Today our Nation Honors the Legendary Christopher Columbus

No one can rewrite history. Renaming statues, parks, museums, schools or even mountain ranges does not change history, regardless of whether they are named after Confederate military leaders, racially-biased political figures, Native American tribes or “Swiss Colonizers,” as Democrats call Gold Rush pioneer John Sutter and the subsequent California Gold Rush of 1848.

Explorer Christopher Columbus didn’t fare well either in California’s Capitol.

In 2020 deep inside of State Capitol Rotunda inside of the California State Capitol, Democrat Senate and Assembly leaders removed the statue of Christopher Columbus and Queen Isabella. “‘Columbus’ Last Appeal to Queen Isabella” was gifted to California by gold rush banker Darius Ogden Mills in 1883.

Then Senator Toni Atkins (D-San Diego), Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon (D-Lakewood), and Assemblyman Ken Cooley (D-Rancho Cordova) named Columbus’ genocidal past as the reason for removal of the Columbus and Queen Isabella statue on Tuesday in a joint statement.

“Christopher Columbus is a deeply polarizing historical figure given the deadly impact his arrival in this hemisphere had on indigenous populations,” said the Lawmakers. “The continued presence of this statue in California’s Capitol, where it has been since 1883, is completely out of place today. It will be removed.”

If Columbus had not discovered America, none of us would be here today.

Many historians compare the importance of Columbus’ discovery of America to astronauts returning to the moon.

But social justice warriors claim Columbus brutalized and enslaved Native Americans.

Context is the true telling of history. Students need to understand what the world was like during Columbus’s travels in order to hear the history and process it properly.

The arrival of Columbus in 1492 marked the beginning of recorded history in America and opened relations between the Americas and the rest of the world. And it began the massive immigration of Europeans to America.

The statue, “‘Columbus’ Last Appeal to Queen Isabella,” was gifted to California by gold rush banker Darius Ogden Mills in 1883. It sat almost entirely uninterrupted in the Capitol rotunda since then.

From an article in the San Bernardino Sun (10 December 1981):

“The statue, which weighs several tons and has been appraised at $500,000, was donated to the state by Sacramento banker Darius Ogden Mills – no relation to Sen. Mills – on the condition it be displayed in the Capitol. One of D.O. Mills’ nephews has warned the restoration committee that he’ll try to reclaim the statue if the state won’t put it back in the rotunda. “It could go in my living room, I guess,” said James Mills, a retired Orange County merchant, who is no relation to the senator.

Then-Senator Mike Morrell took this video and sent it to the Globe of the start of the removal of the beautiful Christopher Columbus statue in the State Capitol Rotunda.

We don’t need Democrats like Gavin Newsom (who is still claiming that it’s Indigenous Peoples’ Day) to celebrate Columbus’s historic voyage, landing in America.

This Indigenous Peoples' Day, California celebrates the contributions, cultural vibrance and adaptability of all Indigenous people who now call California home. pic.twitter.com/HvOUPkvH7T

— Governor Gavin Newsom (@CAgovernor) October 13, 2025

Columbus Day is one of America’s oldest patriotic holidays, first celebrated in the 18th century. It was first celebrated on October 12, 1792, when the New York Society of Tammany honored Columbus on the 300th anniversary of his first voyage. America has more monuments to Columbus than any other nation in the world, the Order of Sons and Daughters of Italy in America reported.

Overriding the Biden Administration’s renaming “Columbus Day” as “Indigenous Person’s Day,” President Donald Trump proclaimed October 13, 2025, “Columbus Day,” and specifying the second Monday in October of each year as “Columbus Day.”

NOW, THEREFORE, I, DONALD J. TRUMP, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim October 13, 2025, as Columbus Day.

Today our Nation honors the legendary Christopher Columbus — the original American hero, a giant of Western civilization, and one of the most gallant and visionary men to ever walk the face of the earth.  This Columbus Day, we honor his life with reverence and gratitude, and we pledge to reclaim his extraordinary legacy of faith, courage, perseverance, and virtue from the left-wing arsonists who have sought to destroy his name and dishonor his memory.

Tearing a statue down does not rewrite history, but instead identifies the left’s attempt to delegitimize Western civilization. It’s not working.

OSIA correctly concludes: “Columbus Day represents not only the accomplishments and contributions of Italian Americans, but also the indelible spirit of risk, sacrifice and self-reliance of a great Italian icon that defines the United States of America.”

`E giusto!