Columbus and George Washington's Vice President

It all started with a conversation I had with my friend, Wendy.
We were talking about the new Dan Brown novel, "The Lost Symbol", that George Washington was a Freemason, that "give him the third degree" is from testing given to move to the "third degree" of the Freemasons, and then her question, "Who was George Washington's Vice President"?

I'm sure any 5th grader could tell you the answer, and it is probably buried somewhere on the overloaded hard disk that is my brain, but after about five hours of "hummmm", I resorted to Bing.com. Drum roll, please...the answer is John Adams was George Washington's Vice President. He was our second president and Thomas Jefferson was his Vice President. Jefferson was one the most influential of our founding fathers and the chief author of our Declaration of Independence.

So the round about tie-in my brain made between George Washington, one of America's founding fathers, and the man who "found" America? They both have federal holidays - President's Day in February and Columbus Day celebrated the second Monday in October.

Do we still celebrate Columbus Day? "In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue", leaving from Spain on October 12th. This holiday dates back to 1792 when mainly because of it's Italian-American population, New York City celebrated the 300-year anniversary of the historic voyage.

It has been widely disputed by historians if Columbus truly "discovered" America. Amerigo Vespucci, a sailor long before Columbus, is credited with the name ‘‘America”. Many states have changed the meaning behind the observance of this day. Hawaii calls it Discover's Day, South Dakota celebrates Native American Day.

An article by Lindsey Laing of the The Bolling Aviator says it best: "Columbus Day is more about discovery. It’s an idea that rings true even today, just as life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, ring true for every American. Discovery is the belief that the unknown is still out there. That kind of imagination and determination created a country where everyone is entitled to self-expression, freedom of religion and the right to vote. Where would we be today if we hadn’t discovered our own America for ourselves?"

How will you choose to remember and/or celebrate Columbus Day this October 12th? A barbecue? A protest? A parade? Discovering something new?

I went on to "discover" that Thomas Jefferson's Vice President was Aaron Burr for his first term and George Clinton for his second term. James Madison was the fourth President and his Vice President was.... and the discovery goes on and on.