A College Hill teenager called on Easton City Council to remove Columbus statue from Riverside Park.
"Christopher Columbus, while his discoveries were great, his position to Native Americans ... represents a figure that I don't think is someone who should be celebrated by Easton," said the political science and communications major at Bloomsburg University.
It took two years of fundraising by working-class Italian immigrants in Easton to finance the $13,000 statue erected in 1930, a fact not lost on Easton Mayor Sal Panto Jr. He is among the Italian Americans who regularly gather at the statue on Columbus Day.
"I understand the statue was a great gift from the Italian American community, but I think for the greater good of Easton it's not something that should be celebrated. It's a really dark part of our history," Weber said.
"Christopher Columbus was a dark part of our history?" the mayor asked. "That's an opinion."
The mayor thanked Weber for attending the meeting and encouraged him to return and keep participating in democracy.
"Don't stop coming and giving your opinion," he said. "Don't give up your values and what you believe in. That's part of the American way. That's what's good about it."
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"Christopher Columbus, while his discoveries were great, his position to Native Americans ... represents a figure that I don't think is someone who should be celebrated by Easton," said the political science and communications major at Bloomsburg University.
It took two years of fundraising by working-class Italian immigrants in Easton to finance the $13,000 statue erected in 1930, a fact not lost on Easton Mayor Sal Panto Jr. He is among the Italian Americans who regularly gather at the statue on Columbus Day.
"I understand the statue was a great gift from the Italian American community, but I think for the greater good of Easton it's not something that should be celebrated. It's a really dark part of our history," Weber said.
"Christopher Columbus was a dark part of our history?" the mayor asked. "That's an opinion."
The mayor thanked Weber for attending the meeting and encouraged him to return and keep participating in democracy.
"Don't stop coming and giving your opinion," he said. "Don't give up your values and what you believe in. That's part of the American way. That's what's good about it."
Source
Indigenous Peoples Day celebrates the people who inhabited this land before "explorers" arrived. We celebrate Indigenous Peoples Day on October 12. Why should we continue to discuss the people from our past who sickened and murdered this land's original inhabitants?