I am a proud first generation Italian-American. I am furious that our elected leaders allowed the statue of Christopher Columbus to be torn down and dumped in the Inner Harbor (”Baltimore’s Columbus statue, toppled by protesters, recovered from Inner Harbor days later,” July 6).

I named my company, Terra Nova Ventures, which has invested heavily in revitalizing Baltimore, after my father’s hometown in Southern Italy. My grandfather came to the United States in 1909, like millions of other Italians in search of opportunity for his family from wrenching poverty in Basilicata.