MA lawmakers blink on erase-and-replace bills amid heavy
resistance from national Italian American coalition.
BOSTON, Aug. 10,
2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Two bills that were
advancing through the Massachusetts House and Senate, seeking to
replace Columbus Day with Indigenous
Peoples' Day, are now all but dead-on-arrival thanks to a viral
petition spearheaded by affiliates of the Conference of Presidents
of Major Italian American Organizations (COPOMIAO), a national
coalition of prominent cultural, educational, fraternal, and
anti-defamation groups.
COPOMIAO President Basil M.
Russo, along with Tom
Damigella of the Italian American Alliance and Andre DiMino of the Italian American One Voice
Coalition, led the grassroots effort, which inundated lawmakers'
email inboxes with petitions.
"We support mutual respect among all ethnicities and races, but
this type of erase-and-replace legislation — which is resonating
less and less with a majority of Americans — unfairly pits one
group against another," said Russo. "We want an equitable solution
for all, and we'll continue with our successful advocacy and legal
efforts to help achieve a compromise."
A Legal Reckoning
This past April, in a landmark 7-0 appeal decision, the
Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania
revived a lawsuit aimed at blocking Pittsburgh City Hall's decision to remove a
local Columbus statue. In a 24-page opinion, the court reprimanded
Pittsburgh's attempt to uproot the
statue, writing that city hall does not have "…'free reign'
to act as it pleases in defiance of the law."
Philadelphia litigator
George Bochetto filed the lawsuit,
and subsequent appeal, on behalf of the Italian Sons and
Daughters of America (a COPOMIAO affiliate organization). The
reinstated suit will now go back before Judge John T. McVay, Jr. of the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas "for
further factfinding and decision," per the opinion.
In December 2022, the Commonwealth
Court of Pennsylvania — in a
separate lawsuit — sided with Bochetto when it blocked Philadelphia's former mayor from removing the
city's 148-year-old Columbus statue from a public plaza. In that
decision, Judge Paula Patrick wrote:
"It is baffling to this court as to how the City of Philadelphia wants to remove the
Statue without any legal basis. The city's entire argument and case
is devoid of any legal foundation."
Columbus' History
In 1892, U.S. President Benjamin
Harrison organized the first national Columbus Day parade in New York City to ease a diplomatic crisis
between the U.S. and Italy, which
surfaced a year prior when the largest lynch mob ever to assemble
on American soil murdered 11 innocent Italian
immigrants in the streets of New
Orleans.
Given the massive success of President Harrison's NYC parade
(attended by more than one million people), Italian Americans built
Columbus statues across the U.S. through the 1900s to help fuel
their assimilation. Today, the holiday honors Italian American
pride and heritage.
Over the past two years, Russo and his Italian American peers
have worked directly with White House officials to develop
Columbus Day proclamations that
explore the history behind the holiday.
See the 2022 and 2023 Columbus Day
Proclamations for further context.
An Equitable Way Forward
COPOMIAO suggests that the day after Thanksgiving be recognized
as Native American Heritage Day and that the entire month of
November be celebrated as Native American Heritage Month, as is
already declared by proclamation by the U.S. government. There is
also the option of recognizing August
9th as Indigenous Peoples Day, which was designated by the
United Nations in 1999.
"The irony is that Columbus Day
was founded by President Harrison, in part, to encourage greater
acceptance of immigrants in the U.S. Today, those who oppose the
holiday are also fighting for marginalized groups," Russo said.
"It's the same spirit of inclusivity on both sides, so there must
be a 'middle ground' somewhere on this issue."
ABOUT COPOMIAO
Formed in 1975 and based in NYC, the Conference of Presidents of
Major Italian American Organizations (COPOMIAO) is a coalition of
65 of the most influential, cultural, educational, fraternal and
anti-defamation groups in the
nation. https://copomiao.org
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SOURCE The Conference of Presidents of Major Italian American
Organizations