September 29, 2005
From the Transform Columbus Day Alliance:
On September 28, Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper sent a letter to Professor
Glenn Morris and Mr. George Vendegnia regarding the upcoming Columbus Day
holiday and “parade.” We appreciate the mayor’s initiative in this regard.
However, we feel a need to make clear that the movement to transform
Columbus Day is not about Mr. Morris or any one individual. It is a
broad-based movement of people from all of Denver’s and Colorado’s
communities, indigenous and non-indigenous, who oppose the racism
represented by the Columbus Day holiday and parade, a movement embodied in
the Transform Columbus Day Alliance (TCD), representing several dozen
organizations.
That said, TCD appreciates many of the statements the Mayor makes in his
letter. We share his feeling of being “sick and tired of this entire
costly, frustrating and potentially dangerous situation,” and his
recognition that a “parade that inspires such community anguish” is a
detriment to the city of Denver. The insistence of a small,
unrepresentative group on “celebrating” Columbus, a slave trader
responsible for the genocide of millions of indigenous people, causes
serious damage to the city’s reputation every October. We agree that the
money spent on parade security (money not necessitated by the protests,
since those have always been completely nonviolent) would be better spent
on other programs.
We share the Mayor’s hope that the Festival Italiano will replace the
parade as a venue for celebrating Italian heritage. From the beginning, TCD
has offered to join the parade organizers and other members of the Italian
community in celebrating the rich culture of Italy and Italian Americans.
We have asked only one thing in return: that a celebration of Columbus, a
celebration as offensive to Native peoples and those who stand with them as
a celebration of Hitler is to the Jewish community, not be a part of any
such celebration. In his letter, the Mayor recognizes that this is the
morally correct position, and we applaud him for that.
We also appreciate the Mayor’s stated support for the Four Directions/All
Nations March (a project of TCD, of which the Red Earth Women’s Alliance is
a member group) as representing, as he says, a “multicultural, multiracial
and intergenerational commitment to ensuring that Denver is a community
that honors its diversity and rejects violence and racism.” While TCD is
committed to protesting and ending the racist celebration of Columbus, it
has always also offered the Four Directions march and other events as
positive alternatives to the parade. Our goal has never been mere
confrontation. It has always been transformation, that is, replacing a
history of racism and violence with a future of mutual respect and
cooperation among all of Denver’s communities.
As the Mayor says, Columbus Day is a state and federal holiday. Part of our
program has always been to change that, and we would welcome the Mayor’s
support for legislation to abolish the holiday at the state level.
The Mayor is correct to note that the parade organizers have a First
Amendment right to their event, and that the city cannot legally deny them
that right. However, as the Mayor himself recognizes, the parade
organizers’ choice to exercise their First Amendment rights through a
racist, offensive “celebration” of Columbus is “most unfortunate for our
entire community.”
While the Mayor cannot legally stop the parade, he can, without violating
any laws, take a moral stand, and condemn the parade as an affront to
decency and an embarrassment to the city and the state of Colorado. Fifteen
years ago, when the Ku Klux Klan received a permit to celebrate Hitler’s
birthday at the state capitol, the then-mayor of Denver took such a stand,
along with all of Denver’s civic and religious leaders.
In his letter, the Mayor recognizes that the Columbus Day parade is an
embarrassment to the city of Denver, and that there are better, alternative
ways to celebrate the Italian American community. He should now take the
next logical step by publicly denouncing the parade and asking the
organizers to end this offensive celebration, and by supporting legislation
at the state level to end the Columbus Day holiday.
