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columbus Day is a national holiday in this country and until recently hasn't been questioned much by many people, but native americans are becoming increasingly vocal in calling for an end to this holiday that they believe honors a man who destroyed their people. Here. To address this

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issue are bob Castillo, a non native american and organizer of the international tribunal and john like Neto, president of Columbus Day Incorporated, which endorses this annual celebration. This has become very controversial issue in this 5/100 anniversary of columbus's voyage. First of all, from each of you.

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Just very quickly, what is columbus they mean to you, john columbus Day is a celebration of honoring the immigrant from the italian american culture and Commemorating the discovery of America through a generous navigator who got beyond the courage and search for something based on an opinion.

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I can almost bet bob that you're going to disagree with what he had to say. It doesn't mean the same thing to you, especially when he said the discovery of America. Of course we were already here. But to us, columbus represents the first assault of a

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mass european invasion of the north and south american continent. This is obviously an issue that has become really a boiling one this this year. How do you think that the two of you can begin to work it out or can it be worked out? What what

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do you propose? How does the tribunal that you are holding this this weekend? We'll address this. The tribunal doesn't actually put columbus on trial. It puts a columbus legacy, it puts the genocide that columbus brought to the Americas, but it's the United States government who has

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really inherited those types of policies. So today sunday uh we will be having the verdict which is an international tribunal. It's a real tribunal that will catapult us to the World Court or to the international court. So we hope people will really look at what has

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happened to us genocide, the elimination of our people. Can you blame that all on columbus columbus had a policy that he took us back and change to spain. He promised to fill rooms full of gold. He promised to give him as many slaves as possible. He

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wrote with 50 soldiers, I could subjugate them and that's exactly what his intention was. He came back with Conquistadors and you translate that from Spanish is called Conquerors, not a discoverer, but we have to be kind of glad in a way that Columbus was looking for

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a shorter trade route to India is why were called Indians, Had he been looking for Turkey? You'd be asking me what kind of Turkey am I? So he didn't discover nothing. The man was lost. So you're ready to jump in there, john well, absolutely, because I

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think there's a big distinction between the italian american commemoration of Christopher columbus and what Mr Castillo is talking about. The italian american community really is Commemorating the immigration of italian americans in this country over the last 150 years, but it hasn't been quite honestly celebrated that

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way over the years. In fact, even in the beginning, you said we're celebrating the discovery of America by columbus and I think there are many people who would take exception with that term Discovery. Discovery might be an inappropriate word were really Commemorating and the reason that

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we are using the word commemoration is do that we have italian americans feel that a generous navigator with someone who was able to reach beyond his existing boundaries at that time and concurrently how you asked how we may solve the problem today is with people like

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bob and I am engaging in dialogue to move beyond the boundaries that exist today. Does the dialogue that you generate in in the tribunal? And I remember in reading the news release about the tribunal, it said we're going to talk about the hate crimes and about

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the violence and about the genocide. Does that actually contribute to antagonizing people against each other? I don't believe so. Uh some people are so close minded, it may antagonize them, but we hope to educate people have the atrocities have been committed. If I know I've made

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many mistakes in my life and I I hope that I can look at those mistakes and I hope that I apologize for offending somebody and I will and I've done something wrong to do you think that is this the aim of the tribunal? Do you think

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that America owes an apology perhaps to native americans and others who have been oppressed? Of course. I mean America is still engaged in genocide against native american peoples. Two months ago the Bureau of Indian Affairs passed a law stating that they can terminate a tribe at

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any time, even if there's a standing treaty with them, they are not making any attempt to correct anything that has been wrong with the indigenous peoples. It's a continued war against our people. Is this is important that people see this? Is there an attempt to change

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the celebrations this year because of this controversy to make them different? The celebrations in the Italian American community really do not focus on Mr Castillo is talking but it is all America that celebrates Columbus Day, not just it is a national holiday. So it's not just

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the Italian American community, it's the focus over the last year, since 1869. In San Francisco has been on the italian american community. Will it be different this year because of Absolutely uhh what has come out of this is the gift that we have to each other

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is the dialogue and communication. We have put together a native american scholarship to allow the native americans to study the uh, italian culture in europe and also a scholarship for the uh, italian americans to discover uh, and understand the native american culture. And those are the

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things that we're trying to do to, to, to work with the native, I think we should still celebrated columbus day nationally as a national holiday. We think we ought to commemorate with the italian people have always Commemorating. That's the traditions of family, whether it's columbus day

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or not, right. It's an immigration all theory that we're embarking on and I think we should not have a Columbia. We should we should eliminate columbus day. We should look at truth in history exactly what columbus policies were. But he set up tribute systems. If we

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didn't give him a certain amount of gold, he cut off our hands. If we fled, he cut off our legs. This is not a man to use for commemoration. The italian community can look at Galileo or something else out of time. I know you want to

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get in. We're we've run out of time. Thank you so much. But I like what you said that you both are going to talk and have a dialogue. So that's that's the beginning I think. Thank you both. Now, if you would like to attend the International

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Tribunal of Indigenous Peoples and Oppressed Nations, it will be taking place today from nine a.m. To four p.m. At Mission High in san Francisco. For more information please call 41555219192 That's 1992. Or if you'd like to contact columbus day Incorporated please call 415434 14 92. That's

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14 92. Now don't go away up next. The U. C. Berkeley student known as the naked guy takes it all off in protest against cultural and sexual repression. You already got enough to stretch is I got no problem myself. I'm gonna keep my clothes on me

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and her right here we're gonna keep our clothes on campus. Yeah.