In Philadelphia PA, the base of the Christopher Columbus Obelisk at Penn’s Landing bearing the great Genoan explorer’s name and the names of the more than fifty Italians and Italian Americans who erected the monument has finally been uncovered after over a year of being obscured behind black blocks of wood. Attorney George Bochetto, Esquire, reports that the Waterfront Corporation and the America 500 Anniversary Corporation (who erected the monument) resolved the dispute. The names and text at the base of the obelisk are now visible for all to see. The text on the southwest side of the obelisk base reads:
1492-1992
Christopher Columbus
Mathematician · cartographer
Cinquecento anniversary
Columbus, intrepid navigator, with a sense of the sea unparalleled before or after him. A native son of Genoa, he became through his dedication to a dream, an honored hero of history. His keen intellect, abiding faith, and undaunted persistence made him a giant among men of this millennium. In honor of all our forebears who braved the journey to America and their American descendants.
This comes just in time for the Philadelphia Christopher Columbus Day Parade along Broad Street. Please attend to show Philadelphia’s Mayor and his bigoted minions that Italian Americans in this country stand together and that we are not a force with which to be trifled. The schedule for Columbus Day weekend is as follows:
Friday, October 8th:
– The raising of the Italian flag outside the Municipal Building, across North Penn Circle from City Hall at 11:30 am
– The Resolution Ceremony and lunch follow in City Council’s Chambers
Sunday, October 10th:
– Mass at 10:00 a.m. at St Monica’s Church
– Parade commences 1:15 pm at Broad & Snyder to Broad & Oregon.
– Festival begins at noon until 6 pm; Channel 6 ABC News will broadcast from 2:00 to 3:30 pm.
If you are a performer or impresario of Italian folk dance or Italian folk instruments, like the mandolin or the accordion, and you’d like to perform at the parade or festival, please contact Councilman Mark Squilla at (215) 686-3458.
In NYC, The Conference of Presidents of Major Italian American Organizations continues to offer:
(1) well-crafted brochures titled “Why Columbus Matters,”
(2) pamphlets and signs for Italian Americans to “Set the Record Straight on Columbus, and
(3) a 7-foot Christopher Columbus pop-up display to help you debunk the slander against Columbus and teach the truth about this great hero.
The pamphlets and signs are free to all organizations, lodges and clubs, as are up to 200 of the brochures plus free shipping. The Columbus pop-up displays are $200 a piece. To order your Columbus pop-up or your free brochures and pamphlets, email your request today to the main office at it.am.presidents@gmail.com. Be sure to include in your order:
(1) the full name of your organization, lodge or club;
(2) its mailing address including zip code, and
(3) the items and quantity desired.
The Conference of Presidents of Major Italian American Organizations also made history this week with “The Columbus Project,” a new and bold initiative that will reach the halls of Congress, ten thousand journalism outlets, and thousands of Italian American groups and organizations. The Project was launched using a full-page print ad in The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post, and online at the Conference of Presidents’ website. The Columbus Project kicks off with a press release that calls out The New York Times, after the paper REFUSED to publish our full-page print ad, a letter mailed to all members of the Democrat and Republican parties in Congress as well as to Congress’s Italian American Caucus. You can see the print ad, the press release, and all the letters to Congress preservecolumbus.us at the following links:
Full-page print ad in the Washington Post and Wall Street Journal about the truth about Columbus
Press release that calls out The New York Times, after the paper refused to publish the same ad
In Washington DC, PRIMO Magazine is publishing a three-part article titled History Of Italian American Discrimination at The City University of New York, which you can read for free online at onlineprimo.com. Part I of the article, written by Santi Buscemi, Vice-President of the Italian-American Legal Defense and Higher Education Fund, is currently online. Parts II and III are soon to follow.
In Pittsburgh PA, where attorney George Bochetto is also representing Italian Americans determined to prevent that city’s mayor from removing its Christopher Columbus statue from Schenley Park, the same Italian American residents have offered to help descendants of the tribal peoples of the Americas erect a statue of their own in Pittsburgh. In The Italian Sons and Daughters of America v. City of Pittsburgh, et al., the Italian American plaintiffs have made proposed this resolution, as described by Attorney Bochetto, “to honor the sacrifices and contributions of the Italian immigrant community, and all immigrants, have made to the City of Pittsburgh,” while simultaneously featuring “a statue of a hero” chosen by “The Native American community.” Mr. Bochetto and Judge Basil Russo of the Conference of Presidents of Major Italian American Organizations “believe such a resolution will show proper respect to the heritages of both the Italian American community and the Native American community, and further serve to educate the public as to the lives and contributions of each community’s respective hero.”
In Fairfield NJ, The Italian American OneVoice Coalition is asking Italian Americans and their allies to participate in a raffle to help fund their landmark federal civil rights law suit against the Township of West Orange, NJ, for acts of damnatio memoriae and other acts of discrimination against Italian Americans. You can purchase raffle tickets at iaovc.org/ticket-form.
In Augusta NJ, the statue of Christopher Columbus that former New Jersey State House photographer and White House photographer, Ace Alagna had erected in Newark NJ, but which Mr. Alagna’s son-in-law preemptively put into storage to spare from Newark’s Marxist Mayor Ras Baraka’s bigoted campaign of damnatio memoriae against Italian Americans and Christopher Columbus will now be proudly re-erected and unveiled at Augusta’s Skylands Park, at a festival at which the park’s minor league baseball field – the location of the baseball stadium used by St. Louis MO’s minor league team, also known as the Cardinals, but who play in Augusta’s stadium – will be renamed Columbus Field, after the great Genoan explorer and first civil rights activist of the Americas, Christopher Columbus. You can read more about the unveiling of Newark’s Columbus statue in its new location in Augusta, and the renaming of the baseball field in The Italian Tribune, now owned and operated by Mr. Alagna’s son-in-law, former New Jersey General Assemblyman, chairman of the Committee on Independent Authorities and Commissions and vice-chair of the Transportation and Communications Committee, Buddy Fortunato, at the Tribune’s website: italiantribune.com, and searching for the term “Columbus” in the search box.
In Westborough MA, the Select Board has recommended a Listening Session that is being organized by two of its board members, and, hopefully, with Westborough residents. The Listening Session has already been rescheduled for November and may well be rescheduled again for next year. In the meantime, the Residents Committee and the Knights of Columbus of Westborough are still collecting petition signatures opposing the proposal of the “Diversity & Inclusion Committee” to exclude Italian Americans by replacing Christopher Columbus Day with the misnomer “Indigenous People’s Day.” Four Westborough residents made excellent, three-minute presentations at the August 24th Board Meeting. The Italian American Alliance of Westborough has been conducting Zoom meetings with residents for six weeks helping them prepare for that Board meeting, and have filed a Freedom of Information Act request for e-mail correspondences of the “Diversity & Inclusion Committee” and Select Board which provided very enlightening information that helped expose the lack of transparency of those bodies. The Italian American Alliance also sent letters to the Select Board upon first hearing of this act of damnatio memoriae back in July of 2021, and expressed its disagreement with the proposal. Its letters prompted the locals to reach out to the IAA, which then implemented a grass-root “call to action” campaign to push back on the Committee’s slanderous lies about Christopher Columbus, going as far as to send three books about Christopher Columbus to the Board, who admitted that they needed more time to familiarize themselves with the topic (or at least that’s what they claim to be doing with the delay). Also, the Grand Lodge of the Order of the Sons and Daughters of Italy in America worked wonderfully with Westborough’s Italian American Alliance to create a unified front with the “Westborough Committee for Columbus.” Such grassroots campaigns are the only way to stop radical Board members from taking such misguided positions against the important National Holiday of Christopher Columbus Day, and the man who was a true Hero to not only Italians, but, also the World.
In Long Island NY, the Italian America Long Island television show on Channel 15’s Optimum Network recently featured educator Lou Gallo, who appeared in Episode 16 of this program, titled “Educating the Indoctrinated about Christopher Columbus.” The Italian America Long Island program segment shows Mr. Gallo in full Christopher Columbus regalia, presenting in the first-person the truth about Christopher Columbus, debunking and dispelling the slander, and correctly portraying Columbus as a devout Catholic hero and friend and protector of the tribal peoples of the West Indies. You can see the entire presentation on YouTube at “Lou Gallo as Columbus E88.”