COLORADO- It’s a bill that’s made its way in front of lawmakers a few times is back again at the state capitol.
This time, a Colorado lawmaker wants to see ‘Colorado Day’ recognized as a state holiday instead of ‘Columbus Day’.
Earlier this legislative session, Rep. Adrienne Benavidez (D- Adams County) introduced a bill to observe Election Day as a state holiday instead of Columbus Day.
However, concern came up over voter turnout on college campuses, and because of the title of the bill was written specifically for election day- Benavidez introduced an entirely new bill.
Benavidez has introduced similar versions of the bill over the last couple of years.
‘There’s been chronicled a lot of terrible atrocities he’s [Columbus] committed, and so it’s not appropriate to honor and emulate a person like that,’ said Benavidez.
Not everyone is on board with the legislation.
The ‘Sons of Italy’ chapter in Pueblo, an organization that has members throughout the state says the holiday celebrates all immigrants.
‘The real issue is, if people have an adverse reaction to any holiday, they have the right to not celebrate it,’ said Gerald Carleo, with Sons of Italy.
Carleo says a solution he’d like to see is for the lawmakers to consider offering 20 different holidays- and state employees could select 10-12 of those holidays they’d like to observe.
