Zinn, Zinn, and More Zinn

Just the other day Leny posted an essay--a hopeful, beautiful essay--written by Howard Zinn, a man I would handpick as my Lolo (if such things were, you know, possible). "The Optimism of Uncertainty," it was called, and you can read it right here.

Here in this post-election piece--"Harness That Anger"--the hope is not gone, but you can sense his disappointment, a little weariness. He ends like this:

Sooner or later, profound change will come to this nation tired of war, tired of seeing its wealth squandered, while the basic needs of families are not met. These needs are not hard to describe. Some are very practical, some are requirements of the soul: health care, work, living wages, a sense of dignity, a feeling of being at one with our fellow human beings on this Earth.

The people of this country have their own mandate.

~~~

On a barely related note, I could use some advice on what is probably a silly sticking point. At R & V's preschool, the teachers are quite understandably teaching holiday songs and defining lines like, "Don we now our gay apparel" which I can imagine are enormously perplexing to 4-year-olds. They do a cute version of "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" in which little parenthetical asides are sung. Like this:

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (reindeer)
Had a very shiny nose (like a lightbulb!)

The problem is that the very last line goes:

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (reindeer)
You'll go down in history (like Columbus!)

Thanks entirely to the aforementioned brilliant Howard Zinn and his A People's History of the United States, I am fresh from having read all about Columbus and his acts of genocide and other horrors.

Now, my question--silly as it may sound--is...do I register my opposition to the inclusion of Columbus in the song? It's not incorrect--Columbus has, indeed, gone down in history. But still. And if I do register my complaint, how do I do it without sounding like a complete lunatic? Or am I a complete lunatic?

Comments most welcome.