Columbus residents noticed their leadership chose not to recognize the nation’s second-most important day of American culture and heritage, opting to celebrate foreign culture in its place. 

The city of Columbus failed to recognize the federal observance of Constitution and Citizenship Day on September 17, 2022. Instead, the city hosted a celebration of Latino culture without mentioning the federally-observed day at all. 

Constitution and Citizenship Day was most recently re-enumerated by former president Barack Obama in 2011 and is a non-partisan, all-American day of celebration rivaled only by the Fourth of July.

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Columbus Mayor Skip Henderson made no mention of the national day. Instead, Henderson embraced the city’s celebration of Latino culture in a Facebook post, sharing a captioned photo he presumably took of the event’s opening parade. The image depicted the flag of Mexico being displayed proudly by residents wearing traditional cultural garb.

Neither Mayor Henderson, the Columbus Consolidated Government, nor any other city agent made any mention of the federally-recognized Constitution and Citizenship Day, which ironically celebrates how American culture and freedoms provide the opportunity for people from across the world to become American citizens and share in the freedoms and multiculturalism our nation offers. 

Constitution and Citizenship Day is a federally-recognized day of observance. It celebrates both the signing of our nation’s constitution and those who have chosen to become U.S. citizens. While celebrations can be traced back to the document’s signing on September 17, 1787, the day was first federally enumerated by Congress in 2004. It recognizes the founding principles of our representative government, our Bill of Rights, and the frameworks which have progressively created the measurably-freest society and engine for innovation in the history of the world.

The freedoms and democratic government enumerated by the U.S. Constitution continue to serve as a beacon for freedom-seeking people from across the globe. Those freedoms are what enable the U.S. to build such a strong culture, offering equal opportunity for many peoples from nations who otherwise would never enjoy such freedoms and luxuries. 

In 2020 alone, 710,000 legal immigrants chose to move to and become legal residents of the U.S. During that same year, 628,254 immigrants also became full-fledged naturalized U.S. citizens. Their accomplishments are intended to be observed on September 17 of each year on Constitution and Citizenship Day. 

The city of Columbus instead chose to diminish the accomplishments of these newly-bonafide Americans, choosing not to recognize the holiday that specifically celebrates those who chose to become citizens of our nation nor the American constitutional culture which invited them to do so. Instead, the city chose to replace the federally-recognized day with a celebration of Latino culture in its place. 

In a festival largely coordinated by City Councilwoman Evelyn “Mimi” Woodson, the city of Columbus held the “Tri-City Latino Festival” for residents of Columbus, Georgia; Fort Benning, Georgia; and Phenix City, Alabama. 

The event began with a parade in which the colorful flags of Latino nations waved proudly throughout the streets of downtown Columbus. A festival then took place in the parking lot of the Columbus civic center, with dancing, food, and other aspects of Latino cultures being enjoyed by thousands. 

The event appeared to be a wonderfully-enjoyed and fun-filled success — though the city chose to do so on a day set aside to celebrate key principles of American culture, appearing to omit its significance altogether and replace it instead.

The timing of the event raises serious questions as to the Columbus Consolidated Government’s appreciation for the American culture upon which multiculturalism can be enjoyed. Of the 365 days of the calendar year, the event took place on the second-most important day of recognition and appreciation for America’s own culture.

The city held no such celebration for the nation’s own culture which enabled such diversity to flourish on the specifically-enumerated and federally-recognized day. No mention appeared to be made of it whatsoever.

The timing of the event, along with the city’s complete failure to mention the nation’s own federally-observed day, are highly suggestive of being purposefully intentional.

Many residents feel the celebrations of foreign cultures could have more appropriately occurred on any other day instead of replacing the nation’s own.

One resident voiced their opinion of why they felt upholding American heritage is important to maintaining healthy diversity here in Columbus:

“Other cultures are great, too. But it feels like our own (American) heritage is being erased so that other ones can replace it — which is weird because our culture and freedoms are what brought diversity and other cultures to our country in the first place. I don’t think we should forget that and I think we should celebrate that first.”

Another resident shared similar sentiments, explaining how they felt about the city’s failure to recognize the holiday:

“It’s disappointing, you know, to see that the city didn’t care enough to mention Constitution Day. That’s gotta come first. We wouldn’t even have other cultures to celebrate in this country without it. They never wouldda’ had the chance to come here or would even have wanted to (…) the city doesn’t seem to care (...) they  wanna pander to other (cultures) for votes (...) they don’t remember  what all this ‘diversity’ was built upon first and they're gonna ruin it for everyone if they don’t remember.”

The United States Constitution is the single driving reason behind the freedoms we all enjoy here in our nation; freedoms sought by many who have risked their lives to get here themselves. We ought to ensure we continue to appreciate it and never take it for granted.

Perhaps the leadership of Columbus, Ga. has begun to take our nation’s freedoms for granted. Their omission and choice to ignore Constitution and Citizenship Day does seem to suggest that. If they have not, perhaps they might care to recognize it on its federally-recognized day instead of replacing it with celebrations of cultures that wouldn’t be able to take place here without it. 

Residents can voice their opinions of the city’s failure to recognize the federally-observed Constitution and Citizenship Day and how it hosted the Tri-City Latino Festival instead by contacting their city council members through the city’s website here.