Italian American Organizations Summit

Preserve Columbus - The Hero

Conference of Presidents of Major Italian American Organizations Summit

Today's Zoom summit meeting of the CoPoMIAO was filled to capacity, hosting approximately 350 organizations from across the United States.

If you never received the link, or registration was declined for the summit, I provide this recap of the proceedings. Also, you can go to ItalianAmericaOnline.com (that's America without the "n") and register your organization. There will be follow up summits; one is tentatively planned for a month from now.

The summit addressed three main agenda items:

(1) how to unify all the Italian-American organizations across the country

(2) how to reconnect the younger generations with their Italian-American identity

(3) how to address the eradication of Columbus holidays and monuments

The Conference of Presidents of MIAO's ItalianAmericaOnline.com website's registration link helps with the first agenda item. President Basil Russo and many others spoke to the importance of presenting a unified force in responding to the emerging Italophobic policies across the country.

With respect to the second and third agenda items, when registering, at the site, you will be asked whether you are interested in joining one of six "Working Groups":

(1) Reconnect Our Youth

(2) Save Columbus

(3) Italian Language

(4) Charitable Activities

(5) Italian Museum and Culture Institution

(6) Public Policy

The CoPoMIAO encourages anyone with contacts and influence in youth organizations to join the Reconnect Our Youth working group.

Attorney George Bochetto, Esquire, of Bochetto & Lentz, P.C., in Philadelphia, spoke about Philadelphia's fight against its mayor, James Kenney, who recently replaced the municipal holiday of Christopher Columbus Day with the inaptly named "Indigenous People's Day" and the mayor's ongoing attempts to demolish Philadelphia's Christopher Columbus statue, the oldest public Columbus statue in the nation. Mr. Bochetto and his team are pursuing civil rights litigation against James Kenney and the City of Philadelphia, as well as helping Pittsburgh in its litigation to preserve its Columbus monuments.

The CoPoMIAO offers the Save Columbus working group to combat the anti-Western movement of lies directed at American icons such as Christopher Columbus by helping us "spread the word" to dispel the myth of Columbus as a racist/rapist/maimer/murderer/slaver/swindler/genocidal maniac and disseminate the truth of Christopher Columbus as the Americas' first civil rights activist and the greatest hero of the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries.

John Viola, who works with Stephanie Longo on the Italian American Podcast (https://italianamericanpodcast.com/ ), which airs every Tuesday, also offered that as a venue to aid in communicating our efforts. Robert Ferrito, of the Social Justice Committee of the Sons and Daughters of Italy and other speakers also offered their support.

The CoPoMIAO emphasized that it is not seeking money or to regulate other organizations, but only to unify the disparate Italian American organizations across the country into a single voice, una forza unificata, to strengthen our influence and empower us to react to policies such as the nationwide damnatio memoriae of Christopher Columbus and Italian-Americans.

Yours,

Robert Petrone

From President Basil M. Russo
Conference of Presidents of Major Italian American Organizations

Saturday's National Italian American Summit Meeting represented the largest gathering of Italian American organizations in the history of our country. An unbelievable 354 organizations joined together in a display of national unity.

Our program focused on discussions relating to how we, a fragmented Italian America, how we reconnect with our younger generations, and how we move forward in our fight to save Columbus.<.p>

Committees have been formed to formulate a national policy, and a new website has been created to identify every Italian American in our country. Let's all go to italianamericaonline.com to register ourselves, and our organizations. We will meet again in a few months to continue our precedent setting journey.

I thank each of you for the important role you are assuming in helping to unite the Italian American community throughout our country. Our love of our heritage, and our desire to honor the memories of our parents and grandparents, creates within us the strong bond that will insure our success.

PEASE CLICK HERE TO BEGIN OUR POST MEETING SURVEY!

President Basil M. Russo
Conference of Presidents of Major Italian American Organizations
COPOMIAO.org

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Conference of Presidents of Major Italian American Organizations Summit

From President Basil M. Russo Conference of Presidents of Major Italian American Organizations

From President Basil M. Russo
Conference of Presidents of Major Italian American Organizations