{"id":243956,"date":"2021-05-07T00:44:09","date_gmt":"2021-05-06T21:44:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/letters-to-the-editor-may-7-2021\/"},"modified":"2021-05-07T00:44:09","modified_gmt":"2021-05-06T21:44:09","slug":"letters-to-the-editor-may-7-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/letters-to-the-editor-may-7-2021\/","title":{"rendered":"#Letters to the Editor \u2014 May 7, 2021"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Letters to the Editor \u2014 May 7, 2021<\/strong>”
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The Issue: The city Department of Education\u2019s move to substitute Indigenous People\u2019s Day for Columbus Day.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The New York City Department of Education\u2019s initial decision to replace Columbus Day with Indigenous People\u2019s Day was a maladroit bit of revisionist pandering (\u201cErasing Columbus in the Dark,\u201d Editorial, May 6).<\/p>\n

However, the DOE\u2019s belated tacking on of an Italian Heritage Day is as historically myopic as it is condescending.<\/p>\n

As US Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-Nassau) noted, concocting a dual holiday \u201cwasn\u2019t good enough.\u201d Indeed, Italian-Americans do not require a second-banana sausage-and-pepper celebration of their storied heritage.<\/p>\n

Columbus Day celebrates Italian exceptionalism. The ancestral roots of Italo-Americans can be traced to the land John Milton hailed as \u201cthe seat of civilization.\u201d And Columbus was a product of the selfsame Italian Renaissance that forged modernity.<\/p>\n

Rosario A. Iaconis<\/em><\/p>\n

Selden<\/em><\/p>\n

Now the Italians take a hit to their pride and culture with the loss of Columbus Day.<\/p>\n

How could Mayor de Blasio have allowed this to pass without the public having a say? Why didn\u2019t he stand up for a people that have made endless contributions to our society?<\/p>\n

I feel sad for our children that they must live under these imposed conditions. <\/p>\n

Bill Calvo<\/em><\/p>\n

Ridgewood<\/em><\/p>\n

If anyone living now in the Americas denigrates Columbus and the explorers who followed in his wake, don\u2019t be hypocritical. Either don\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n

That would take courage; attacking a statue or a holiday doesn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

Carole Romeo<\/em><\/p>\n

Manhattan<\/em><\/p>\n

Leave it up to the DOE to fumble the ball twice on one play.<\/p>\n

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\u2019t.<\/p>\n

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

Sure, Italian-Americans are proud of Columbus, but the DOE misses the bigger issue of acknowledging the positive impact Columbus\u2019 voyages had on the course of worldwide cultural interaction and global development.<\/p>\n

Anthony Daddiego<\/em><\/p>\n

Flushing<\/em><\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

He gave a voice to the previously marginalized and got along well with politicians on both sides of the aisle.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Few, if any, people today were alive when European immigrants were refused housing, education and employment \u2014 after coming here to embrace the American dream.<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s 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<\/p>\n

Noelle Albanese<\/em><\/p>\n

New Rochelle<\/em><\/p>\n

The elimination of Columbus Day as a school holiday is disturbing.<\/p>\n

Columbus Day isn\u2019t just for Italian-American pride or to celebrate the contributions of later-arriving Italians.<\/p>\n

It is a source of pride and history for knowledgeable Americans who recognize Columbus\u2019 bravery in following his dreams across uncharted waters.<\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

Dianne Stillman<\/em><\/p>\n

Brooklyn<\/em>\n <\/div>\n

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Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“#Letters to the Editor \u2014 May 7, 2021” The Issue: The city Department of Education\u2019s move to substitute Indigenous People\u2019s Day for Columbus Day. The New York City Department of Education\u2019s initial decision to replace Columbus Day with Indigenous People\u2019s Day was a maladroit bit of revisionist pandering (\u201cErasing Columbus in the Dark,\u201d Editorial, May…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":243957,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/05\/nyc-schools-holiday-80.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[104691,72396,70643,68],"class_list":["post-243956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-5-6-21","tag-christopher-columbus","tag-department-of-education","tag-holidays"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243956"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243956\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/243957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}