A pedestal for Columbus today

Astoria: The efforts of a few politicians and individuals to remove the significance of Christopher Columbus and eliminate his importance in history is appalling and disturbing. These people are not historians, researchers or scholars. Their ignorance equals their arrogance. The meaning of Columbus is simple. It is a message to all immigrants who had the courage and determination to risk it all to come to this great land with nothing but a glimmer of hope and a desire for a better future. Most immigrants fled from persecution and oppression especially when it pertained to their religious beliefs.

Like any of us, Columbus had his flaws. So did many historical figures, whom we still honor, respect and value as they shaped this nation. Washington and Jefferson were slave owners. Should we, then, tear up the paper money that their faces are imprinted upon? Lincoln believe that blacks and whites should be separated. Should we take down the White House and U.S. Capitol that were built by AfricanAmerican slaves? Do we eliminate Columbus Ave., change the name of Columbia University or the District of Columbia? These revisionists should put their intolerance aside and have a more meaningful conversation with the truth. John J. Ciafone

Daring the unknown

Bayonne, N.J.: The second Monday in October is set aside to honor Christopher Columbus. It is now well known that Columbus was not the first European to sail to the “New World.” The Vikings landed in North America some 500 years before Columbus. Without trivializing his voyage and subsequent “discovery,” the legacy and spirit of Columbus is much deeper than his actual accomplishment in 1492. Columbus is a lot more than just a statue. Columbus’ story is one of inspiration, imagination and intensity. Those three simple — yet powerful — words help us to reach our own dreams, goals and aspirations. Taken collectively, those three words mean hope for a better future. The zeal of Columbus is with those dedicated people arduously seeking answers that will benefit humanity.

John Di Genio

Killer of millions

Torrance, Calif.: The growing movement to remove Columbus statues and rename Columbus Day Indigenous Peoples Day alarms many Americans. Columbus has been heralded as an intrepid hero for over 500 years. Accurate portrayals of Columbus and the conquistadors, however, are now brought to light and reveal that they are lightning rods for controversy. They are not heroes but in fact are America’s first terrorists. Columbus and the conquistadors subjugated, exploited, brutalized and decimated the natives by terrorism, atrocities, warfare, diseases, famines, postconquest enslavements and forced labor. They stopped at nothing, even the tenets of Catholicism and royal Spanish edicts against native maltreatment, in their life-and-death gambles for gold and glory. Their barbarity included indiscriminate massacres, murders, summary executions, decapitations, tortures, rapes, kidnappings, enslavements (including sexual), excessive tribute, slave labor in deadly mines, starvation, forced suicides, severe social dislocations due to the uprootings of families and communities, forced resettlements, robberies and doggings (i.e., the unleashings of ferocious, massive war dogs on defenseless native men, women and children). The terrorism left millions of New World natives dead and their descendants’ ways of life obliterated or drastically transformed. Robert A. Hessling

A proud namesake

Glen Oaks Village: I’m Grand Knight of St. Anastasia Knights of Columbus Council #5911 in Douglaston, Queens. We support the fact the Christopher Columbus, with his faults, like the rest of the human race, opened a new world with unlimited possibilities, which includes freedom for all. That also includes freedom of religion for the many. Now that is one of the reasons we took on his name since 1882 for a group founded by a priest named Father Michael McGivney.

Frederick R. Bedell Jr.

History is bunk

Bronx: In her column “Leave Christopher Columbus’ statue alone — you can’t rewrite history” is Linda Stasi purposely pretending to not understand what the furor over Christopher Columbus’ statue is about? She harps on being proud of her Italian heritage (as she should be) as if the protest is against Italians. Please stop it. The protest is against one Italian who led ships filled with murderers to these shores. Does Stasi know that since Queen Isabella of Spain thought he was on a suicide mission she emptied her jails to give him a crew? It’s simple, if you discovered that someone who had statues all over Italy had come into Italy, destroyed the local population through murders, diseases and enslavement and pillaged the land hauling spoils back across the ocean and he came to be glorified through faulty history and boldface lies, chances are you, an Italian, would want his statues taken down, too. Stasi’s inability to understand the protest is unreal. No one is rewriting history. The history we were told of Columbus is faulty at best and lies at worst. It has nothing to do with him being Italian and Stasi knows it. Fitzroy Bernard

It all started with him

Brooklyn: It is beyond ironic that Hispanics, like Melissa Mark-Viverito, decry Columbus when without him and Spanish colonization there would be no Hispanics or Hispanic culture in which they take such pride. Is not the start of a great world civilization worthy of recognition?

J. Jeffrey Weisenfeld

Uniting a world

Manhattan: When a friend brought up the topic of the statue of Christopher Columbus being called a “symbol of hate,” it made me think about why that line of thought has disturbed me. As an Italian-American and a concerned citizen, I want to add something that I haven’t heard mentioned. Christopher Columbus, sure in his instincts about geography, disregarded prevalent thought that the Earth was flat, boldly set his course and arrived in the Americas. He opened new horizons to mankind in its journey from ignorance to knowledge. Surely that deserves a statue. Shame on these people!

Cathy Soracchi Andersen

Ideology guides de Blasio

Flushing: Since the mayor follows socialism and protests with anarchists at the G-20 summit, he’d rather keep the Lenin statue up but would consider removing Columbus. John Stanolevich

Let it stand

Richmond Hill: The removal and defacement of the Christopher Columbus statue would violate the dignity and decency of every native Italian, Italian American and people of all cultures. We must honor and cherish this statue not only on Columbus Day, but every day. Richard Varriale

Dump the Confederates

Hartsdale, N.Y.: The false controversy regarding the Christopher Columbus monument in Columbus Circle is yet another evidence of how our white majority kidnaps issues and turns them into being, well, about them. The actual and true effort regarding monuments was, is and always will be about the removal or repurposing of those regarding the Confederacy in the War Against Treason, also known as the “Civil War.” The effort has to LUIZ C. RIBEIRO FOR DAILY NEWS do with monuments in tribute to men who without regard for law or the Constitution decided to wage a terrorist war against the legally constituted United States of America. Why were they erected in the first place after that war and why we do celebrate these men? They fought against America and everything it should strive to be. They killed their own relatives in some cases. And they fought to retain millions of slaves to support their economy. Beyond that, we all know most of these monuments were also erected after the war as symbols aimed at our black population as a reminder of their former — and present — status as second-class citizens of this great country. All this has absolutely nothing to do with Columbus. Save that false controversy for another time, but let’s get those statues to traitors out of our parks and public spaces immediately. Norman Gaines

Teachable moment

Staten Island: What race does Voicer George Cruz believe the Spanish conquistadors were? They, like Columbus, were white Europeans who came to what is now the Americas and did the same thing he did. The reason Columbus is targeted is that though he sailed for Spain and made their queen and king rich his statue is associated with Italy, and not Spain. I believe that instead of taking down all these statues they can be used to teach real history as opposed to what is sometimes taught in school.

John Jones