Columbus event set despite councilman's objection
By Nancy Shields COASTAL MONMOUTH BUREAU September 24, 2008
ASBURY PARK The city once again will hold its annual re-enactment
of Christopher Columbus' landing at 1 p.m. Oct. 12 at the Fifth
Avenue beach. Once again, City Councilman James Keady says that while
he supports a private group's right to celebrate Columbus Day how it
wishes, he cannot support the Asbury Park government presenting a re-
enactment that he says gives a sanitized version of history.
When the councilman spoke out about Columbus Day two years ago, it
stirred up some strong words between Columbus proponents and those
who have come to believe as Keady does.
At last Wednesday's City Council meeting, Keady said he could not
support an explorer who enslaved and murdered indigenous peoples,
overseeing genocide in Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
"I will offer an alternative," Keady said, offering the Progressive
Italians to Transform the Columbus Holiday (PITCH) as the alternative.
According to the PITCH group's Web site, a holiday should be
established to honor contributions of people of Italian descent to
America and the world at large. The group is seeking a national
holiday that also will recognize the history of the persecution that
people of Italian descent faced in America.
"However, we absolutely condemn the celebration of Columbus as an
Italian cultural icon," the group says on its Web site. "Columbus'
exploitation, enslavement and mass murder in the Caribbean far
outweigh any of his nautical achievements."
Councilman John Loffredo, who plays the role of Columbus landing on
the Fifth Avenue beach, responded to Keady at the meeting.
"That being said, what Columbus did in getting into a small boat and
going across the Atlantic Ocean was more adventurous than going to
the moon," Loffredo said. "In the 1400s, he was a product of his
times."
Loffredo said many Italian contributions are celebrated on Columbus
Day.
Colorado became the first state in 1905 to observe a Columbus Day.
President Franklin Roosevelt proclaimed Oct. 12 as Columbus Day in
1937, and Congress made it a federal public holiday on the second
Monday in October in 1971.
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