Month: January 2021

It’s a complex issue in that our ancestors erected a statue to Columbus to feel included, at a time when they felt discriminated against. Columbus was acceptable to mainstream Americans of the past, so it was an easy choice for them. But the view of Columbus (not of Italian people) is challenged by other perspectives and historical experiences (full truth or perspective only goes as far as one can see and I think that’s where everyone is … Walsh, protesters, us, etc.). There’s a purpose to saving these monuments – they do tell a story about exclusion and discrimination. Destroying or removing these statues, censors history and our ancestors fight for civil rights.

Canceling Diane Feinstein

WSJ 1/29/2021 OPINION – Until the San Francisco Unified School District board stripped Dianne Feinstein’s name from one of its public schools, we were unaware of the Senator’s service to the Confederacy. While the city’s mayor, she had replaced a vandalized Confederate flag that was part of a historical display outside City Hall. So now it’s goodbye to Dianne Feinstein Elementary School.

The Feinstein purge is among the banishments the board took Tuesday night when it voted 6-1 to rename 44 schools. The most absurd target is Abraham Lincoln, who waged the war that ended slavery. Also canceled were George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Daniel Webster and Paul Revere.

The criteria used to come up with the list of villains is whether they had promoted slavery, genocide, the oppression of women or “otherwise significantly diminished the opportunities of those amongst us to the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

But a name on a school is not a declaration of perfection. And a society that rummages through history to hold those of the past to the woke standards of today will soon have no heroes to honor. 

In a statement, Mayor London Breed said that while the naming of city schools is a conversation worth having, she cannot understand “why the School Board is advancing a plan to have all these schools renamed by April, when there isn’t a plan to have our kids back in the classroom.”

By that measure, some future school board should regard today’s school board as equally guilty of reducing opportunities, especially for the poor, for the way they’ve denied an education to children in the pandemic.

This monument should not be removed or rename the square. The movement for renaming was a knee jerk reaction to a summer of rioting and destructive behavior. Personally I do not find that behavior credible for reasoning for this type of change. 87 years the monument and square have been intact.

Nobody has a valid argument that the campaign against Columbus is not a direct assault on the Italian people. There also exists a lot of discrimination against Italian Americans. Walsh, who has little integrity, has jumped on the impulsive campaign to erase Columbus from history. None of these people, none, have ever picked up a book about Columbus or watched a short video. They just long to latch onto the ‘woke’ culture because they think it’s politically expedient.

From CNY Central:

“The City of Syracuse could only select 10 names for its snowplow naming contest last December, but there was plenty to choose from among the more than 2,000 submissions.  Friday, the city released the list of submitted names to us. Not everyone was original — there were 174 “Plowy McPlowface” submissions and 274 “Santa Maria” submissions. The hundreds of “Santa Maria” submissions reflected a push from some to recognize Christopher Columbus and Italian heritage, according to the hundreds of reasonings written by submitters.

“Ingratiating yourself with one group at the detriment of another is divisive. Mayor Walsh, that is what you have done by your decision on the Columbus Monument.

Citizens of Italian origin endeavored, in good faith, to develop a solution that would highlight the contributions of the many groups that found their way to our region. You rejected their suggestions out-of-hand and likely acted without authority.

The challenges our city faces over the next year are surmountable, but it will take a united effort. We cannot afford to alienate any group that cares about our community and has resources to help. It is the job of mayor to coalesce the groups of our city and unite us to achieve our shared vision of prosperity.”

My Grandfather /great Grandfather is one of those Italians Who worked very hard when he settle in Syracuse form Naples Italy, brought up his family here and was a proud hard working Italian a boss for the city of Syracuse Water Department for many years and also the city came back to ask him for help he never refused he knew were pipes were located he was a proud man who had overcome his Italian insults and life in a New City Syracuse which he loved and Country , America That Italian statue was symbolic put up by proud Italians that loved Syracuse NY it was a source of his pride and loyalty to his Italian Heritage I feel you should think over your choice to remove the Italian Heritage not disrespecting anyone feelings that should include all the Italian who made the city along with many other nationalities and Americans and all what it is today ,save it 

Opposition to taking down the Columbus statue in Downtown Syracuse is not limited to Italian-Americans alone, but every Central New Yorker who wants to preserve Western culture within the vast and ever changing mosaic of American life. If we follow the logic that Columbus, by discovering the Americas, was somehow responsible for later atrocities visited upon Indigenous peoples by European powers, might we make the same argument that the Jesuit Fathers who canoed down from Quebec to the shores of Onondaga Lake, paved the way for European expansion into Central New York. Moreover, that the Jesuits and those who followed in their wake, likely robbed local Indigenous peoples of their culture, religion, land, and way of life. Given this, would it be a stretch for local politicians to somehow demand that LeMoyne College be renamed, since Father LeMoyne, the school’s namesake, was party to this ‘atrocity‘? I pose this argument to illustrate the folly we are currently experiencing. I hope I haven’t started us down the road to yet another cancel culture cause. That’s not my intent. But where, oh where, does it end?