Columbus Day

With thousands of Illinois residents out of work, why is government taking a holiday today? What do people do on Columbus Day? Go shopping? Does the younger generation (let's say, under 40) even know anything about C. Columbus?

"In 1492, Columbus sailed the blue..." That'a about all I remember. Seems like there were three ships. Where did they land?

Is it "old hat" for government offices to close on such a "holiday"? Of course, holidays are just days negotiated in union contracts for most government employees. As a person who never worked for a government, I worked most of the lesser holidays. Yes, the offices in which I worked were closed on New Year's Day, Memorial Day, July 4, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas.

But what's with all these other "holidays"?

Why are schools closed? Why not dedicate an hour to the study of Columbus or MLK, Jr. or Casimir Pulaski (who???) and get on with it.

And since today is a court holiday, does this mean that somebody might get an extra day to knock some sense into our County Sheriff and persuade him that $615,000 wasted is enough in the Seipler v. Nygren war?