Are we capable of knowing the full story of Christopher Columbus and its implications, and yet continue to revere him? Are we to trust our ability and that of our fellow citizens and students to study history and draw fair conclusions? Or must it be cleansed for consumption to erase the uglier aspects? As cities and school districts such as New Paltz in New York and others move to undo Columbus Day from the calendar, to rename it or to use it to express lessons of injustice and oppression, in the Guest Editorial that follows Steve Acunto, a business and cultural leader, calls for a reckoning from the vantage point not just of Italian Americans who are offended by the symbolic slap in the face this “delete” causes, but from the wider vantage point of all free people who read and study history and should be trusted to use their judgement freely – with the result that Columbus, on balance, would rightly deserve his heroic place in history… and on the calendar and in curricula.
