October 9, 2014
My name is Lisa Marchese. I am a second generation Italian-American and Seattle native, having grown up in the Italian community here in Rainer Valley.

Golda Meir once said that you can't shake hands with a clenched fist.
The Seattle Italian community was not only offered a clenched fist by the City Council – we were told that we should go shake hands with ourselves because our heritage doesn't matter.

1. THE PROCESS
The entire process which led to the adoption of Resolution 31-538 was unfair and gratuitously insensitive to the Italian-Americans of this Community.

A. Human Rights Commission
This Resolution first originated before the Seattle Human Rights Commission. Under the Seattle Municipal Code, the duties of the Human Rights Commission include:
"[t]o consult with and make recommendations [to City Officials] with regard to the development of programs for the promotion of equality, justice and understanding among ALL citizens of [Seattle].

THERE ARE APPROXIMATELY 25,000 ITALIAN AMERICANS WHO LIVE IN THE CITY OF SEATTLE. THE WORD "ALL" INCLUDES ITALIAN-AMERICANS

• The Human Rights Commission also has the legal duty to "[e]ncourage understanding between ALL protected classes and the larger Seattle community. . ."
'ETHNICITY' IS A PROTECTED CLASS UNDER THE LAWS OF THIS CITY AND THIS STATE. THAT MEANS THE HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION HAS THE LEGAL DUTY TO PROMOTE UNDERSTANDING BETWEEN NATIVE AMERICANS AND ITALIAN- AMERICANS – NOT PIT US AGAINST ONE ANOTHER.

B. Code of Ethics
There is also a Code of Ethics that applies to all elected and appointed officials and employees of the City of Seattle.

This Code requires that our City officials be "INDEPENDENT, IMPARTIAL AND RESPONSIBLE TO THE PEOPLE. . ." It doesn't say 'certain people' – it means everyone – including Italian-Americans.

This Code also states that "public office should not be used for personal gain."

DESPITE THESE CLEAR STATUTORY OBJECTIVES:
• The Human Rights Commission never considered the hurtful or offensive impact this Resolution would have on the Italian-American community of Seattle.
• The Human Rights Commission never sought input from any member of the Seattle Italian-American community when it considered this Resolution.
• When leaders in the Italian American community learned of this Resolution we sought a meeting with the Co-chairs of the Human Rights Community, Ms. Branch and Ms. Bishop and we submitted an alternative proposal for consideration.
• Naively, I guess, we assumed that Italian-Americans were simply an unintended target. We put our faith in our City officials. We put our faith in this process. WE WERE WRONG.

o No meeting was allowed

o Our proposal was rejected in less than 24 hours – having never been taken up or discussed by the Human Rights Commission

o We even wrote to Mayor Murray – a letter also sent to members of the City Council and the Human Rights Commission. A letter, which to date has never been answered or even acknowledged.

C. Process Matters
EQUAL TREATMENT and DUE PROCESS are fundamental tenets under our law that Italian-Americans have not always been afforded. We do not take them for granted.
If NICOLA SACCO and BARTOLOMEO VANZETTI could speak to you today, they would tell you in graphic detail what it was like to have been subjected to a sham trial, convicted of murder and then executed -- even though they were innocent. Their only crime was that they were Italian immigrants.

The historical debate over Christopher Columbus pertains to events that occurred over 500 years ago. By comparison, only 87 years separate Italian Americans from this painful event of our history. So when Italian Americans celebrate our culture and heritage within the Symbol of Columbus Day, we also seek to heal from the injustice of Sacco and Vanzetti along with the innumerable other acts of discrimination inflicted upon Italian immigrants – including those that occurred in this very City. Many of the Italian immigrants who came to Seattle, including my family, were from the province of Foggia. Nicola Sacco was from Foggia. He could have been my grandfather.

I have read with interest the recent newspaper articles about Ms. Branch's deep commitment to the establishment of "Indigenous People's Day". I read about her upbringing in the Navajo Nation. I know she is a respected lawyer who dedicates her practice to advocacy on behalf of Native Nations. The passion Ms. Branch feels for this cause is one I understand and one I respect deeply. That is because I and all other Italian Americans feel that same passion for our culture, our history, our heritage and our language

But when Ms. Branch advocated for this Resolution, declined to meet with leaders of the Italian-American community before Monday's vote, and refused to consider our proposed alternative – was she advancing a personal interest as well as an interest shared by the clients that she serves?

As Co-Chair of the SHC, she had a duty to listen and consider the deeply held beliefs of the Italian-Americans of Seattle. Yet, there is no Italian-American in this community that has felt listened to, respected or that this process was fair.

In an article shortly before Monday's vote, Ms. Branch described how she had challenged opponents of the Resolution with a question – "I asked opponents what celebrating this day as Indigenous Peoples' Day would do to infringe on the rights of people who want to celebrate Columbus on that day." The Ms. Branch boasted glibly to the reporter that "the question was not well received."

Ms. Branch, it wasn't the question that was the problem. It was the insensitivity behind it. The question you really put to the Italian-Americans of this community was, 'what's preventing you from celebrating on your own? What's preventing you from remembering the painful legacy of Sacco and Vanzetti? We don't care what you celebrate and what you remember.'

Ms. Branch, where is the respect for our culture in that? Where is the healing? Wouldn't it be better if we all remembered and acknowledged our histories together?

This process has also recklessly and unnecessarily pitted two ethnic groups against one another for no justifiable reason. As I waited for Monday's hearing to begin, I saw a number of Native Americans who were there to support the Resolution. I observed the passion they felt for their history and their culture. I respect it deeply because I feel it too -- and in my mind that makes us brothers and sisters. Yet here were two ethnic groups who share a common history of fighting for respect and acceptance –forced to be adversaries, contrasting the injustices they have suffered, by an ill-conceived process.
And process matters. It does not take much for the seeds of hatred to take root – all it really takes is a sham process. As I waited for Monday's hearing to start amongst a group of Native Americans who were largely peaceful and accepting – at one point I heard someone shout that we were "Mussolini lovers!" Later, someone shouted, "you're a heritage of murderers!" The proponents of this Resolution talk about events of 500 years ago? This happened three days ago.

2. THE RESOLUTION
Italian Americans support the concept of Indigenous Peoples Day. This resolution, however, amounts to a callous disregard for the heritage and culture of Italian-Americans. It targets a Federal Holiday that has long been a cherished symbol to Italian-Americans. It is day that we celebrate our heritage and our culture. It is a day that we remember the legacy of our ancestors and it is a day that we heal from the discrimination of the past.

There is no acknowledgement in the Resolution of Italian-Americans, our history, our culture, our legacy. In reading the Resolution, you would have no idea that there was a vibrant community of Italian immigrants who settled in Seattle.

Instead, the Resolution recognizes that Seattle was "built upon indigenous peoples' homelands" – but it fails to acknowledge that the roads and bridges of this great City were built upon the backs of Italian immigrants who did the work that no one else would do.

After Monday's vote, the sponsor of this Resolution, Councilmember Sawant, herself an immigrant, had the audacity to tell us that "WE SHOULD CELEBRATE ITALIAN-AMERICAN SOCIAL JUSTICE ACTIVISTS RATHER THAN COLUMBUS."

I say this to Councilmember Sawant, on behalf of the 25,000 Italian-Americans who live in Seattle; on behalf of the 200,000 Italian-Americans who live in this State and on behalf of the 26 million Italian-Americans who live in this country. . .

How dare you lecture us on a history and on a culture that we have lived!!!!! It may be your way to disparage one ethnic group so that you can promote another. But it is not our way. And you have no right, no right to tell Italian-Americans how to celebrate their heritage.

3. THE SOLUTION
There was a fair and reasonable solution to all of this that was presented to the 1) Human Rights Commission, 2) the City Council and 3) the Mayor that could have rectified this entire fiasco. Yet political expediency and political correctness, once again, trumped reason and fundamental fairness.

We recognize and respect that the goals of Native Americans are to:
1. Eliminate the recognition of Columbus Day and
' 2. Have a day of Recognition in Seattle for Indigenous People

Our proposal, which is similar to what is now done in San Francisco, is as follows:
1. The day now recognized by our state and federal Government, the second Monday in October, will be named Italian Heritage Day by the Municipality of Seattle.

2. The Municipality of Seattle will identify a day, other than the second Monday in October, as Indigenous People's Day; and

3. Perhaps most important, leaders of both communities come together to jointly recognize and celebrate their cultures and heritage with this mutually beneficial message and result.

We stand ready to engage in this important dialogue with our City officials and our Native American brothers and sisters.

Thank you.