Anthony DiLeo, Westford resident 

Last May, the Westford Select Board voted to replace Columbus Day from all Town and school events and designate it as Indigenous Peoples Day.

There have been several attempts over the last 3 years to solicit the town’s opinion on making this change culminating in the vote at Town Meeting last May. In all cases, the votes were all very close one way or the other, less than 0.5%. This would suggest that the town is split nearly in half on this change. The vote by the Select Board upon the recommendation of the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Sub-committee created a division within our community with many angry citizens.

With the goal of inclusivity and respecting diversity in our community we have a citizen’s petition ballot question added to the May Town Meeting that would respectfully recognize BOTH Columbus Day and Indigenous Peoples Day on the second Monday on October.   By doing so, history will not be re-written and citizens can celebrate whichever they desire and stay consistent with the National Holiday. 

The argument against Columbus Day is that Columbus is associated with the genocide of indigenous peoples in the continent of the Americas, North and South. What has been lost over time is that Columbus Day was birthed to remember the lynching of 11 Italian Americans in 1891, the largest single lynching in American history. That lynching followed many illegal incarcerations and discriminations throughout the US. Columbus was selected for this remembrance because he was the one accomplished public figure known widely that had connections to both Europe and North America. While these genocides did occur, associating them with Columbus who personally worked to prevent exactly that is not warranted.

It has been proposed to retain the second Monday in October as Indigenous People’s Day but to designate a day in October as ‘Italian Heritage Day’.   While this would be a nice thing to do, it does not solve the issue that has divided the town but may only compound it. The Second Monday in October is a National Holiday, Columbus Day.   To bridge the divide, we propose the celebration of both Columbus and Indigenous People on that Day. 

Please join us on May 23rd at Town Meeting to vote in favor of the citizens petition to declare the second Monday of October as BOTH Columbus Day and Indigenous Peoples Day.   This ballot question, Article 22, is the final one to be voted on at Town Meeting, so please stay at the meeting till the end.

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