Yet another state could be preparing to drop Columbus Day, as a bill is being presented that will replace the holiday with Indigenous Peoples Day by 2024 if it passes.
Bill To Scrap Columbus Day In Massachusetts
Mass Live reported that if Massachusetts state Sen. Joanne Comerford (D- Northampton) gets her way, Columbus Day will be a thing of the past in her state by October of 2024. In the proposed legislation, she argued that “the history of genocide and discrimination against Indigenous peoples, and to recognize and celebrate the thriving cultures and continued resistance and resilience of Indigenous peoples and their tribal nations.”
“This holiday will pay rightful tribute to the contributions of indigenous people in Massachusetts: past, present, and future,” she continued.
“This is happening across the United States. It’s not Massachusetts out on the edge,” Comerford added after presenting the bill to the joint state House and Senate committee last week. “There’s an urgency here. There’s a racial justice urgency. There’s an indigenous peoples’ urgency. There’s an urgency of truth.”
Find out more about this in the video below.
Lawmaker Defends Columbus Day
State Rep. Jeffrey Turco (D- Winthrop) fired back during the hearing to defend Columbus Day.
“I think it’s important to talk about the history of the contributions of Italian-American people,” he said, according to NHPR. “Nobody objects to creating an Indigenous People Day, but to pit one group of people against another people I think is an unfortunate approach.”
“The people who support [Indigenous Peoples Day] are good-minded people,” he later added. “I don’t see why it needs to be done at the expense of Italians.”
If the bill passes, Massachusetts would join 29 other states that no longer celebrate Columbus Day, with Washington D.C. having ditched the holiday as well. At this time, 11 states celebrate Indigenous Peoples Day, or a similarly named holiday, with a proclamation, while ten more treat it as an official holiday.
In recent years, the left has been trying to cancel the explorer Christopher Columbus, who was long credited for discovering America in 1492, for the harm he allegedly did to Native Americans who had been living on this land for centuries.
Yet another state could be preparing to drop Columbus Day, as a bill is being presented that will replace the holiday with Indigenous Peoples Day by 2024 if it passes.
Bill To Scrap Columbus Day In Massachusetts
Mass Live reported that if Massachusetts state Sen. Joanne Comerford (D- Northampton) gets her way, Columbus Day will be a thing of the past in her state by October of 2024. In the proposed legislation, she argued that “the history of genocide and discrimination against Indigenous peoples, and to recognize and celebrate the thriving cultures and continued resistance and resilience of Indigenous peoples and their tribal nations.”
“This holiday will pay rightful tribute to the contributions of indigenous people in Massachusetts: past, present, and future,” she continued.
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“This is happening across the United States. It’s not Massachusetts out on the edge,” Comerford added after presenting the bill to the joint state House and Senate committee last week. “There’s an urgency here. There’s a racial justice urgency. There’s an indigenous peoples’ urgency. There’s an urgency of truth.”
Find out more about this in the video below.
Lawmaker Defends Columbus Day
State Rep. Jeffrey Turco (D- Winthrop) fired back during the hearing to defend Columbus Day.
“I think it’s important to talk about the history of the contributions of Italian-American people,” he said, according to NHPR. “Nobody objects to creating an Indigenous People Day, but to pit one group of people against another people I think is an unfortunate approach.”
“The people who support [Indigenous Peoples Day] are good-minded people,” he later added. “I don’t see why it needs to be done at the expense of Italians.”
If the bill passes, Massachusetts would join 29 other states that no longer celebrate Columbus Day, with Washington D.C. having ditched the holiday as well. At this time, 11 states celebrate Indigenous Peoples Day, or a similarly named holiday, with a proclamation, while ten more treat it as an official holiday.
In recent years, the left has been trying to cancel the explorer Christopher Columbus, who was long credited for discovering America in 1492, for the harm he allegedly did to Native Americans who had been living on this land for centuries.
“We know what he [Columbus] did. It’s a historic fact,” said Mahtowin Munro, a co-leader of the advocacy group United American Indians of New England, and a member of the Lakota tribe. “And no one was sitting here waiting to be discovered. We were already here.”
Find out more about this in the video below.
Find out more about this in the video below.
Italian-Americans Support Columbus Day
Various Italian-American groups, however, have argued that efforts to drop Columbus Day are really an attempt to erase their history. They cite the history of this holiday, which began in the 19th century as a way to honor Italian immigrants at a time when they were being discriminated against. Domenic Amara, president of the Italian-American heritage group Pirandello Lyceum, an Italian-American heritage group, argued that getting rid of Columbus Day will “cause sores for generations to come.