CNY community is ready to reconcile Columbus statue controversy (Your Letters)

To the Editor:
On Indigenous People’s Day, Oct. 14, we are pleased that the city of Syracuse is acting to reinvigorate the community groups that had been working on the redesign and development of both St. Mary’s Circle at the monument, and the adjoining Heritage Park.
The 40-foot bronze statue of Columbus has loomed over the center of Syracuse, on the ancestral lands of the Onondaga Nation, for 90 years. As those years have passed, we have learned from well-documented sources the impact of settler-colonialism and the atrocities that have taken place on these very lands. Our greater understanding of the historical traumas this monument represents to all colonized people leads us to support the speedy removal of the statue. We hope it leads all fair-minded people to reflect upon their own place in history and how we share that publicly.
The Syracuse community is more than ready to reconcile this controversial issue. This was clearly expressed in 2020, by the 18,900 signatories to a petition for the removal of the monument. That same year, a series of community meetings were facilitated by InterFaith Works, including people both for and against removal of the statue and accompanying symbols demeaning to Indigenous peoples. The mayor listened carefully and decided to move forward based on the will of the community. That positive movement forward was halted by the Columbus Monument Corporation’s (CMC) lawsuits against the mayor and the city. That litigation has been frustrating, but in the spring of this year, New York state’s highest court, the Court of Appeals, rejected the third attempt by CMC to block the efforts to remove the statue.
Some may wonder why this issue is important. Simply put, political symbols, especially statues, matter. They are intentional representations of a community’s values. As stated by the Society of Architectural Historians, Heritage Conservation Committee, “Our inaction gives these monuments power. By leaving them in place, we allow the dead hand of the past to direct some Americans away from that which belongs to all of us.”
While we understand that CMC may choose to file further unjustified and expensive appeals, these only delay our community’s desire to move forward, as other communities have successfully done. In the past four years, dozens of Columbus statues have been removed in the United States, including the monument in Buffalo, New York, by the forward looking Italian American community in that city.
It is our hope that the division will end, and that the CMC will join the larger, diverse community, including many Italian Americans, to create inclusive narratives of truth and healing. It’s time to acknowledge the harm of settler-colonization imposed on many in our community. We can do this while embracing and honoring the vibrant history of Italian Americans in our city. There are so many ways we can share our complicated and complex histories.
Carol Baum | Syracuse
Hilary-Anne Coppola | Fayetteville
Tarki L. Heath | Preble
Andy Mager | Syracuse
Cindy Squillace | Syracuse
Colleen Zawadzki | Tully
Representing We of Italian and Syracuse Heritage of CNY (WISH-CNY) and Neighbors of the Onondaga Nation (NOON)