What did Christopher Columbus ever do to the fine people living in San Jose, California in 2018? The man died in the early 1500’s. He never went to California, and he certainly didn’t discover it. Still, Columbus’s journey remade the Americas and led to a manifest destiny that ultimately drove Americans to the Golden Coast.
Now, Christopher Columbus has to go. Whatever problems San Jose may have, the City Council thinks putting Columbus in storage is an immediate need to attack those problems.
The statue of Columbus has taken a prominent place at San Jose’s City Hall since the 1950’s. It was a gift from an Italian American group in 1958, but as news reports indicate, it has recently been at the center of “cultural wars.” The statue … an inanimate object, has been attacked twice, apparently by people intolerant of Italian culture?
“Columbus never landed in the Alviso Marina. So there is no policy basis for keeping a statue of somebody who was not from San Jose in City Hall,” Liccardo said during a contentious meeting.
Members of Italian-American organizations spoke up to defend Columbus’s contributions. “It’s kind of a setback in our culture. Columbus is renown throughout the world, not just in Italy,” said Tony Zerbo with the Italian American Heritage Foundation. “Italian Americans here, in San Francisco and throughout the Bay Area are very proud of that.”
Those committed to historically cleansing towns and countries of symbols that offend them won the day. The statute is to be moved into storage, as no business or group wanted to claim it … lest the cultural brownshirts attack them too.
Five-hundred plus years after he landed, a man some thought a great explorer, has been branded a ruthless colonizer and vanquished to storage.
Author: Richard Kelsey
Richard Kelsey is the Editor-in-Chief of Committed Conservative.
He is a trial Attorney and author of a #11 best-selling book on Amazon written on higher education, “Of Serfs and Lords: Why College Tuition is Creating a Debtor Class”
Rich is also the author of the new Murder-Mystery series, “The ABC’s of Murder,” book one is titled, “Adultery.”
Rich is a former Assistant Law School Dean and Law Professor. At Mason Law Kelsey conceived of, planned, and brought to fruition Mason’s Center for the Protection of Intellectual Property, known as CPIP, drawing on his expertise as a former CEO of a technology company specializing in combating cyber-fraud.
In 2014 he was elected by the graduating class as the faculty speaker at their graduation.
He is a regular commentator on legal and political issues in print, radio and on TV. Rich has appeared on hundreds of stations as a legal expert or political commentator. He provided the legal analysis for all stages of the Bob McDonnell trial and appeal for numerous outlets including NPR and WMAL.
Rich also writes on occasion for the American Spectator and CNSNews.com.
In his free time, Rich is part of the baseball mafia of Northern Virginia, serving on numerous boards and as a little league and travel baseball coach.
His Twitter handle is @richkelsey.
