Historic Loss for Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot – Her Columbus Statue Controversy

Author

Andre' DiMino,
IAOVC President

Mayor Lori Lightfoot is the first Chicago mayor in 40 years to lose re-election.  Political pundits say that there are lots of contributing factors to this historic loss.  Some say a very strong factor was her removal of the Columbus statues and some vile comments she made in response to those protesting her attack on Italian American identity.  Her actions riled up Italian American voters in Chicago - and across the USA.  The IAOVC joined with Italian Americans in Chicago to protest Mayor Lightfoot’s attack on Columbus.
 
Lightfoot lost the election almost to the day after a group of attorneys filed suit against her for her vulgar comments made against protesters of the Columbus statue removal.  She has been at the center of a controversial debate surrounding the removal of the Columbus statue in Chicago for the past two years.
 
Italian Americans in Chicago came out in force to protest the removal of the Columbus statues which they see as an insult to their heritage.  In fact, a lawsuit was filed against Mayor Lightfoot by a group of Italian Americans who protested the removal of the Columbus statue. They claimed that the mayor had offended them by removing the statue without consulting the community and by implying that Columbus was a symbol of racism and oppression, based on the fabricated false facts perpetrated by Howard Zinn, the self-declared Marxist and anarchist who hated America and wanted to destroy it by attacking the underpinnings of Western Culture in his 1980 history book.  For over 4 decades, The Zinn Education project continues to indoctrinate and brainwash students with his ant-American falsehoods and attacks on Columbus and other historic figures.
 
It is an insult not just to Italian Americans but also to American history to remove the Columbus statue based on false accusations against Columbus. Columbus is crucial figure in American history for his unprecedented achievement that united the continents and brought Western culture to this part of the world.  He should be celebrated for his contributions to the country's founding.
 
Perhaps Lightfoot’s historic loss should be a warning to elected officials to not insult Italian American heritage and culture and stop perpetrating the falsehoods about Columbus.