Celebrate Italian Republic Day, lawsuit by Marconi Plaza group
I thought we were finished with Columbus.
I don’t mean that in the “oh Lord, let’s just throw a lead tarp over the man and his legacy and move on to more important things like trying to figure out what pronouns he used” way.
I definitely don’t mean move the statue in South Philly to a less obscure spot where quaking, woke citizens won’t be assaulted by his offensive marbleness on a daily basis.
And I don’t mean erect some pandering ahistorical plaque about the peaceful indigenous folk who sat around campfires not cannibalizing one another so those same citizens will feel validated in their lack of historical awareness.
No, when I say I thought we were finished with Columbus, I mean that I believed we had finally acknowledged that what the City of Philadelphia tried to do to the Italian American community of this metropolis was illegal, immoral and self-defeating. Failed mayoral candidate Helen Gym could have told you that.
But apparently we are not finished with Columbus. And I could not be happier.
Late last month, the Friends of Marconi Plaza, a group that had been deeply involved in the controversy since it first arose three years ago in the wake of the George Floyd riots and ensuing BLM unrest filed a lawsuit against the city and Mayor Jim Kenney seeking damages in excess of $50,000 as well as the termination of named members of the Philadelphia Historical Commission.
The 28-page lawsuit accuses the mayor and his administration of circumventing the law to “target” the Italian American community.
It sets out a factual narrative that highlights gross misconduct, which deprived city residents of their guaranteed rights to comment publicly and comprehensively on the attempt to essentially destroy public art and humiliate a community based upon its ethnicity.
The city has not commented on the latest litigation.
That’s probably best, given its anemic and tone-deaf response to repeated court decisions rejecting their illegal attempts to remove the statue, cognizant perhaps that any commentary will only further highlight its misplaced hostility towards Italian Americans.
Any denial of this hostility would likely ring hollow anyway, given the larger context of the city’s assault on our heritage: the erasure of
Columbus Day from the city calendar, it’s replacement on that same day by the ambiguous Indigenous Person’s Day and before that, the disgraceful dismantling under the cover of darkness of the statue of Frank Rizzo, Philadelphia’s first and so far only Italian American mayor.
That was always the Kenney modus operandi: destroy in darkness. The mayor tried to do the same thing to Columbus.
I remember the June day three years ago, a Sunday as I recall, a day when most Italians were relaxing after their spaghetti dinners.
Wine or beer had softened the harsher edges of the impending Monday doldrums, kids were likely careening around the living room or playing video games and Pop Pop was out in the backyard checking on the state of his tomato vines. Happy moments, even in the depths of a pandemic.
This was when Kenney
and crew thought they could strike by employing nonunion workers to come and dismantle the Columbus statue before anyone could stop them.
They did it to Frank. They were either sympathetic to, or complicit in helping the Flyers do it to Kate Smith.
But word got out, and a man of immense character, professional courage and the wily skill of the Philadelphia lawyer stopped them. He used the law as his weapon against the brute force bigotry of the city.
And he won.
This weekend, as we celebrate the founding of the Italian Republic, the Italian Community will be honoring George Bochetto for stepping into the breach created by those too cowed and cowardly to act, along with Robert Petrone, another lawyer who has exposed the lies of the “Columbus Genocide.”
But seeing the statue still there and still standing at Marconi Plaza is not enough.
This lawsuit is a unique and necessary challenge to the woke fascists who believe that they, and only they, hold the pen that writes our collective historical narrative.
It is a way to pry their fingers from the tools which tell our stories, and to still their shrill voices, which attempt to drown out facts which don’t align with their world view. It is a lawsuit that sends this message: Don’t screw around with the people who gave their blood, sweat, tears, love and futures to create this city.
It might just be my imagination, but I noted a smile on Columbus’ face as I passed the statue this morning. Better yet, a smirk.
And what better way to celebrate Italians this weekend.