This morning at my local gym, life actually felt… lighter.
We live in a corner of the NYC Tri-State where many of my friends fall somewhere on the spectrum of Jewish expression. Esther—Orthodox—does the vinyasa class in her culottes and bandana, modest but cheerful. Karen and Efrat, both observant, were talking about their families and Shabbat plans. And in the HIIT class next door, Avi and Betsy were laughing between burpees.
There were smiles everywhere. And they had every right to be there.
Because the hostages—the hostages—were home.
After more than 730 days of hell since October 7, 2023, when Hamas terrorists kidnapped roughly 250 people from Israel and dragged them into Gaza, a final group of living captives were returned. Over 130 hostages were killed in captivity, but 120 made it home alive through this process, the last returning this week as part of the ceasefire arrangement brokered between Israel, Egypt, and the U.S. It was one of the most emotional days Jewish families have experienced since the Holocaust survivors first stepped off the trains and into freedom.
And yet, amid all that joy, I overheard two progressive women in the locker area wish each other a chipper, robotic “Happy Indigenous Peoples’ Day.”
No word of compassion for their neighbors whose hearts had been ripped out for nearly two years. No acknowledgment that literal slaves of modern terrorism had just been freed. No “thank God,” no “mazel tov,” not even a smile.
Just inane, hollow virtue-signaling—two unhappy white women performing woke religion in place of actual humanity.
I found myself thinking: You don’t even realize—he’s going to make your life better too, whether you like it or not. Because the man they despise—the one they call “Satan” in yoga class—has helped create the environment in which peace, deterrence, and American strength are returning.
But I digress.
“Happy Indigenous Peoples’ Day.”
Did they mean it as a passive-aggressive swipe at Jews on one of the happiest days in recent memory for Israel? Or are they just so blinded by woke delusion that they believe it’s better to celebrate savages than civilization?
Because that’s what the argument for “Indigenous Peoples’ Day” essentially comes down to: replacing the courage, exploration, and faith of Christopher Columbus with a romanticized mythology about indigenous purity.
Never mind that Columbus didn’t “wipe out” native peoples (disease did). Never mind that the pre-Columbian world was one of constant tribal warfare, slavery, and human sacrifice. Aztecs killed tens of thousands of captives each year to appease their gods. The Comanche tortured rival tribes, scalped their enemies, and enslaved women and children. In Africa, slavery predated European contact by centuries—tribes captured and sold other Africans long before a single white trader appeared on a coast.
And no one ever asks: did any of those “indigenous” tribes ever try to kill him?
History is messy, yes—but civilization came from the God of the Bible, from the Torah, the Psalms, the prophets, and ultimately the teachings of the Messiah. It was that foundation—the Judeo-Christian moral order—that tamed barbarism, abolished slavery, elevated women, educated the poor, and gave birth to human rights and liberty.
Without it, you don’t have science. You don’t have reason. You don’t have mercy. You have only power and pain.
When the God of the Bible is rejected, human nature turns feral. Look at Gaza—where militants murdered, raped, and kidnapped civilians; where leaders stole billions in aid to fund tunnels and bombs instead of schools and hospitals.
Those who champion “indigenous” movements rarely acknowledge that in the modern world, many of those groups still glorify violence, still enslave, still traffic children, and still murder outsiders. It’s not oppression that drives them—it’s the absence of God.
That’s why this obsession with tearing down Columbus Day, Mount Rushmore, statues of missionaries, and even the Ten Commandments is so destructive. It’s not about “justice.” It’s about removing reminders of the very faith and civilization that made justice possible.
Yet these same progressive elites who lecture us about oppression turn blind eyes to the millions slaughtered by communism, the Uyghur genocide in China, or Hamas’ human-shield barbarity. They’ll condemn a 15th-century sailor for crossing an ocean, but not a 21st-century terrorist for murdering children. That’s not morality—it’s madness.
If the last two years have taught us anything, it’s that the world has a God-shaped hole that no amount of activism, identity politics, or self-righteous hashtags can fill. Everywhere we look—New York, Gaza, Washington, campus protests—we see the same pattern: when people reject God, they lose empathy, logic, gratitude, and joy.
So for one day—just one day—can we let my Italian wife and kids give thanks to God for a man who risked his life to find a land where people could worship Him freely? Can we let Esther, Karen, Efrat, Avi, and Betsy celebrate that their families are no longer missing, no longer enslaved, no longer dead?
Would it kill the insane, nihilistic progressives that much to just let someone rejoice?
Because when the world forgets how to be thankful, it isn’t progress that follows—it’s darkness.
Kevin McCullough is a syndicated columnist, host of That KEVIN Show on Salem News Channel, and a contributor to Townhall.com.