Columbus Monument Corp.: ‘We cannot erase history’ (Your Letters)

To the Editor:
“CNY community is ready to reconcile Columbus statue controversy” (Post-Standard, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024) continues to spread a false narrative that contradicts history. References to Christopher Columbus a rapist, an enslaver, a murderer and a genocidist are factually inaccurate and misleading. This is a continuation of the hateful dialog that will further divide an already divided nation, our state, and our city.
Referring to Columbus Day as Indigenous People’s Day is also a misnomer and is intentionally divisive. They are not the same regardless of attempts by some to equate them. Columbus Day is a federal holiday that was declared to call attention to the incredible discrimination, mistreatment, prejudice and the lynchings of 11 Italian Americans that occurred in New Orleans in 1891. Following those lynchings, Columbus Day was created to counter discrimination and to call attention to the contributions of Italian and other immigrants who built this nation.
We do not attack others who wish to separately celebrate the contributions and history of the ancestral occupants of North America. We encourage it. We only suggest that those individuals select one of the other 364 days on the calendar.
We cannot erase history. And we can’t write revisionist history and depict it as truth. As Robert Searing wrote in “A Circle of Controversy: Syracuse’s Columbus Monument turns 90″ (Oct. 11, 2024), world events, the execution of Sacco and Vanzetti and an “uptick in nativism” led to immigration restrictions “on the number of immigrants from Asia, Eastern and Southern Europe (including Italy) people deemed to be a threat to ‘American values.’ “ Searing described the Columbus Monument as a response “(i)n an era when Italian Americans were regularly labelled as seditious, subversive, dangerous and “un-American,” it was vital to the Italian people to provide their community with a symbol of ethnic and, from their perspective, patriotic pride.”
In Syracuse, this symbolic representation and affirmation of Italian American pride and patriotism is “artistically personified” by the Baldi sculpture of Columbus that has stood in Columbus Circle for the past 90 years. Its suggested removal would succeed only in dividing us further, while setting the stage for the potential future removal of other artwork that offends a small but vocal minority.
What we have learned, upon further examination of history, is that Columbus never set foot in North America. Since he was never here, he could not be responsible for, nor held responsible for the killing of 6 million buffalo, distribution of smallpox blankets, the creation of reservations, the theft of native lands, the passage of the 1867 Homestead acts which “rewarded” westward expansionists to lay claim to native lands for $10. Nor did Columbus create boarding schools which stripped Native people of their language, hair, dress, customs and traditions. Columbus also did not create slavery. Those parts of history did not come about because of Columbus, or by actions taken by our Italian ancestors.
Syracuse has publicly declared itself to be a sanctuary city, a city that is welcoming and open to all immigrants. So, let us be one…. by never forgetting that it was Italian, Irish, German, Polish, Jewish and Ukrainian immigrants who built Syracuse and built America. Our history matters. Our contributions matter. We will not be erased. We will not be marginalized. We will not permit you to desecrate our memorial to the immigrants who came before. They are our parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, fathers and mothers and their lives matter.
The Columbus statue is public art that resides in the heart of a Nationally Registered Historic District. No one political administration has the right to remove public art, and no single group or administration has the right to remove the symbolic centerpiece of our city, an artwork that has stood for 90 years, and an historic landmark.
For Italian Americans, the Columbus Monument is a symbol of ethnic and civic pride. Sadly, the signatories to the Oct. 14 letter reflect the dangerous, divisive and revisionist efforts to stamp out history, to destroy anything expressive other than their view that Columbus is the source of all “settler-colonialism and atrocities…” That is simply not true, nor is it history. That view is a dangerous precedent, that if someone claims to be offended, let them wipe out anything they object to. That view is not reflective of the collective heritage of all immigrants to this country and of all Americans, Italians among them. The position taken by the authors destroys the fundamentals of the First Amendment freedoms we cherish; to be open and respectful of the opinion of others, even when we disagree.
Anthony Ilacqua | Syracuse
Ginnie Lostumbo | North Syracuse
Frank Malifitano | Baldwinsville
Edward McLaughlin | Syracuse
James Albanese | Jamesville
Mark Nicotra | Liverpool
Dominick Ciciarelli | Syracuse
Marc Malfitano | Syracuse
Kevin L. Kane | Syracuse
Nicholas Pirro | Syracuse
John A. DeFrancisco | Syracuse
Columbus Monument Corporation
Syracuse