Last Updated Oct 12th, 2020 at 10:20 am
In keeping with an American tradition that dates back to 1934, President Trump issued an official proclamation that recognized Columbus Day. The president's statement honored both Christopher Columbus and Americans boasting Italian heritage and culture.
"On this Columbus Day, we embrace the same optimism that led Christopher Columbus to discover the New World," the president said. "We inherit that optimism, along with the legacy of American heroes who blazed the trails, settled a continent, tamed the wilderness, and built the single-greatest nation the world has ever seen."
Trump also directed ire on modern critics of Columbus who want his name removed from monuments, and his legacy no longer designated by a federal holiday.
"In recent years, radical activists have sought to undermine Christopher Columbus's legacy," the proclamation reads. "These extremists seek to replace discussion of his vast contributions with talk of failings, his discoveries with atrocities, and his achievements with transgressions. Rather than learn from our history, this radical ideology and its adherents seek to revise it, deprive it of any splendor, and mark it as inherently sinister."
Trump also commended teaching future generations the "storied heritage" of the United States and called for the protection of statues and memorials to "intrepid heroes like Columbus."
In his proclamation, the president tied these efforts to his recent executive order that banned critical race theory from being espoused in the federal workplace.
"Together, we must safeguard our history and stop this new wave of iconoclasm by standing against those who spread hate and division," Trump said.
https://disrn.com/news/trump-issues-columbus-day-proclamation-blasts-radical-activists-trying-to-remove-it/