Replacement for Columbus?

[ECSkeptic]

My choice for a replacement for Christopher Columbus as the focal point of Italian-American pride: Enrico Fermi. Replace all the statues of Columbus with ones of Enrico Fermi (although we don't need a day off for his birthday). Let's have the Italian-American community look up to someone who:
1. Actually came to America
2. Actually discovered something

[madinmaryland]

1. How about Mario Cuomo, though I do like the idea of Fermi.

[Miguelito Loveless]

2. I would recommend the 2nd place winner from Eurovision 2011

Raphael Gualazzi

[quaint]

3. "architect of the nuclear age" and the "architect of the atomic bomb"

[Walleye]

4. I think we should concentrate our efforts on the confederate monuments.

We always seem to muddy up our objective by insisting on purity. The confederate generals were outright traitors. And we know why those statues were erected during Jim Crow. That’s the real heritage of the Southern states.

[DBoon]

5. Fermi was an anti-fascist

another plus for him

[TlalocW]

6. I have three suggestions

If we want an explorer from the same time period, the online comic The Oatmeal makes a good case for a replacement.

https://theoatmeal.com/comics/columbus_day

If we want another Italian, then I propose Enrico Rastelli who many consider the greatest juggler who ever lived. This is the statue at his tomb that we could create a mold from.



If we want an Italian American



Also, I like this suggestion for Tennessee - replacing all Confederate Statues there with statues of Dolly Parton


TlalocW

[customerserviceguy]

14. Yes, can't wait

to visit my friends in Costello, Ohio.

[Drahthaardogs]

16. That's fucking insulting

Sorry. As a second generation Italian-american you offer up a guy who played a buffoon? A people that RULED the WORLD TWICE! Lead the Renaissance! Lead Science! You offer a fucking clown.

[LeftInTX]

20. I agree it's insulting

[TlalocW]

22. Maybe you should watch sone of his movies

And develop a fucking sense of humor.

TlalocW

[Drahthaardogs]

23. Nothing funny about it

Just fucking crude. A juggler and a funny fat man in baggy clothes. That's the best of Italians to you huh?

[TlalocW]

24. What's wrong with jugglers?

Thousands attended his funeral. I'm a juggler and admire him greatly. Also, surely there are "better" Tennesseans I could have come up with than Parton to replace Confederate statues there. Why no complaint about that? Because you recognized it as a joke?

Tell you what. Why don't you print out this thread, roll it up real tight and...

You might have to remove the stick first.

TlalocW

[Drahthaardogs]

25. Because Italians were persecuted terribly in this country

And laws were passed to stop their immigration ( sound familiar?). The largest mass lynching in America's victims, were Italian. They stole our culture, had social workers outlaw our food, hit kids in school for speaking Italian, and interred us during WWII.

So your fucking comedian and juggler suck and aren't funny. Why don't you go watch "Pane Amaro" and fucking learn something instead of being insufferable?

[jimfields33]

7. If we replace Christopher Columbus with this

Then we do need another day off. You realize we’re pathetic in holidays as it is compared to other countries. Yes some have to work holidays but get holiday pay. Why take that little benefit away?

[haele]

12. Indigenous Peoples day?

That's what a lot of people call it instead. Or something a bit banal like a national Exploration day - take a day off for science or history fairs. As it is, Columbus day has become all about Retail clearing out space for the pre-Xmas sales, not about Columbus except for tiny areas of the country where Columbus represents Italian American Pride
Granted, I'm not of Italian immigrant descent, so it's just a Bank/Federal day off to me.

Haele

[jimfields33]

13. I'd definitely be cool with that.

I’m just sensitive to keeping 10 holidays. Could care less where they are on the calendar or what name is given.

[Thunderbeast]

8. Leonardo Davinci

He discovered America....well, he discovered the correct location of planet Earth. America is rumored to be associated with THAT venue.

[Niagara]

9. Colorado replaced Columbus Day with Cabrini Day

https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/11/us/colorado-columbus-day-cabrini-day-trnd/index.html


I've always been in favor of replacing CC Day with Indigenous Peoples' Day.

[Drahthaardogs]

17. No. Native Americans should have their own day

Taking an Italian heritage day away is unacceptable

[BlueTsunami2018]

10. Here's what I suggested to my IA friends pissed off about the Rizzo stuff in Philly.

Italian-Americans like Vito Russo, Arturo Giovannitti, Ralph Fasanella and Angela Bambace were all champions for worker’s rights and civil rights.


Charles Baldi, Walter Alessandroni, Frank Vittor, Michael Angelo Musmanno and Mario Lanza are all prominent Italian-Americans from Pennsylvania who advanced the culture through things like fighting for better public education, serving as Supreme Court judges and through the arts.

Italian-Americans have so many good people to celebrate instead of a brutal, corrupt quasi-fascist. Don’t sell yourself short.

Replace the description of Rizzo with genocidal, slaving asshole for Columbus.

[abqtommy]

11. My understanding is that two groups visited the Americas before Columbus: they are

The Chinese (on the west coast) and the Norse at Newfoundland (on the east coast). Let us raise
statues where they are due.

[ironflange]

15. Leif Eriksson would go over big in Minnesota

[StevieM]

21. I think it is the Tahitians, not Chinese, who are believed to have reached South America. (eom)

[abqtommy]

26. That's probable. I've also read that it's likely the Japanese were also here...

[tenderfoot]

19. Guglielmo Marconi. Fiorello LaGuardia. Federico Fellini

Vittorio De Sica.

Dean Martin.

Yogi Berra.

[Jersey Devil]

27. Sofia Loren!

I'd much rather see statues of her.

[whistler162]

28. Lief Ericksson, we came, we saw, we left