A state legislator – angered by the de Blasio administration’s cancellation of Columbus Day as a school holiday – to reinstate the explorer for New York City’s school calendar by re-labeling “Italian Heritage Day / Indigenous Peoples Day” Is presenting a bill for “
“It is being drafted. It is expected to be ready for submission next week, ”said state Sen. Andrew Andrewza (R-Staten Island).
He said the proposed legislation was “likely to read along the lines of: ‘Columbus Day should be one of the official school holidays and days to be included with remembrance.”
Italian-American elected officials are angry that the de Blasio administration blinded him by removing Columbus Day from the school calendar. There was no input or consultation with the Italian American community.
De Blasio himself said that on Wednesday it was a rolled rollout.
Columbus Day is a federal, state and city holiday.
But the Department of Education pulled out a new school calendar on Tuesday 11 October citing Columbus Day as “Indigenous Peoples Day”.
Italian-American politicians and activists created an uproar and the DOE, apparently in damage control, updated the calendar, stating that it would close schools for “Italian Heritage Day / Indigenous People’s Day” on 11 October.
Chancellor of Schools Meesha Ross Porter made a personal call to Italian-American legislators to apologize for Sneu on Wednesday, seeking to contain the public relations debacle.
State Sen. Joe Adabo (D-Queens) said he received a call from Ross Porter on Wednesday morning and expressed his displeasure.
“I blame the mayor. I told the people and chancellor of the mayor that they have to bring Columbus Day back to the school calendar, ”said Adebabo, the previous chairman of the group of state Italian-American legislators.
“There was no transparency. He timidly tried to do this. We wanted to undo what was a bad government.
Addabbo said he wants to give the mayor time to recover a bit – but left the door open to support state legislation to try to change the name if City Hall doesn’t put Columbus Day back in the school’s calendar .
“This was an administrative error that they can correct administratively. If not, we will consider all options, ”he said.
Earlier Wednesday, De Blasio, who is of Italian descent through his mother, claimed that neither he nor Chancellor Ross Porter knew in advance about plans to change the holidays by DOE officials.
But the mayor insisted on a joint celebration of Italian and Native American heritage “was right and proper.”
“We talked about it and we both agreed that it was not the right way to handle things,” he said. “The original idea was not enough and we addressed it.”
Meanwhile, Andrew Cuomo detonates Blasio to moderately destroy the Italian-Americans.
“Why do you feel the need to reduce the Italian American contribution to recognize the contribution of indigenous people?” Cuomo later said during a press conference.
The governor called the decision to merge the two ceremonies “disastrous” and “unhealthy for the body politic”.
“You can have an indigenous People’s Day on Columbus Day without intruding, and that’s the soul of New York,” he said.
“Columbus Day is a state holiday and Columbus Day will be a state holiday.”
This is not the first time Team de Blasio has offended Italian-Americans.
The Italian explorer’s legacy has been hot-contested in the Big Apple since de Blasio launched a “memorial commission” in 2018 to rethink statues of historical figures whose past involved connections to slavery or persecution. Hizoner specifically cited the Midtown statue of Columbus when announcing the commission, but the memorial remains.
The initiative eventually turned into an effort by first lady Chirleen McRae to install statues overseeing women – when Italian Francis Americans were excluded when Mother Francis Cabrini was excluded, despite receiving the most support in a public straw poll Was more indignant.
After failing to recognize the city, Qumini appropriated state money to install a statue in Caberni’s honor at Battery Park.
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