By Senator Rev. Rubén Díaz
District 32 Bronx County, New York
You should know that the "honorable" New York City Council Speaker, Ms. Melissa Mark-Viverito, a Puerto Rican like me, has pointed her guns and marked for destruction the Statue of Christopher Columbus, (Cristobal Colon in Spanish), located on Columbus Circle in Manhattan.
Trying to show her "love & respect" for the native American Indians; Ms. Viverito has gone back four hundred (400) years and suddenly has remembered all the "evil" things that Columbus did to the Native Americans, and to compensate what was done four centuries ago she is asking for the statue of Columbus to be removed.
According to Ms. Viverito by doing that we will do justice and honoring the Native American Indians.
However, in another part of the state, now four hundred years after Christopher Columbus, New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo, is changing the name of the Tappan Zee Bridge in honor of his father and former Governor Mario Cuomo.
You should know that according to "Wikipedia", on March 1952 New York State started the Construction of a Bridge, crossing the Hudson River at one of its widest points; as an integral conduit within the New York Metropolitan area.
The bridge connects South Nyack in Rockland County with Tarrytown in Westchester County in the lower Hudson Valley.
It is important for you to know that it took only three years for the Bridge to be constructed and on December 15, 1955, it was officially opened to traffic.
On February 28, 1956, New York State Governor W. Averell Harriman officially named the Bridge "Tappan Zee Bridge", in honor of an American Indian tribe from the area called "Tappan and Zee, was the Dutch word for "Sea".
I believe that if Melissa Mark-Viverito and others are seriously concerned about the legacy of the American Indian they should be angrier at Governor Andrew Cuomo's intention to erase the name of the Tappan Indian Tribe that was officially given to the Bridge in honor of the Native American Indian Tribe sixty-one (61) years ago by Governor Harriman.
It is my opinion that if Ms. Viverito is hurt by what was done to the American Indian 400 years ago by Christopher Columbus she should be agonizing by what Governor Andrew Cuomo is doing to the legacy of the Tappan Indian Tribe at the present time.
But surprise, surprise I do not hear Ms. Viverito complaining or criticizing Governor Cuomo for his dishonoring a Native American Indian Tribe by removing and renaming the Tappan Zee Bridge.
I am Senator Reverend Rubén Díaz, and this is what you should know.
