Rick Chavolla, the board chairman of the American Indian Community House in Manhattan, who had called for the Columbus statue’s removal, said that it was wrong to cast the dispute as one pitting Native Americans against Italian-Americans. “It’s between what’s morally right and what’s morally wrong,” he said. “Columbus is just morally wrong. He sold underage girls into sexual slavery. He forced people into labor until they died.”

He called the mayor’s proposal [not to remove the statue] unimaginative. “He’s saying they’re going to put up a plaque. Really? There’s plaques all over the city and they don’t draw any attention.”

— New York Times

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