I hate Columbus Day. Christopher Columbus was responsible for torture, mass murder and selling the people he discovered into slavery. We honor this despicable man with a national holiday.

And today we are engaged in an immoral and illegal war in Iraq. Almost 2,000 Americans have been killed in this awful war. We can hardly guess how many Iraqis have been killed.

Before Iraq, there was the Vietnam War. Before Vietnam, there was Korea. Before Korea, it was World War II.

I was born the year the U.S. entered World War II. It seems that we have been at war most of my lifetime. It hasn’t been just World War II, Korea, Vietnam and Iraq. There was also Kosovo, Bosnia, the Persian Gulf War, the Dominican Republic, Somalia, Haiti, Lebanon, Libya, Panama, Nicaragua and, of course, the Cold War.

Our history shows that we are not a peace-loving nation. By celebrating Columbus Day, we will again show the world what we value. We will honor Christopher Columbus with a holiday in his wretched memory, and we will continue to wage a war based on the lies, arrogance and incompetence of President Bush and his gang of thugs in Washington.

I wish we could get rid of Columbus Day, impeach George W. Bush and tell the world that the American people are better than their leaders.

Joseph N. Sirois, Rumford