Thank you!!!!
The New Hampshire Governor and State Legislature did the right thing - they passed a LAW that requires New Hampshire cities and towns to recognize the second Monday in October as COLUMBUS DAY - BRAVO!!!

Hall of Fame???
It is only fitting that our organization, IAOVC, elected Governor Sununu and the State Legislature to the IAOVC Hall of Fame for passage of HB 1014, which mandates, by state law, that cities and towns are now required to recognize Columbus Day on the second Monday in October.  A number of cities and towns that previously replaced the holiday’s name with Indigenous Peoples Day are now required to use the holiday’s official title of Columbus Day.

We are extremely pleased and happy that Governor Sununu and the State Legislature took this critically important action to correctly recognize the single most iconic day for Italian Americans, and actually all Americans.  We now urge the rest of the states to follow New Hampshire's leadership and do the right thing by officially recognizing the Columbus Day Federal Holiday.  Yes, the Governor and State Legislature of New Hampshire deserve to be recognized on the IAOVC Hall of Fame.

Indigenous Peoples Day
There are a number of locales across the country that have replaced Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples Day.  The primary reason is due to fabricated facts and falsehoods perpetrated by Howard Zinn.  He was a self-declared Marxist and anarchist who hated our great country.  He published a textbook in 1980 that totally distorted the facts about Columbus and our founding fathers in his goal to denigrate Western culture.  Well, his efforts did bear fruit, with generations who have been brainwashed with these false facts that have been totally debunked by scholars and authors using primary sources and accurate historical records.

Alliance with Native Americans
To help in countering the misguided efforts to replace Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples Day, a groundbreaking alliance was initiated.  IAOVC joined with other Italian American groups in a historic alliance with the Native American Guardian’s Association (“NAGA”) to oppose the cancel culture affecting all groups.  IAOVC hosts a monthly virtual meeting -  “The Solidarity Sessions – Bridging Cultures Against Cancel Culture” with leaders of NAGA, Italian Americans and other groups to foster unity and not division.

Thanks New Hampshire!
Columbus Day, a US Federal holiday, is revered by generations of Italian Americans as an atonement and apology to Italian Americans who were subjected to abject discrimination, denigration and lynchings – the largest single-day lynching in America of 11 innocent Italian Americans occurred in New Orleans in 1891.  In 1892, then President Benjamin Harrison declared that the 400th anniversary of Columbus’ arrival in the new world be celebrated as Columbus Day to counter the negative treatment of Italian Americans so prevalent in those times.  Later it was declared a Federal Holiday, as it remains today.  And, now, finally, one State has done the right thing and officially recognized, by state law, that Columbus Day is preserved in New Hampshire.  GRAZIE!!!

We must go on!
This is a great milestone, but we can't stop here!  IAOVC is dedicated to defending Italian American heritage, culture and civil rights.  You can help by joining as a member, organization member or by donating to support our efforts.  Unfortunately, there is no political correctness when it comes to Italian Americans - stereotyping is ubiquitous and our iconic symbol Christopher Columbus is still attacked.  Help IAOVC in its mission to defend our heritage!

Andre' DiMino, President IAOVC