It was never about Columbus, it’s Italian-American Day
Stars and Stripes
Editors:
Your OpEd, “A Columbus Day question: Have we finally stopped distorting our past?”, by extremist right-wing shills the Heritage Foundation is beneath the integrity of this celebrated institution, was factually wrong, and exposed their pompous agenda to decry anything remotely progressive.
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Five minutes of research would have showed that Columbus Day was established to honor Italian-Americans, stemming from an 1891 hate crime. A group of Italian men were found innocent, yet still lynched by racist southerners, who broke into the jail to do so.
It was an international incident, resulting in the holiday. Columbus was simply the most famous Italian with American ties. Today, it should be renamed Italian-American Day to cut out intentionally racist confusion.
It was never meant to honor the explorer, a man jailed for his cruelty at the time: human trafficking, forced labor, exploiting resources, fostering the collapse of society.
Today, we call such men “billionaires.”
Best,
Stephen Sonneveld
