Columbus’ achievements argue for statue to remain.

We often end up on different sides of debates in the House of Representatives. There’s a lot we don’t agree on. But when it comes to celebrating Christopher Columbus, and what he means to Italian-American New Yorkers like ourselves, we see eye to eye.

New Yorkers, and indeed many Americans, are engaged in an important debate over whether to continue honoring Columbus, the Italian explorer whose voyages across the Atlantic Ocean made possible the mass emigration from Europe and the world to the Americas.

Vandals have desecrated public artwork memorializing him. Cities and towns have decided to stop commemorating the day traditionally set aside for his honor. And the world’s greatest city, New York, is currently reviewing what it calls “symbols of hate” on city property — including, unfortunately, statues of Columbus.

Even in the midst of such controversy, we’re proud to celebrate Columbus Day, because the holiday represents something more.

We’re both proud Italian-Americans, one firstgeneration, one secondgeneration, and we remember the discrimination our parents faced growing up, even in New York. For both of us, celebrating Columbus was a key moment in overcoming that discrimination — a moment our families could unabashedly celebrate the pride we truly felt.

Throughout their lives, our Italian-American fathers suffered discrimination and were looked down on for their heritage and their Catholicism. During the Second World War, they were derided as untrustworthy fascists who must be aligned with Mussolini. When the war ended, they were then lumped in with mobster stereotypes, and had a hard time landing prestigious jobs (even when one of them earned a Harvard Law degree on the G.I. Bill).

This prejudice wasn’t out of the ordinary: One of the largest reported group lynchings in American history was of 19 Italians in 1891. In the 1750s, long before he became governor of New York, John Jay proposed building “a wall of brass around the country for the exclusion of Catholics” — including, of course, Italians.

When we were young kids growing up on Long Island, we remember learning about the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria, and the incredible obstacles Columbus overcame in his journey.

Back then, as we sat in our classrooms, the tales of discrimination we heard from our families seemed incongruous with the celebration of our Italian hero. The successful battle against a national legacy of bigotry and hatred gave generations of children — including the two of us — a life of opportunity, and the chance to grow up to be public servants.

Columbus’ vision is been a source of pride as we embrace our own family heritage, and it’s a source of pride for generations of Italian-Americans as, together, we honor all that we have overcome each October.

The controversy over this holiday is understandable. It stems from our ambition to make all people feel welcome, to create an inclusive environment for New York’s citizens, immigrants and visitors. It stems from the same impulse we feel to ensure that we live up to the promise of America, which seeks a world that respects everyone’s human dignity because all men and women are created equal.

We all have an obligation to study and learn from history, including the history of Native Americans. Modern scholars have shown that Columbus was a man ahead of his time, who often fought against the demands of his own men in their cries for brutal treatment of native peoples. Vilifying him gives a pass to those who truly deserve blame and feeds into a revisionist history that denies the Italian-American community the proud heritage we’ve earned.

The truth is that Columbus Day’s acceptance as a federal holiday and the construction of monuments to Columbus were milestones in the acceptance of Catholics and Italian immigrants into our country.

Removing them would be a tragic forgetting of our nation’s history, and a perverse fulfillment of a prejudicial and hateful agenda — the same agenda our families fought so hard to overcome.

We hope all New Yorkers, regardless of party, can join us in finding common ground this Columbus Day. We want to celebrate the explorer who opened the Americas to millions of immigrants seeking progress and a better life, and who continues to give Italian-Americans and all Americans reason to celebrate.