LA replaces Columbus Day with IP Day!

Editors, Wisdom Quarterly; Larry Mantle (Airtalk, scpr.org, Aug. 30, 2017)

First Peoples hip hop at Grand Performances Los Angeles (grandperformances.org)

 

Neglected history (beacon.org)

Wisdom Quarterly stormed Los Angeles City Hall, the whole editorial crew, with hundreds of Angeleno supporters dressed in regalia, many cameras and livestreaming cell phones. And we did it!

After a passionate speech by Italian-American LA Councilmember Mike Bonin saying that even he agreed Christopher Columbus was no one to honor (even as we well honor so many contributions by our Italian-American community).

LA City Council's Mike Bonin

LA Councilmember Mitch O'Farrell, who proposed this change to begin with, then spoke with the facts and a stack of support letters from various other groups supporting the move to denounce Columbus and honor the indigenous population.

Then came the vote. Seeing through the whitewash, ploys, and diversions (like creating a "[Generic] Diversity Day"), another Italian-American Councilmember Joe Busciano tried to get August 9th to be declared Indigenous Peoples Day.

O'Farrell, Bonin, et al. did a good thing.

Well, isn't that a good compromise? No! It would preserve the idolatrous worship of Columbus and the lie that he did all this for whites and did not do all that to reds and others, such crimes against humanity as: mass rape, mass enslavement, mass murder, ethnic cleansing, European hegemony, mass spreading of deadly diseases, mass theft, and imperialism. Then success:

LA Native dancer (Warrick Page/Getty)

The final vote had only only one no to throw out Columbus and put Indigenous Peoples Day in it place. The vote was unanimous minus one with holdout Joe B. All the yeses won the day. Then came the real surprise. We ran out to the west-facing steps where all the overflow crowd of tribe members and supporters were dancing to Aztec drums, after moving from the south lawn where we once had our Occupy encampment, and we did the honors:

An American Genocide

Wisdom Quarterly announced the results to whoops and screams, yells and clapping -- "They just voted inside, and we won! Los Angeles now has an Indigenous Peoples Day!" Exhausted dancers started to scream in disbelief and ask other visitors pouring out of chambers. Was no one else going to announce it to them?

The same thing happened during the recent eclipse when no one else called out to the sea of people at Caltech to tell them we were at maximum. So we had to do it. There were hugs, tears, and everyone was eating a catered spread of Mexican food, tea, and bottled water.

• LA City Council recommends replacing Columbus Day
• Should Los Angeles forget [imperialistic] Columbus Day?
• Los Angeles City Council considers Indigenous Peoples' Day

The controversy over replacing Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples Day

Larry Mantle (AirTalk, scpr.org, Aug. 30, 2017) edited by Wisdom Quarterly

 

Tongva leader Toypurina would be glad.

The Los Angeles City Council will vote today on whether to replace Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples Day.

 

As reported by City News Service, the move was proposed by Councilmember Mitch O’Farrell in November 2015. O’Farrell said that “recognizing the contributions, history, and sacrifices made by the original inhabitants of the Los Angeles area is long overdue.” More