#Letters to the Editor — May 7, 2021

The Issue: The city Department of Education’s move to substitute Indigenous People’s Day for Columbus Day.

The New York City Department of Education’s initial decision to replace Columbus Day with Indigenous People’s Day was a maladroit bit of revisionist pandering (“Erasing Columbus in the Dark,” Editorial, May 6).

However, the DOE’s belated tacking on of an Italian Heritage Day is as historically myopic as it is condescending.

As US Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-Nassau) noted, concocting a dual holiday “wasn’t good enough.” Indeed, Italian-Americans do not require a second-banana sausage-and-pepper celebration of their storied heritage.

Columbus Day celebrates Italian exceptionalism. The ancestral roots of Italo-Americans can be traced to the land John Milton hailed as “the seat of civilization.” And Columbus was a product of the selfsame Italian Renaissance that forged modernity.

Rosario A. Iaconis

Selden

Now the Italians take a hit to their pride and culture with the loss of Columbus Day.

How could Mayor de Blasio have allowed this to pass without the public having a say? Why didn’t he stand up for a people that have made endless contributions to our society?

I feel sad for our children that they must live under these imposed conditions.

Bill Calvo

Ridgewood

If anyone living now in the Americas denigrates Columbus and the explorers who followed in his wake, don’t be hypocritical. Either don’t utilize anything developed here by descendants of Europeans, or get a DNA test and see if you like living in the country of origin better.

That would take courage; attacking a statue or a holiday doesn’t.

Carole Romeo

Manhattan

Leave it up to the DOE to fumble the ball twice on one play.

First, they drop Columbus Day from their calendar in response to charges that he was a racist oppressor. These charges are revisionist history. Although some who came afterward were profiteers, most weren’t.

Next, the DOE tries to recover from its fumble by playing identity politics and singling out Italian-Americans for a Heritage Day.

Sure, Italian-Americans are proud of Columbus, but the DOE misses the bigger issue of acknowledging the positive impact Columbus’ voyages had on the course of worldwide cultural interaction and global development.

Anthony Daddiego

Flushing

My grandfather, Andy Albanese, was a beloved conservative politician in Westchester County for 30 years. He fought against the discrimination his family and thousands of others experienced as Italian immigrants in the early 20th century.

He gave a voice to the previously marginalized and got along well with politicians on both sides of the aisle.

I imagine that the inception of Columbus Day observance was a tremendous point of pride for all of those who made the crossing to America for a better life for their families.

Few, if any, people today were alive when European immigrants were refused housing, education and employment — after coming here to embrace the American dream.

Today’s Americans of Italian heritage embrace the beautiful rarity of fierce loyalty to country and deep connection to the ancestral home. Italian-Americans must not stand for any rewriting of their history

Noelle Albanese

New Rochelle

The elimination of Columbus Day as a school holiday is disturbing.

Columbus Day isn’t just for Italian-American pride or to celebrate the contributions of later-arriving Italians.

It is a source of pride and history for knowledgeable Americans who recognize Columbus’ bravery in following his dreams across uncharted waters.

He faced repeated rejections from monarchs in Europe, but he finally got financing and sailed into the unknown. This teaches us to never give up.

Dianne Stillman

Brooklyn