somewhere when you do not know what you will find. It is easy to travel when the road has already been built, when someone has drawn the map, marked the dangers, measured the distance, and described what waits at the destination.
12:45 It is something else entirely to travel beyond the map. Human history is filled with people who have done exactly that. They crossed mountains without knowing what lay on the other side. They sailed beyond familiar coastlines. They followed rivers toward unknown sources. They crossed deserts, migrated across continents, and navigated oceans by watching the sun, the stars, the winds, the currents, and the movement of animals. Long before Christopher Columbus crossed
13:21 the Atlantic, human beings had explored and settled near nearly every hab- part of the planet. The peoples who inhabited the Americas were themselves descendants of explorers and migrants. Across generations, their ancestors traveled through enormous and unfamiliar landscapes. They developed communities from the Arctic to the Caribbean and from the forests of North America to the southern reaches of South America. The peoples of the Pacific accomplished
13:58 remarkable voyages across thousands of miles of open ocean. The Vikings sailed westward across the North Atlantic. African, Asian, European, and Middle Eastern peoples traveled enormous distances in search of land, trade, knowledge, opportunity, and sometimes simply a better life. Exploration belongs to no single person and no single civilization. It is a part of being human.
14:35 And that may be the most interesting lesson we can take from the story of Columbus.
14:41 >> [snorts]
14:41 >> In 1492, Columbus sailed west believing he could reach Asia. He was wrong. The world was larger than he calculated and between Europe and Asia stood continents about whose existence Europeans of his time did not know. Yet Columbus sailed anyway. There is something worth considering in that. Courage does not require certainty. In fact, if we are completely certain about the outcome,
15:17 courage may not be required at all. Courage becomes necessary precisely when we cannot know what will happen. Every meaningful exploration, therefore, contains two things that seem almost contradictory. Confidence and humility. We need enough confidence to leave the harbor, but we need enough humility to recognize that the world may not be the way we expect it to be.
15:53 And history repeatedly demonstrates the danger of possessing the first without the second. The courage to explore should be accompanied by the humility to learn. When we encounter something unfamiliar, our first question should not always be, "What can I do with this?" Sometimes, the better question is, "What can this teach me?" That lesson applies far beyond oceans
16:28 and continents. Most of us will never command a ship sailing toward an unknown horizon, but all of us will eventually reach the edge of our own maps. We reach it when we begin a new career. We reach it when we start a business. We reach it when we move somewhere unfamiliar, learn another language, enter a new relationship, or attempt something we have never done before. We reach it when circumstances change,
17:03 and the knowledge that served us yesterday no longer tells us what to do tomorrow. At those moments, we have a choice. We can in can remain inside the boundaries of the familiar. There is nothing inherently wrong with doing that. Familiar territory offers safety, predictability, and comfort. But if no one ever ventured beyond what was already known, very little would change.
17:39 Nearly every improvement in human life began with someone asking a question whose answer was not already on the map. What is over there? Why does this happen? Can this be done differently? Is there another way? What happens if I try? Those questions have launched ships, but they have also launched businesses, scientific discoveries, inventions, works of art, friendships, and entire
18:15 new ways of thinking. The willingness to explore is therefore not simply a willingness to travel. It is a willingness to discover that what we know today is incomplete. And perhaps that is the harder form of exploration. It takes courage to cross an ocean. It can take even more courage to discover the unknown. Columbus crossed an ocean looking for one world and encountered another.
18:52 Whatever we may think about Columbus himself or about the consequences that followed his voyages, there is a broader lesson in that experience. Sometimes we begin a journey believing that we know where we are going. Then reality presents us with something we never expected. At that point, the question is no longer whether our original map was correct. The question becomes whether we are
19:27 willing to redraw it. That is the challenge faced by every generation. We inherit maps from the people who came before us. Some are geo geographical maps. Others are maps of ideas, assumptions about how society works, how business works, how relationships work, what success means, and what kind of lives we are supposed to lead. Many of those maps are extraordinarily useful. Some are outdated.
20:03 Some were never entirely accurate. And some contain enormous blank spaces simply because the people who drew them had never been there. Our responsibility is neither to throw away every old map, nor to follow one blindly. It is to stand on the shoulders of previous generations and use what they have learned while remaining willing to explore what they did not know. That requires curiosity.
20:40 It requires judgment. It requires humility. It requires courage. There will always be another horizon. There will always be something we do not understand. There will always be territory, geographical, intellectual, professional, or personal, that lies beyond the boundaries of what we already know. We should not cross those boundaries carelessly. We should remember that unfamiliar territory is not necessarily
21:17 empty territory. But neither should we fear of But neither should fear of the unknown prevent us from exploring it. Perhaps the best explorers are not the people who believe they already know what they will find. Perhaps they are the people willing to venture forward, observe carefully, learn from the people they encounter, revise what they thought they knew, and return with a larger understanding of the world.
21:52 So, when you reach the edge of your own map, look carefully at what lies ahead. Respect what came before you. Treat the people you meet along the way decently. Take with you everything has experience has taught you. But leave enough room in your thinking to be surprised. Then, when the time is right, have the courage to go beyond the map. I wish you a meaningful and happy
22:27 Columbus Day. I hope you get to spend time with your family and friends. And I as I started out by saying, I hope you're flying your flag and using this as a time to join together with all Americans for appreciation for all the bounty that our country gives us. Thank you so much for joining me today. I wish you a wonderful rest of the day. And signing off as I always do, to my my
23:03 dear dear Marie who was such a lovely woman, wonderful person, a wonderful American. You are my bell. Courage at all times, my friends.