Rosy Glow – Columbus Day

By

Andrew DeMarco

 Today we celebrate Columbus Day a day which in the past was a way to celebrate Italian American pride and accomplishments. This however has changed since I was youngster. It seems that revisionist historians have a different interpretation of Columbus’ place in history. Today he is looked upon as the “Scourge of The New World.”  All the ills that have affected us since his accidental discovery of the Americas seem to be traced back to him. At first this bothered me, not so much that they try to pin it all on him, but rather that they are changing history. This became even clearer recently when a group led by Mr. Felix Cepeda started a petition to remove the last remaining statue of Columbus in The Bronx located on Arthur Ave. (See the link below) Also, some states have already changed Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples’ Day.

Here are my thoughts. The only thing that Columbus was guilty of was being a con man. How you might ask? It’s simple. He conned a Spanish King and Queen out of enough money to find a new route to the far east and failed. He was so good with his con job that he got them to support his misadventures not once but four times. He never on any of his four journeys made land fall or set foot in what is now the continental United States. He was allegedly guilty of enslavement and bringing “European Diseases” to the new world which greatly harmed the native populations. For this he was removed as governor and punished. However, the greed of the Spanish King and Queen continued and they sent their Conquistadors, such as DeLeon, Cortez, de Balboa, de Soto, Coronado, Pizzaro  and others who raped, pillaged, plundered and enslaved what is now the Southern United States as well as Central and South America and caused great harm to the indigenous people of these areas. Add to that the fact that the British and French did the same in the northern parts of the Americas, one can see that Columbus had little to do with the plight of the indigenous people here.  In reality, this one man who was Italian, who sailed under the flag of Spain is now vilified, and yet the King and Queen of Spain and their minions remain immune to the same criticism.

With that said, let me get to the point of this Rosy Glow. I am a proud American of Italian descent and I cannot understand why you would change Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples’ Day because of the misadventures of one man. If you want to remove Columbus from that day that is fine with me, but why not call it Italian American Day. I have an idea; we keep Columbus Day where it is in October and call it Italian American Day and we will magnanimously designate February 9^th as Indigenous People’s Day. How is that magnanimous on the part of American Italians? Well February 9^th is National Pizza Day. We have enough ethnic pride and other days to go around and so why not give the Indigenous People their own day and not take a day away from American Italians?

But then I realized something, we are not making a big enough stink because we Americans of Italian descent have assimilated and become part of that American fabric, so keep your stupid ethnic days. Here is what I want, E` Pluribus Unum Day. That is right from the many one. Let us call it  Melting Pot Day / Independence Day and once we do this and get rid of National Pizza Day, National Pet Day, Puerto Rican Day, India Day Parade and any other “Day” and become one, this country and all of us will be better for it. Plus it would give us that feeling that Cousin Bob would call that….. Rosy Glow.

https://www.ny1.com/nyc/all-boroughs/news/2020/08/27/bronx-resident-wants-columbus-statue-removed

N.B. Shortly after Mr. Cepeda’s petition made the news a group claiming to be Antifa, who want to defund the police, showed up on Arthur Ave. to remove the Columbus statue. They were met by older and angry local Italian and Albanian residents of the area. Ironically, when confronted members of Antifa then called the police claiming to fear for their lives. Thus far the statue remains and the story continues.