L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2017 www.italoamericano.org L'Italo-Americano 26 LA VITA ITALIANA TRADITIONS HISTORY CULTURE D ear Readers,  October, tra- ditionally known for annual celebrations of Columbus and our Italian Heritage, has become a month of annual Columbus bashing and extolling of things Native American. It soothes my soul a bit then to read the blogs of ITALIC cofounder John Mancini (www.italic.org) so I will share a sample with you: Things are heating up in the Columbus Day controversy – an annual challenge to our European icon. It is obvious that the target on the Great Navigator's back is bigger than ever now that the old Confederacy – its flag, statues, and memorials – is on the run. For many, Columbus is the new "lost cause." The man who "invented racism" by crossing the Atlantic in 1492 is the focus of all the anger, frustration, and victimization suffered by those in our wonderful mosaic whose roots weren't in Europe. But make no mistake, there are many Euro-Americans who are open to toppling traditional heroes. The debate is simple enough: Europeans screwed everyone and everything by exploring the world; native peo- ples of the Americas, Africa, and Asia were paragons of virtue until defiled by Western Civilization. The simple solution is for Euro-Americans to just trash some tainted heroes and embrace the positive folklore of Indigenous peoples everywhere. In short, expunge Columbus and celebrate the contributions of Native Americans. The problem is, what exactly are we going to celebrate? We know that the Genovese explorer and his fellow Italians – Caboto, Vespucci, and Verrazzano – opened the New World and joined two hemi- spheres for the first time in histo- ry, but that's peanuts compared to what the Indigenous Peoples did for humanity. Theirs was a world without slavery, without war, without hunger, without oppressed women, without human sacrifice or cannibal- ism… or so they would like us to believe. It was also a world with- out the wheel, without metal tools, without horses, without farm animals. I suppose we could celebrate the tomato, the potato, cocoa, corn, and squash. But, oddly enough, the North American Indians didn't know about tomatoes, potatoes, or cocoa until Europeans passed these things on to them from the Amerindians south of the bor- der. It seems long distance explo- ration and communication were other traits absent from Indigenous culture. Next time you hear from anti- Columbus revisionists ask them what exactly will we celebrate next October 12th – the vegeta- bles of the Indigenous peoples or merely their existence? You can also ask them if opening the Americas to immigrants from the other continents was a huge mis- take? Their underlying message is exactly that – their ancestors should have driven European immigrants into the sea. And don't think they didn't try. Columbus suffered two mas- sacres before he declared war on the Taino natives. The natives on both continents knew early on that white immigrants wanted a piece of the American pie, but the natives were seduced by the trade goods. The Indigenous people considered all Europeans "undocumented aliens."  Their immigration policy was essential- ly xenophobic. We wouldn't have much of a beautiful mosaic had the alt-right Indians had their way. Destroying a holiday that now celebrates the unification of the globe and replacing it with a Pollyanna version of history is a lesson in nothing. Indigenous Peoples Day is an empty ges- ture. Will school children be taught the full story of Amerindian culture or just the "nobility" of it? Will children be wrongly taught that the natural spread of diseases like European smallpox was actually geno- cide? Will they be taught that a Stone Age culture was humani- ty's brightest moment? As I perceive it, Indigenous Peoples Day is meant to be a Day of Atonement for Euro- Americans – all the bad things and none of the good. If that's the case, then we will come full circle in replacing Saint Columbus with the Noble Savage.  Here's a thought: if you want to memorial- ize the Indigenous peoples, just pick another day, like Thanksgiving. *** In the United States, there are 144 places named after Columbus, including the District of Columbia. America also has more than 200 statues, busts, monuments and memorials hon- oring him. Nevertheless, in the United States today Christopher Columbus is under attack due to fiction rather then facts. His accomplishment to make the new world known to the old world is what we celebrate. *** More from Mancini, who implies some blame for not extin- guishing the flames of Columbus bashing back in 1992, when it began, may rest with the Italian American community: WHAT COMMUNITY? We are certainly not a voting bloc, nor do we all share the same "Italian" perspective. All of our groups function separately within their own realms. Our politicians certainly don't help us with Italian issues and only a few of us, among our millions of co- ethnics even realize that we have issues. For those under 40, being "Italian" really means being part-Italian; intermarriage has diluted us tremendously. They are products of the media more than our culture. Italy is an abstraction, easily replaced by a junket to Caesar's Palace. Italian cuisine may be their sole link to ethnicity - long live anything "parmigian!" Columbus and 500 years of Italian American contri- butions are little appreciated, if known at all to them. We seniors have assumed that the better angels of our commu- nity would be the glue that keeps us a community - our politicians, our academics, our wealthy, our major organizations, and our Italian cousins, but that hasn't happened. Our politicians know there isn't an Italian cote, so they pander to real voting blocs and big donors. Our academics are so far left that they consider any- one who criticizes Spike Lee films or quotes Roman history a bigot or a Fascist. Our wealthy have better causes than remembering their roots. Our major organizations mean well, but their primary mis- sion is selling gala tickets and looking relevant.  And the masses? Just check out Facebook and witness younger Italian Americans extolling mafia-lore and a goom- bah culture. If that's a communi- ty, which way outta town?

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