NAPLES, Fla. (WINK) \u2014 A new Christopher Columbus statue is now standing in Naples, and Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida was there to unveil it.<\/p>\n
The 6-foot bronze statue now stands in front of the Knights of Columbus building, as part of America 250.<\/p>\n
Two signs explaining the history of Columbus and early Spanish exploration in Florida also accompany the statue.<\/p>\n
The Knights of Columbus is a Catholic men’s organization with 60,000 members across Florida that gives back to the community through public outreach and charity events.<\/p>\n
The organization said the statue was funded through private donations and the location was chosen because of its visibility.<\/p>\n
The Knights of Columbus say Columbus is their namesake and they plan to stand by his legacy.<\/p>\n
“He discovered this place, this place where we call our home today, the Americas, the greatest country in the world. We are so proud to be Americans,” said Michael Josephs-Tobias, Knights of Columbus Council State Deputy.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Scott O’Connor, Knights of Columbus Supreme Director, also weighed in on the debate surrounding Columbus.<\/p>\n
“I think the story, the true story, needs to be told. You know, and there are those that would say, ‘Well, Columbus, you know, kept slaves and was not a great leader.’ Well, we beg to differ. In fact, you know, his own men mutinied against him because he was trying to protect the indigenous people,” O’Connor said.<\/p>\n
This statue is one of many DeSantis has unveiled across Florida as part of America 250, with only one or two more left to unveil.<\/p>\n
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is set to hold a press conference in Naples.<\/p>\n
DeSantis will be joined by Visit Florida President & CEO Bryan Griffin at the Knights of Columbus Council #4357, located at 3020 62nd St. SW in Naples.<\/p>\n
Watch the full conference above.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NAPLES, Fla. (WINK) \u2014 A new Christopher Columbus statue is now standing in Naples, and Gov. Ron DeSantis…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":429122,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[3837,7353,123,125,124,115],"class_list":["post-429121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-collaborator_gen_stories","tag-collier","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=429121"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429121\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/429122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=429121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=429121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=429121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}