On October 12th, 1958 as part of the bicentennial founding of Pittsburgh celebration, a statue of Christopher Columbus was unveiled in Schenley Park. Created by the famous Italian sculptor, Frank Vittor, over 2000 people attended the ceremony. Among the attendees were leaders of the Italian American community, Pittsburgh political figures, clergy from the Catholic Diocese, representatives from the Vatican as well as Italian diplomats. The statue was gifted to the city by the Sons of Columbus of America and the proud Italian American community of Pittsburgh. One hundred thousand dollars was raised to commission the work of art and beautiful monument. In today's dollars that would be a little over 1.3 million dollars a remarkable achievement and gift.
If you haven't seen the statue in its original setting, it's too late. For the past two years its been shrouded in plastic per the order of a judge. How did we get here? It all started two years ago in the aftermath of George Floyd's death. Activists went on rampages across America tearing down monuments of any statue deemed to be racist. Ironically, they even tore down a statue of Abraham Lincoln, and of course Christopher Columbus was on the hit list. Not to be outdone by her peers, Pittsburgh activist Finn Murphy collected over 15,000 signatures to remove Columbus's monument from Schenley Park. She claimed that it was hurtful to the native American community and that Columbus was a genocidal maniac, racist, white supremacist, rapist and a slave trader. (Do you think Finn Murphy has as much Native American ancestry as Elizabeth Warren?) The petition was presented to Mayor Peduto and the Pittsburgh Art Commission. The Art Commission and the Mayor anxious to display their "woke" bona fides voted to remove the monument. The Italian Sons and Daughters of America filed an emergency injunction which was then granted by Judge John T. Mcvay. The judge ordered the statue covered in plastic. Two years later he announced his decision that the monument needed to be removed because the city has the right to say what monuments are displayed or not, on its property calling it "government speech."
So what is the truth about Columbus? Was he really guilty of what he is being accused of? Nothing could be further from the truth. Columbus was a brave and heroic explorer as well as a devout Catholic. He did not believe the world was flat, as that had been debunked even before his time. Because the Muslim empire had taken over and blocked lucrative Italian trade routes to the east, his plan was to find a new trade route by going west. After eight years of trying to fund his expedition King Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain consented to fund Columbus, as an opportunity to spread the faith through exploration. After 35 days at sea, keeping control of a mutinous crew that wanted to turn back, the Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria landed in what we know today as the Bahama's. Columbus was received warmly by the natives and they traded and shared livestock, farming methods and foods. Columbus returned to Spain and was hailed as a hero even though he didn't find the trade route he set out for. Columbus was named governor of the new territory and he returned two more times to the New World. On his second voyage back he was accompanied by Hidalgos who were eager to profit from the new world in any way they could. They saw Columbus as an impediment to their desires of conquest and profits, and they eventually overthrew Columbus's authority and sent him back to Spain in chains. Meanwhile the Hidalgos enslaved the peoples and forced them into mining gold and treated them as sub-human. Queen Isabella pardoned Columbus but Ferdinand stripped him of his titles and nobility. Meanwhile in order to combat the rumors from the new world of the crimes being committed and the slave trade that put Spain in a bad light, the King ordered Bartolome De Las Casas, a priest of the Inquisition, to blame Columbus for all the wrong doing. Three hundred years later Howard Zinn an avowed Marxist, resurrected De Las Casas's writings and included them in his text book used across America, The People's History of the United States. So you see whole generations of American children are learning that Columbus was an evil villain. No longer do we hear our children proudly recite, "Christopher Columbus discovered America on October 12th, 1492. He sailed the ocean blue, in the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria!" No, what rolls off our children's tongue today is, "Christopher Columbus: racist, genocidal maniac, white supremacist." We can't continue to let this happen. Good or bad our history, is our history. We can not allow the past to be re-written by Marxist, left wing, idealogues or we will lose America, one statue at a time.
