Sides remain worlds apart on views on Columbus Day

From today's web edition of the Denver Post.

Sides remain worlds apart on views of Columbus Day

By Amy Herdy
Denver Post Staff Writer

Post / Helen H. Richardson
George Vendegnia, 55, a founder of the Sons of Italy-New Generation, is a primary organizer of Saturday’s Columbus Day parade. “No one can tell us, as Americans, what we can celebrate and what we can’t,” he says.

Serenity Redshirt could not sit still. As the Columbus Day parade in 2002 wound down a Denver street, the 11-year-old, who is Lakota, joined six of her friends as they stepped into its path.

Wearing jeans and a white poodle shirt, she sat cross-legged and shouted with the other girls.

"This is our land; we were here first," she said. "Go back to Italy. Columbus was a murderer, and you're celebrating racism." full article