Letter: Why We Should Not Name Holidays After Real People

To the Editor:

In January of 2018, in a column that was not to be published, I wrote:

"The Pittsfield School Committee has renamed 'Columbus Day' 'Indigenous Peoples Day.' Frankly, I think we should do away with the practice of having holidays for any individual. There are three people that have federal holidays named after them: Martin Luther King Junior, George Washington, and Columbus. All three were great in their own respects, but all had faults too egregious to actually give a holiday to them." I had argued, "'Martin Luther King Day' should be 'Civil Rights Day.' 'Washington's Birthday' should be 'Democracy Day.' 'Columbus Day' should be 'Discovery Day.'"

It is a foresight few were willing to make, and frankly was too controversial for publication not so much for its criticism of Washington, but for the criticism of Dr. King. Perhaps this is too self-congratulatory, but it amazes me how my once seemingly controversial statements, over the course of time, come back as indubitable truth.

I had wrote, when writing of Columbus Day:

"The hard reality is that the other two men who have federal holidays had egregious faults. The evidence is particularly clear that Martin Luther King engaged in widespread plagiarism in his doctoral dissertation and in other papers. He not only was a minister who cheated on his wife, he seems to have done it over and over again with different women, and not just a single mistress. Moreover, I think the evidence suggest it is more likely than not — though by no means close to certain — that King has used monies of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference for prostitutes. It is beyond peradventure that a tape of him in sexual congress was sent to his wife. With respect to changing the name of the holiday, the Civil Rights Movement was not about any one man, but a movement of the people."

While pseudo-scholars were lambasting Columbus for admittedly evil deeds when serious academics were giving staid consideration to arguments that the evils that were perpetrated upon indigenous peoples were actually done by people other than Columbus, ("sources" were often rivals who had reason to malign), these same phonies on YouTube were largely ignoring facts about Martin Luther King and Washington.

Let me lay waste to Washington swiftly with my past words: "whatever debate there may be about the role of Columbus in Spanish misdeeds, it is a sad, indisputable fact that Washington owned about 317 human beings. It is claimed that by law Washington was not free to emancipate his slaves, but if such were the case, the honorable thing to have done was to not follow the law."

Rinaldo Del Gallo III
Pittsfield, Mass. 

The author is a local attorney whose columns have been printed in newspapers across the country.

Nonprofit Center of the Berkshires Honors Leaders, Volunteers

By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff
09:07AM / Sunday, May 24, 2026

Liana Toscanini presented the Founder's Choice Award to Smitty Pignatelli for his years of support as state representative. 

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The Nonprofit Center of the Berkshires held its ninth annual nonprofit awards last week honoring the contributions of those who have helped the community in their own way.

 

The gathering at the Country Club in Pittsfield on Tuesday included the introduction of new nonprofit Executive Director Samantha Anderson, who steps in for retiring founder and director Liana Toscanini. State Reps. Tricia Farley-Bouvier, John Barrett III and Leigh Davis attended the event.

 

Toscanini, who created NPC in 2016, was honored at the conclusion of the evening to mark her decade leading the organization. 

 

"Founders don't just lead organizations, they are the organization in the deepest sense," said NPC Board President Emily Schiavoni. "Their relationships, their instincts, their fingerprints are on everything, and when someone has poured a decade of herself into building something from the ground up, the act of stepping back is not a simple handoff, it's an act of extraordinary trust and courage that brings me to what Leanna actually built." 

 

NPC became something of a chamber of commerce for nonprofits under Toscanini's guidance, creating a hub of support for leadership and networking for the small and large nonprofits that fuel much of the activity within the Berkshires. 

 

She developed more than two dozen programs, including Get on Board, which helps connect community members with nonprofit boards, and a giving-back guide, volunteer fairs, and a resource directory.

 

Schiavoni described Toscanini as a great mentor who has had a big impact in strengthening local nonprofits.