Can I just mention how badly Thomas Paine ended up getting screwed over later in life?
He basically wrote Common Sense, and everyone was like, yeah! Go Paine!
And then he wrote the Age of Reason piece. In it, he criticized institutionalized religion, and basically all his buddies were like, "Yo Paine-meister, you shouldn't really be saying that. It'll ruin you." And Paine was all like, "I'm-a speaking my mind!"
And then he went to France and was put in prison because they thought he was a spy or something, and they didn't like Common Sense or the Age of Reason, and he was all like, "Whoops! French Revolution's not a good time to visit here, huh?" So then he wrote to his buddies back home and he's all like, "Yo Tommy J. and GW, I need you to bust me out!" and they're all like, "Nah, you wrote your opinion, man, and we don't like it. lol gg bro."
And then he came back to America and died of a sickness and only six people came to his funeral.
Now tell me why we don't have a Thomas Paine day, and yet we have a day dedicated to the genocidal ***hole Columbus.