Lynn protesters: Columbus a murderer

LYNN – Schools were closed and many workplaces empty Monday in honor of Italian explorer Christopher Columbus. But a small group of protesters stood in City Hall Square Monday afternoon to urge a different focus for the holiday.”If you want to leave it a holiday, fine,” said protester Master I.C. Allah. “But let’s not recognize the invader; let’s recognize the victims.”The second Monday in October is celebrated nationally as Columbus Day, which also has been a day to celebrate people of Italian heritage. The holiday commemorates Columbus’ first landing in the Americas in 1492.But the six protesters interviewed Monday said the image of Columbus as the person who discovered America ignores the often dismal fate of millions of indigenous people who were already living here when Columbus arrived.”The initial impact of Christopher Columbus for the people living there was torture, genocide and slavery, said Estee Nack. “Christopher Columbus was a murderer, he was a pirate.”The protesters said their view of Columbus is shared among many, and the City of Seattle even recently renamed the holiday Indigenous People’s Day. Some Italians in Seattle were offended by the City Council action. In a full-page ad Monday in The Seattle Times they say the city disrespects its citizens of Italian ancestry with an example of excessive political correctness.”We don’t argue with the idea of Indigenous Peoples’ Day. We do have a big problem of it coming at the expense of what essentially is Italian Heritage Day,” Ralph Fascitelli, an Italian-American who lives in Seattle, told The Associated Press.”This is a big insult to those of us of Italian heritage. We feel disrespected,” Fascitelli said. He added, “America wouldn’t be America without Christopher Columbus.”But the protesters said the “incorrect history” of Columbus as discoverer was especially important to dispel in Lynn, where so many people trace their heritage to the peoples and cultures Columbus initially encountered and subsequently decimated.”Especially with so many Dominican people here, we should be aware of the proper history,” Nack said, holding a poster with a Dominican flag and “Christopher Columbus was no hero” written in Spanish.Douglas Kizzie agreed, saying Columbus was a conqueror, not a discoverer, who laid waste to the countries he traveled across and enslaved and killed the people who inhabited them. He compared Columbus to Alexander the Great, Andrew Jackson during the Trail of Tears and other historical figures.”We don’t celebrate a Hitler day,” Kizzie said.The protesters were very aware their views could be controversial, however, particularly with the Italian community.”No disrespect to Italians,” Nack emphasized. “I have a lot of respect for people who are Italian and probably have some Italian blood in me, too.”But he also emphasized that the protesters wanted to start a conversation in Lynn about celebrating cultural awareness.”Just like they took Christmas trees out of schools because it offended people, this offends people and should be stopped,” Kizzie said.Allah said the group hoped to go to a city Human Rights Commission meeting Oct. 21 and present changing the name of Columbus Day as “a tentative topic to bring up.”Nack said he was most dismayed that several youths had approached them Monday and said they still were taught that Columbus discovered America.”There should be some sort of forum to revise history,” Nack said as he waved at honking drivers. “What’s more important is what happens in schools and what they are teaching students.”