When it comes to Christopher Columbus, President Donald Trump just gets it.
He knows that October 12 is Columbus Day. He knows that the second Monday in October is reserved to celebrate Columbus Day, and no amount of left-wing cultural encroachment is going to change that.
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He understands that radical left-wing ideologues seek to erase much of U.S. history and replace it with a revisionist version that aligns more with their values. This has resulted in a backlash among many of the nation’s once-revered historical figures. One of the casualties of this ideological assault was Christopher Columbus, the Italian explorer whose discovery of the western hemisphere for the civilized European world was a monumental achievement that forever transformed human civilization. It was an accomplishment that President Donald Trump acknowledged in a proclamation last week, recognizing the Columbus Day holiday.
“Today our Nation honors the legendary Christopher Columbus — the original American hero, a giant of Western civilization, and one of the most gallant and visionary men to ever walk the face of the earth,” read Trump’s proclamation. “This Columbus Day, we honor his life with reverence and gratitude, and we pledge to reclaim his extraordinary legacy of faith, courage, perseverance, and virtue from the left-wing arsonists who have sought to destroy his name and dishonor his memory.”
“We’re back, Italians,” Trump said in a press conference announcing the Columbus Day proclamation. He also mentioned the attempts to disparage the 15th-century explorer and called it an “attack on our heritage.”
“Outrageously, in recent years, Christopher Columbus has been a prime target of a vicious and merciless campaign to erase our history, slander our heroes, and attack our heritage,” Trump said in his proclamation regarding the attacks on Columbus. “Before our very eyes, left-wing radicals toppled his statues, vandalized his monuments, tarnished his character, and sought to exile him from our public spaces.”
TODAY IS, AND ALWAYS WILL BE, COLUMBUS DAY — AND SHOULD BE ACKNOWLEDGED AS SUCH
But Columbus shouldn’t be revered or condemned. He should be heralded. His voyage was a catalyst for the evolution of humanity. Attempts to denigrate his legacy are rooted in intellectual disingenuity.
“I would argue that the maligning of Columbus that has taken place within the last 20 years has been a distortion of the historical record,” said Pasquale Gianni, the master of ceremonies for Chicago’s Columbus Day parade. “Columbus was an enlightened man and a brave explorer who rapidly changed the world as we know it.”
“I urge people to read primary source material about Columbus, such as works by Carol Delaney, the world‘s foremost Columbus scholar, who previously ran the anthropology department at Stanford,” Gianni said. “Simply put, there is almost nobody worth celebrating more than Christopher Columbus.”
Gianni also highlighted the enormous impact Columbus had on the world.
“Columbus crossing the Atlantic, at the time that he did, is the most significant occurrence in the history of mankind,” he said. “It inextricably linked two worlds together and unified the globe. It also led to the rapid advancement of quality of life for all people. We have great reason to celebrate this. The importation of institutions like modern medicine, sanitation, the university system, and democracy came to the shores of the New World along with Columbus.”
An integral part of Columbus’s legacy has been the holiday’s significance within the Italian American community. It has become synonymous with honoring the accomplishments and contributions of Italian Americans in the story of America.
“It is unequivocally the most important day in our community,” Gianni said. He mentioned how the holiday originated in the 19th century after the largest single mass lynching in the country’s history on March 14, 1891, after 11 Italians were executed in a horrific act of discrimination.
“President Benjamin Harrison declared the first Columbus Day, the 400th anniversary of Columbus‘s first voyage to the New World [1892], as a reckoning and reparation for the inhumane treatment of Italian Americans, as well as a recognition of their various contributions to our sweet land of liberty. It has come to represent all of the blood, sweat, and tears that our people have given to this land and a recognition of our acceptance in it.”
It’s the preeminent reason why Trump affirmed that Italians were “back.” Recent attempts to erase the holiday were also seen as an effort to dismiss the place of Italian Americans in the story of U.S. history. This was something Trump acknowledged in his proclamation.
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“As we celebrate his legacy, we also acknowledge the contributions of the countless Italian-Americans who, like him, have endlessly contributed to our culture and our way of life,” Trump said. “To this day, the United States and Italy share a special bond rooted in the timeless values of faith, family, and freedom.”
Gianni echoed these sentiments.
“Columbus is so foundational to the American origin story: our nation’s capital is named after him, cities across the country, institutions of higher learning, and some of the most important American world’s fair expositions,” he said. “This is why it is all the more important that the holiday bears his name; it gives us reason to be proud of our presence in this country that he helped make.”