Father of New World deserves tribute

Recent protests to remove the statue of Christopher Columbus in this, his namesake city, betray an opportunistic, pre-existing agenda underpinned by a self-satirical degree of historical ignorance. To conflate Columbus and the Confederacy and smear the Genoa-born Cristoforo Colombo as a “symbol of white supremacy” baffles not only Italian Americans, but perhaps also the actual white supremacists (e.g., the KKK) who have historically opposed Italian, Irish, and Eastern Europeanborn Catholic immigrants almost as virulently as African-Americans.

Reasonable minds might question the sincerity of certain Confederate “heritage” monuments erected in apparent defiance of the Civil Rights movement. But there is no equivalence to Columbus, the original “Italian American.” He was not perfect, and I can’t say I know anyone who relishes in those parts of his legacy that, with 500-plus years of evolution and hindsight, offend the modern conscience. But nor will we surrender to the modern impulse to sully our historical figures by defining them at their worst.

This would be an interminable task that would always leave another statue to be torn down or another book to be burned. Today Americans of all ancestries are beneficiaries of the Old World that Columbus bonded with the New: the democratic traditions of Ancient Greece and Rome, which evolved through centuries of British common law and parliamentary representation, eventually serving as the basis for our own self-rule.

That is why we continue to celebrate the legacy of Christopher Columbus: the Italian, the Catholic, the explorer, the namesake of our city, and the father of the New World which we call home.

Vincent P. Zuccaro Grandview Heights