For more than a century, Columbus Day was a chance for Italian Americans to celebrate their heritage. In 2021, responding to a wave of protests about the murder of George Floyd and criticism that the Italian explorer had caused immeasurable harm to the Western Hemisphere as a murderous colonizer, Mayor Jim Kenney signed an executive order that changed the state holiday to Indigenous Peoples Day.

Last month, a Pennsylvania court ruled that Kenney, as a city mayor, did not have the authority to delete or change a state holiday.

So Oct. 13 of this year will be celebrated, officially, again, as Columbus Day.

All of the back and forth raises the question: Can we celebrate indigenous people AND Italian Americans without disparaging or cancelling the other?

A decision about authority

The dec

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