Posthumous award to be accepted by nephew Fr. Steven Giovangelo
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As a thank you to every donation, we will provide access to the Zoom award ceremony on October 12. Donations will go to the reelection campaigns of the awardees. Our suggested donation per ticket is $25, but we appreciate whatever you are willing to give. To receive tickets without a donation, just click “get tickets.” Thank you for your participation!
Donations are made through Building A New Chicago, a registered political action committee.
The Garibaldi Award for Political Courage
Giuseppi Garibaldi's life was a story of political courage
The work he pursued his entire life was a rebellion against the forces of chaos and a faith in the power of the future to create better possibilities. He believed one person could make a difference and lived his life in the faith that, even with the many setbacks he faced, he would achieve something closer to the future he envisioned than would have happened without his effort.
We need courage today - and we have to recognize it when it is displayed
In a city like Chicago, it is easy to give up on the idea of moral leadership in the political arena. The number of venal and mendacious politicians in our city, their long history of perverting the proper course of government, and the innumerable times they have gotten away with blatant criminality makes many Chicagoans give up on the idea of a better future.
But not everybody, and among those who have kept the faith are a few who have not only had the courage to fight the Establishment but the temerity and favorable fortune to win office. Among these, in recent months, we have encountered some through our struggles to end the honoring of Christopher Columbus, who have stood up in the face of tremendous pressure from the racist defenders of Columbus, as well as their own constituents to do what is right.
We believe these people reflect the spirit of Garbaldi right here in the Midwest in the 21st century, and as stewards of the heritage of our culture are committed to honoring them in his name.
This New Yorker review includes an excellent precis of Garibaldi’s life and captures the spirit of the man and the age (even as it pans the book it sets out to discuss).