Trump Middle East Peace Deal Brings Hostages Home | Columbus Day's Shocking True History

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Good Tuesday morning, Patriots, and welcome back to O'Connor's Write Stand. I'm your host, John O'Connor, software programmer by day, conservative truth seeker by night. Look, I know we usually dig deep into one story, but today I've got three things I need to talk to you about. Three stories that you need to hear, and they are all connected in ways that'll make sense by the end. First up, yesterday was historic. I mean, truly historic.

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Trump just brokered peace in the Middle East and brought every living Israeli hostage home. Every single one. After two years of captivity, after two years of Biden doing absolutely nothing, Trump got it done in nine months. We are going to break down how he pulled this off. And since you are getting this story everywhere, sure, I didn't want to repeat all of this, but I'd be amiss if I did not touch upon this historic story. Second,

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Yesterday was also Columbus Day. Now, before you tune out thinking you know the whole story, I guarantee you don't. The real reason we celebrate Columbus Day has nothing to do with what they taught us in school. We are talking about the largest mass lynching in American history, an international crisis, and a desperate political move by a president trying to win an election. And third, I just got back from visiting Rugby, Tennessee.

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Never heard of it? Most people haven't. It's this beautiful Victorian village tucked away on the Cumberland Plateau that was supposed to be a utopian colony. Spoiler alert, it failed spectacularly. But the story of why it failed teaches us everything we need to know about what actually builds civilizations versus what sounds good in theory. So, three segments, three stories, all tied together.

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The right stand starts now.

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Patriots, I need you to understand what we witnessed yesterday. President Donald Trump pulled off something that everyone said was impossible. He brokered a comprehensive peace deal in the Middle East, ended a two-year war, and brought home every single living Israeli hostage. And he did it all in nine months. Let me give you the timeline so you can understand just how incredible this is. October 7th, 2023, Hamas terrorists launched a brutal attack on Israel.

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They murdered over 1,200 people in one day. 1,200. They dragged about 250 hostages back into Gaza. For two years, these families lived in agony, not knowing if their loved ones were alive or dead. For two years, the Biden administration sat on their hands and accomplished absolutely nothing. Trump took office in January, nine months ago. In that time,

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He and his team put together a comprehensive peace plan, got both sides to agree, and yesterday those hostages came home. Nine months versus Biden's two years of failure. Here's how Trump did it. His team, and I'm talking about his son-in-law Jared Kushner and special envoy Steve Witkoff, worked with mediators from Egypt, Qatar, and Turkey to craft a detailed 20-point peace plan.

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On September 30, Trump forwarded the proposal to Hamas. He gave them three or four days to respond. By October 3, Trump laid down the hammer. He gave Hamas a hard deadline, Sunday, October 5, at 6 p.m. Washington time. Accept the deal or face what Trump called complete obliteration. And Hamas blinked. On October 8, they accepted.

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I love how this went down. Secretary of State Marco Rubio handed Trump a note right in the middle of a White House meeting about Antifa. Trump read it and told everyone in the room, we are very close to a deal in the Middle East. Two hours later, he posted on Truth Social announcing that both Israel and Hamas had signed off on phase one of his peace plan. The formal signing happened on October 9th in Egypt.

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The ceasefire took effect on Friday, and yesterday, Monday, October 13th, every single living hostage walked free. Twenty people who had been held over two years finally came home to their families. Now, Israel had to make some hard choices here. They are releasing about 2,000 Palestinian prisoners in exchange. That includes 250 people serving life sentences and 1,700

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who have been detained since the war began. The bodies of 28 deceased hostages are also being returned, though as of yesterday only four had been transferred. Here's what makes this deal so significant. Phase 1 establishes the ceasefire and gets the hostages home. Israel maintains control of about 53 % of Gaza during this phase. Phase 2, which they are already negotiating,

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deals with the long-term peace. Hamas has to completely disarm. Gaza gets demilitarized. And get this, there's going to be an international board headed by Trump and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair that will oversee Gaza's reconstruction and administration. Yesterday morning, Trump flew into Israel and addressed the Knesset. That's their parliament. He got a standing ovation. Prime Minister Netanyahu

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called it a great day for Israel and personally thanked Trump and his team. Then Trump flew to Egypt for this massive international peace summit. We're talking leaders from more than 20 nations. Egypt's president hosted the signing ceremony and called it the birth of a glimmer of hope for the entire region. Trump told the Israeli parliament, this is the historic dawn of a new Middle East. Generations from now, this will be remembered as the moment that everything began to change.

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What made this possible? Strength. Pure American strength. Back in June, the United States launched Operation Midnight Hammer. Massive strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities. Yesterday, when Trump was talking to Fox News about the peace deal, he was asked about Iran's nuclear program. Trump said, they don't have a nuclear program. It was obliterated. Those are his words from yesterday. That June show of force

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combined with Israeli's military victories in Lebanon and Gaza over the past months, sent a clear message to everyone in the region. When Trump says there will be consequences, he means it. That pressure brought everyone to the table. Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Jordan, Egypt, Turkey, all these countries that have been sitting on the sidelines for years, suddenly came together to push this deal through. And here's what really gets me.

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Even Democrats had to acknowledge this win. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who's not exactly a Trump fan as we all know, praised the administration. He said, finally, finally, finally, the last living hostages are home. I commend President Trump, his administration, and all who helped make this moment happen. When Chuck Schumer is praising Trump, you know something historic just happened.

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Even the liberal media couldn't ignore this. CNN had reporters in Tel Aviv saying Trump might be more popular in Israel than he is in the United States. There are Trump posters everywhere in Israel right now. People made artifacts dedicated to him. Even the View, yes that View, had to call it a massive diplomatic achievement. Trump's already been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by multiple lawmakers and international leaders.

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The families of the hostages themselves wrote a letter to the Nobel committee on Monday nominating him. Compare this to Biden's record. Biden had two full years while these families suffered, while hostages remained in captivity, while the war dragged on. What did he accomplish? Speeches, meetings, empty promises, zero results. Trump got it done in nine months. This is what American leadership looks like.

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This is what happens when you have a president who doesn't apologize for American strength, who doesn't bow to international pressure, who understands that real peace comes through strength and not weakness. Trump promised to end wars, not start them. Yesterday, he delivered on that promise in spectacular fashion. All right, let's shift gears here because yesterday wasn't just about Trump's peace deal. It was also Columbus Day. Schools were closed, banks were closed, government offices were closed.

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But I'm willing to bet everything I own that you don't know the real story behind why we celebrate Columbus Day. The first National Columbus Day was proclaimed in 1892 by President Benjamin Harrison. But it had nothing to do with celebrating Christopher Columbus or honoring Italian heritage. It was pure political damage control after the largest mass lynching in American history. I'm talking about March 14th, 1891.

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when a mob in New Orleans murdered 11 Italian Americans in cold blood. Let me tell you how we got there. In the late 1800s, New Orleans became a major destination for Italian immigrants. Ships carrying Italian citrus, they called them lemon boats, made regular trips from Italy to New Orleans, and immigrants came along with those shipments. By the 1880s and 1890s, thousands of Sicilians were arriving every year.

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Between 1884 and 1924, nearly 300,000 Italian immigrants moved to New Orleans. These were hardworking religious people. They worked the docks, the plantations, the railroads. They opened up shops and became entrepreneurs. But here's the thing, Protestant Americans didn't see these Italian immigrants as white. Sicilians with their olive skin and darker features were treated barely better than African Americans.

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They faced the same discrimination, the same prejudice, and yes, the same threat of mob violence. This is when a new word entered the American vocabulary, Mafia. Newspapers constantly stoked fears that every Italian was connected to some secret criminal organization. Italians were portrayed as dangerous criminals bringing violence and corruption to American cities. Then, on October 16, 1890,

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New Orleans Police Superintendent David Hennessy was shot and killed walking home from work. Hennessy was popular and well-liked. His murder sent shockwaves through the city. And despite having absolutely no evidence pointing to specific suspects, the city immediately blamed Italians. The New Orleans City Council actually granted $15,000 to something called the Committee of Fifty to push for the conviction of the Italians.

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not to find the actual murderers, to convict Italians, any Italians. 19 Italian men were arrested and charged. These weren't mob bosses or criminals. They were working class immigrants, dock workers, cobblers, fruit vendors, tinsmiths, a plantation laborer, just ordinary men trying to build better lives for their families. Nine of them went to trial. And you know what happened? Six were acquitted.

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because there was no evidence. The remaining three ended in mistrial because the jury couldn't agree. That should have been the end of it, right? American justice worked. They should have walked free. But the day after those verdicts, local newspapers published notices calling for good citizens to assemble at the Henry Clay monument on Canal Street at 10 a.m. to take steps to remedy the failure of justice in the Hennessey case.

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Come prepared for action. Think about that. Newspapers were literally publishing advertisements for a lynching, telling people when and where to meet. The Italian consul saw these ads and begged Louisiana's governor to intervene. The governor said he needed the mayor's permission. The mayor had conveniently left home for a breakfast appointment and couldn't be located. At 10 a.m. on March 14, 1891,

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Thousands of New Orleans residents showed up at that monument. Some reports say as many as 10,000 people. This wasn't just angry working class folks. This crowd included attorneys, government officials, prominent citizens. Future mayors and governors were in that mob. They marched to Orleans Paris prison, broke down the doors, and dragged 11 Italian men out. Some were repeatedly shot. Some

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were hanged. Their bodies were put on display like hunting trophies. The crowd cheered and celebrated. They actually ripped pieces off the bodies as souvenirs. The next day, the New York Times ran a headline that read, Chief Hennessey Avenged. Italian Murderers Shot Down. An editorial vilified all Sicilians as, sneaking and cowardly Sicilians, descendants of bandits and assassins. Most American newspapers congratulated the mob and

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justified the murders. A grand jury was convened to investigate, but the judge was a long-time personal friend of several people who participated in the lynching. On May 5, 1891, that grand jury declined to indict anyone. No one was ever prosecuted for murdering those 11 men. Here's where gets international. Three of those murdered men were Italian nationals, meaning they were citizens of Italy, not the United States.

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Italy was outraged. On March 31st, 1891, Italy announced it was severing diplomatic relations with the United States. Their ambassador left Washington and went home. Members of Italy's parliament actually introduced a resolution calling for a retributive naval assault on Americans' eastern seaboard. We were looking at potential war with Italy over this lynching. President Benjamin Harrison suddenly had a massive international crisis on his hands. Plus,

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a political problem. He'd won the 1888 election but lost the popular vote to Grover Cleveland. Cleveland was already positioning for a comeback in 1892, and Harrison needed every vote he could get, including Italian-American votes. Harrison came up with a two-part solution. First, he paid reparations, $25,000 to Italy, which was a lot of money back in 1891.

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It was an acknowledgement that something terrible had happened without actually admitting the United States was at fault. Second, and this is the key, Harrison decided to elevate Christopher Columbus as a celebrated American hero. Why? On July 21st, 1892, Harrison made his move. He issued a proclamation urging Americans to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Columbus' arrival in the New World. Now,

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Columbus actually landed on October 12th, 1492, so October 12th, 1892 was the true 400th anniversary, but Harrison's official proclamation called for celebrations on Friday, October 21st. New York City said, forget that, and held their massive celebration on the actual anniversary date, October 12th. More than one million people gathered. A parade with 40,000 participants marched through the streets.

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The next day, October 13th, the massive 76-foot Columbus Circle statue was unveiled in front of thousands. Over the next several decades, Columbus statues went up in Italian-American neighborhoods all across the country. And just like that, the connection between Columbus and Italian-American identity was cemented. Columbus Day became a way for Italian-Americans to claim their rightful place in American history. But Patriots

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We need to be honest about this. Columbus Day wasn't created out of genuine respect for Italian Americans or their contributions to this great country. It was created as political damage control to win in an election and prevent a war. It was designed to make Americans forget about 11 murdered men who never got justice. Fathers, brothers, sons, working men who came to America for a better life. All murdered by a mob. All denied justice.

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That's the real history behind yesterday's holiday. Alright, segment three. Let me tell you about my recent visit to Rugby, Tennessee. Because this story is absolutely fascinating and it teaches us everything about what happens when high-minded idealism crashes into cold, hard reality. Now, I'm going to write this episode up as a blog on o'connor'srightstand.com in the next day or so. So I will be adding a few pictures that my fiance took during our visit.

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So check there soon if you'd like to get some visuals. Anyways, Rugby sits way up in Morgan County on the Cumberland Plateau, surrounded by the Big South Fork National River and recreation area. We're talking 125,000 acres of wilderness. When you drive up there, you're struck by how isolated and remote it feels. And that isolation was completely intentional. Rugby...

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was founded in 1880 by a British author named Thomas Hughes. You might not know the name, but some of you may have heard of his book, Tom Brown's School Days. Hughes had attended Rugby School in England, where he'd been influenced by a progressive headmaster, and he decided to name his American colony after that school. But Hughes wasn't just building another frontier town. He was trying to solve a uniquely British problem.

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In Victorian England, they practiced something called primogeniture, which meant that the oldest son inherited everything, the estate, the title, the money, all of it. Second sons and third sons, they got nothing. So you had all these educated, cultured young men from the British gentry who suddenly found themselves with fancy educations, but zero prospects. In British society,

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Manual labor was considered beneath the upper classes, so these second sons couldn't work with their hands without destroying their social standing. The economic depression of the 1870s made everything worse. You had hundreds of educated young British men with no income and no future. Hughes looked at this disaster and had what he thought was a brilliant idea. What if we created a colony in America where class distinctions didn't matter?

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where British gentlemen could work with their hands without shame, where everyone pitched in equally and built something together based on Christian principles and cooperative labor. So in 1879, Hughes partnered with some British lawyers and bought into something called the Board of Aid to Land Ownership. They purchased about 35,000 acres on the Cumberland Plateau for roughly 20 cents to $2 an acre.

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planning to sell it to settlers for 50 cents to $25 an acre. On October 5th, 1880, Thomas Hughes showed up in person for Rugby's official opening. He gave this big speech laying out his vision. Every colonist had to invest $5 to ensure public ownership. Personal freedoms were guaranteed, though alcohol was banned. They'd build an Episcopalian church that any denomination could use. And Patriots...

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These colonists went absolutely wild building cultural amenities. They constructed this three-story inn called the Tabard, named after the famous inn in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. And get this, they actually shipped decorative wooden railings from the original 1383 English Inn across the Atlantic Ocean to put in their new Tennessee Inn. Think about that level of commitment. They built Christ Church Episcopal.

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in this beautiful gothic style with organ and altar hangings brought from England. They established the Thomas Hughes Free Public Library with over 7,000 books, many of them first editions. They published their own newspaper edited by Oxford graduates. They created tennis courts and croquet lawns. They formed social clubs and put on theater productions. The New York Times, Harper's Weekly,

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All the major publications followed Rugby's progress. This was big news on both sides of the Atlantic. British aristocrats and American pioneers working together in the American South, building a model community based on cooperation and equality. At its peak, Rugby had about 350 residents and roughly 70 buildings. For a brief moment, it looked like utopia might actually work. And then, reality came crashing down.

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First there was a typhoid epidemic in 1881 that killed seven people. When you only have 350 residents, losing seven people is devastating. Then devastating fires burned down multiple buildings. But here's the real problem that killed rugby. Nobody knew how to farm. These were educated British gentlemen who knew literature and philosophy and how to play tennis. They didn't know agriculture.

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The Cumberland Plateau soil is rocky and difficult. Growing crops required knowledge and skills these colonists simply didn't have. Plus, they'd spent all their time and money building tennis courts and libraries and fancy inns while neglecting basic infrastructure like roads and proper housing. They'd build a resort when what they needed was a working farm community. By 1892, the utopian dream was dead.

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The Board of Aid reorganized as the Rugby Tennessee Company and focused on harvesting timber and minerals for profit. All those anti-materialistic ideals got tossed out the window. By 1900, the company had sold its holdings and most colonists had left. But here's what's remarkable. A small community stayed. The Walton family maintained the library and church through the mid-1900s.

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In 1966, a 17-year-old kid named Brian Stagg from nearby Deer Lodge led an effort to preserve what was left. Today, over 20 of the original Victorian buildings still stand. You can visit Rugby, walk through that library with its original books, attend Sunday services in that Gothic church, and step back into 1880. When I visited last weekend, I was struck by the beauty of these buildings and how well they've been preserved.

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But I was also struck by what rugby teaches us. Thomas Hughes had this beautiful vision of a classless society where everyone worked together cooperatively. That vision failed because good intentions aren't enough. You can't build sustainable communities on idealism alone. You need practical skills, agricultural knowledge, and realistic expectations about what it takes to survive.

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The colonists who actually succeeded in building America weren't the ones chasing utopian dreams. They were the ones who showed up with axes and plows and knowledge of how to work the land. That's true in 1880, Rugby, and it's true in 2025 America. We don't need more utopian schemes and grand theories. We need people willing to do the hard, practical work of building and maintaining civilization. Well, that's our show for today, Patriots.

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Three stories, three lessons. Trump just showed the world what real American leadership looks like. The Columbus Day story reminds us that our history is complicated and we need to face it honestly. And Rugby taught us that utopian dreams are worthless without practical skills and hard work. If you haven't already, make sure to hit that subscribe, follow, and or like button. It really helps me out and thank you in advance. Once done here, head on over and check out O'Connor's Quick Strike.

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Remember, Quick Strike airs Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. This podcast is always Tuesdays and Thursdays. And as always, I appreciate you joining me in this fight. Find me on X at O'Connor Podcasts or check out the website at O'Connor'sRightStand.com. Remember, Patriots, America wasn't built by dreamers and ivory towers. It was built by people willing to work hard, face reality, and never give up. That's what made us great, and that's what will keep us great.

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This is John O'Connor, signing off. Until next time, stay strong, stay informed, and never stop fighting for the country we love.