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Sanitizing Columbus Day
© St. Petersburg Times, published October 5, 2000 A free-speech controversy erupted recently in Denver, Colo., over whether a parade honoring Christopher Columbus may proceed as organizers intended or whether all reference to Columbus must be stripped from the festivities. For years, great rancor has surrounded Columbus Day celebrations in the city of Denver. For understandable reasons, Native Americans in the area saw such festivities as deeply offensive. Columbus was more than the bold explorer we all learn about in grade school. Historians tell us he was a brutal taskmaster who slaughtered indigenous populations of Indians and forced others into slavery. The issue of honoring such a man has become contentious across the country, but in Denver the issue became so heated that in 1992, the Columbus Day parade was called off because violence was threatened against the marchers. But Columbus also is an important historical figure. There is a national holiday in his name, and he remains a source of pride to Italian-Americans. This year, a Denver group calling itself March for Italian Pride decided to resurrect the parade and secured a permit for that purpose. City officials and the Department of Justice's Community Relations Service got involved when it became clear that Native American and Hispanic groups would respond with protests of their own during the Oct. 7 parade. While these government agencies claim they were just facilitating negotiations between the antagonistic groups, parade organizers say government representatives told them to sanitize their parade of references to Columbus or lose their permit. What is certain is that a tri-party agreement signed by parade organizers (under pressure, they claim), American Indian groups and local and national government representatives bars any mention of Columbus, leaving the marchers with the choice of staging an Italian pride parade or no parade at all. (The government apparently tried to keep this agreement secret by expressly prohibiting its release to the public.) Columbus, of course, arrived in America about 300 years before the Bill of Rights, which may explain why it appears that city officials and the DOJ don't think free speech applies to his memory. It is not the duty of Justice Department agents to balm wounded feelings or keep Americans from exercising their First Amendment rights. If DOJ had any role to play in this controversy, it was to advise the city of Denver that it had no authority to interfere with a Columbus Day parade and to remind the city of its duty to provide protection for the marchers from counter-demonstrators. Parade organizers say they are going to ignore the agreement and hold a Columbus Day parade as scheduled. City officials in Denver admit that the agreement is unenforceable and contrary to the First Amendment. But what makes this situation so troubling is the heavy-handed interference by our federal government's politically-correct police.
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
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From the Times Opinion page |
