Mayor John Hickenlooper claimed he was only trying to be “fair and balanced.”
The question is: Why would the mayor strive for balance in a quarrel between law-abiding citizens and a group of bullies?
Last week, a frustrated Hickenlooper sent an e-mail deriding leaders on both sides of the Columbus Day parade “conflict.” And though he ostensibly protected the notion of free speech, his letter sets a dangerous precedent in a number of ways.
“Frankly,” the mayor wrote, “I am sick and tired of this entire costly, frustrating and potentially dangerous situation that does nothing but generate ill will.”
The parade, of course, is potentially dangerous only because leading protesters such as Glen Morris and Ward Churchill make it so. And though Hickenlooper laments the absence of a “mutually agreeable resolution,” we already have one. It’s called the law.
“It’s not a balanced situation,” explains Al DeNapoli, president of the National Commission for Social Justice, the anti-defamation arm of the Order Sons of Italy in America. “Parade-goers should be marching within the law and peacefully. However, if there are people protesting who are violating the law and interrupting an expression of free speech, they should be arrested.”
Instead of making that entirely clear, free of caveats, the mayor suggests that marchers from the Italian-American community celebrate something other than Columbus Day – a national and state holiday – because a tiny, zealous segment of the population is offended.
Why not celebrate Festival Italiano instead, Hickenlooper suggests. Why not march in the “multicultural, multiracial and intergenerational” Four Directions/All Nations March to prove your commitment to diversity?
DeNapoli doesn’t believe the mayor would lecture other communities on their choice of celebration, and he’s right.
“If he’s telling Italian-Americans who are marching peacefully to do something else, it’s just wrong,” says DeNapoli.
Actually, it’s just a suggestion. But imagine, if you can, Hickenlooper being “sick and tired” of the cost associated with the Cinco de Mayo celebration – which commemorates the victory of Mexican forces over the French in 1862 – because certain anti-Mexican (or, if they exist, pro-French) protesters decided to intimidate celebrators.
The long-standing skirmish has convinced DeNapoli to come to Denver to show solidarity with Italian-American marchers.
“I want to be the symbol of the support that the national office and other lodges around the nation bring,” he says. “Listen, I know any mayor of a city is a leader, but the First Amendment rights of citizens are the most honored rights that we have. So it’s important for me to be there.”
DeNapoli points out that Columbus Day marchers aren’t there to intentionally antagonize anyone. Yet, he understands that ill will is generated by numerous marches and protests – those for and against abortion, for instance – on purpose or otherwise. Would the mayor lecture them, tell them to cool it?
Hickenlooper is probably echoing the feelings of many Denverites who also are “sick and tired” of this yearly fiasco.
DeNapoli says that’s no excuse.
“To say, on one hand, you want to protect free speech, but on the other hand, you say, ‘This is what you should be doing’ seems hypocritical,” he complains. “And anyway, the mayor is not in a position to make a value judgment about which holiday citizens celebrate.”
Mayor Hickenlooper has a habit of trying to please everyone. A noble endeavor, no doubt.
But people will always have differences of opinion. Some folks will always find a reason to be offended.
It’s not the mayor’s job to determine which one of these group’s rights are worth protecting and which aren’t.
Celebrate your holiday. Protest peacefully. That agreement always works.
David Harsanyi’s column normally appears Monday and Thursday. Reach him at 303-820-1255 or dharsanyi@ denverpost.com. Diane Carman’s column will return soon.
