Your Grade 4, 1960's  version of Columbus is pretty lame.
Bartholomew De Las Casas transcribed Columbus’s journal and wrote his own History of the Indies.
Of Columbus and his fellow Spaniards, he writes: 
"Endless Testimonies… prove the mild and pacific temperament of the natives… But our work was [to] ravage, kill, mangle and destroy; small wonder, then, if they tried to kill one of us now and then… The admiral, it is true was blind as those who came after him, and he was so anxious to please the King that he committed irreparable crimes against the Indians…"
Columbus "discovered" a land that been inhabited by millions of people for thousands of years. That's not unlike if you go to France and say, "Wow, I just found a new land."
Should Columbus be revered for the above? Doubtful.
Should existing statues be taken down. Difficult to answer. But people are not "looney tunes" for thinking about these questions.