WASHINGTON — Autumn in New York — that sounds like the title
of a song! In fact, it sounds like the first line of a song, and so
it is. Autumn is a lovely time of year in many places, but for me
my favorite place at this time of year is New York City. As the
song goes, it seems “so inviting.” And one of the great events
marking autumn in New York is the Columbus Day Parade. It reminds
us of what a great Melting Pot it has been, and, one hopes, it
always will be.
Christopher Columbus opened the New World to European migration
in 1492. He prefigured the spirit of America with his daring, his
sense of duty, and his piety. Samuel Eliot Morison, in the second
volume of his two-volume history, The European Discovery of
America, portrayed Columbus as a truly heroic figure, an
exemplary captain of the ocean waves, to introduce us all to the
admirable adventure that America has proved to be. Sixty-eight
years ago the Italian-Americans in New York City’s Columbus
Citizens Foundation gave Columbus a fitting memorial in the
Columbus Day Parade, and this year on October 8 once again all
Americans can come out to honor him and share in the glory that is
the American Melting Pot.
There will be 35,000 marchers representing over one hundred
groups. Almost a million people will be spectators as the parade
makes its way down Fifth Avenue. It will be a great day to be an
Italian-American, and by sundown there will be a little bit of
Italy in all of us: pasta, veal scalapini, frutti di mare,
and a glass of vino, possibly two. The Italians made their
contribution to the American Melting Pot, and we are all grateful
for their contributions: cooking, style, their innovations in such
areas as the arts, the building trades, and investment banking.
This year the Columbus Citizens Foundation is honoring the
philanthropist and investment innovator, Mario J. Gabelli, as the
68th annual parade’s Grand Marshal. He has been one of
the good guys in banking for years, and his philanthropy in
education, health, and community service only emphasize it.
Larry Auriana, himself a great investor and philanthropist and
an eminence at the Columbus Day festivities for many years, makes
the point that “Italians did not come to America to change it. They
came to America to participate in the opportunities presented by
this great country.” They came for what America offered, for
instance, ideas of freedom, of the rights of man, of the dignity of
the individual before the state. In the heyday of Italian
immigration many Italians were leaving the old world where they
were often treated practically as serfs, for America, where they
had rights and freedom that only a handful of Europeans even
envisioned. In those days—basically beginning late in the 18th
century—American exceptionalism was the marvel of enlightened
people everywhere. America was, as Ronald W. Reagan said, “a
shining city upon a hill.”
The Columbus Day Parade is a happy time to be in New York City
and it is not a bad time to reflect on the exceptionalism of
America. Today we have living in America ingrates that would sneer
at exceptionalism. They and popinjays living elsewhere attribute to
America all sorts of ills: racism, corporatism, inequality,
militarism. It all gets quite esoteric. Yet it has little to do
with real American life.
America is still Ronald Reagan’s shining city upon a hill. It
can be improved. It can be made worse. It is in constant need of
attention so as to be sure that it is still functioning according
to the vision of our Founding Fathers. That is where the Tea Party
comes in. Yet it is still the world’s best hope. And on this
Columbus Day I am going down to Fifth Avenue and I shall let out a
yell for an Italian guy from Genoa who got his boats from the
Spanish and was idolized in Paris. Christopher Columbus seems to
have anticipated the United Nations by four centuries!
