Personally, I’d rather be nowhere near a black-masked, ninja-attired protest. But apparently, some people love it.
Amazingly — as I pointed out recently — for a portion of young America, the joys of youth have gone from this…
to this (Language Warning):
Antifa in Portland are still facing off with local police. They’ve been throwing projectiles at officers and the building. They’ve shut down the street for hours. #PortlandRiots pic.twitter.com/xBLyz8eS7N
— Andy Ngô (@MrAndyNgo) August 8, 2020
And I have to think the first one’s better.
But since many disagree, as relayed the Philly Inquirer, Christopher Columbus has gotta go.
For 144 years, Marconi Plaza’s been host to a statue memorializing the explorer, but now — according to Philadelphia’s Art Commission — the eyesore’s a magnet for violence.
Following the terrible death of George Floyd beneath the knee of Officer Derek Chauvin, you might’ve noticed some turmoil going around here and there, and some of that’s taken up around the monument. As I covered June 24th, Mayor Jim Kenney asserted the whole Columbus thing was just too much of a lightning rod:
To Jim, the monument — which was likely the first publicly-funded tribute to the man often credited with discovering the New World — should come down.
Kenney’s reason: “public safety.”
Here’s the world according to Jim:
“Like many communities across the country, Philadelphia is in the midst of a much-needed reckoning about the legacy of systemic racism and oppression in this country and around the world.”
The mayor wants to know — which parts of history deserve to be featured as parts of history?“Part of that reckoning requires reexamining what historical figures deserve to be commemorated in our public spaces.”
Across America over the past few months, statues of the Italian navigator have been assaulted. But this isn’t the Marconi memorial’s first rodeo.
The following occurred in 2018:
Christopher’s not getting much love from leaders lately; to hear some in charge tell it, the guy was downright devastating.
From The Daily Caller:
The Philadelphia Historical Commission had endorsed a city proposal to remove the statue on the grounds of public safety, arguing that it would only attract protests that would create the potential for harm, and also putting the statue itself at risk for being damaged.
City officials also argued in July that the statue should be relocated due to Columbus’ legacy, which included “enslavement, forcible removal, and the devastation of the Indigenous people.”
And now the Art Commission is giving the explorer the ax. It stated the statue will be put in storage, and the city’ll check with the Commission every half a year to see if they’ve determined a new location.
For a very long time in America, Christopher Columbus was celebrated. Public schools taught the nation’s children:
In fourteen hundred ninety-two
Columbus sailed the ocean blueHe had three ships and left from Spain;
He sailed through sunshine, wind and rain.
And thus was our union’s history.
That poem ended with, “The first American? No, not quite. But Columbus was brave, and he was bright.”
Now welcome to the New Enlightenment: As CNN asserted June 12th, “[C]hristopher Columbus wasn’t the hero we learned about in school.”
What will the children of tomorrow learn of our past? Or will there even be history in school?
If those determined to destroy what we were succeed, what will we then be?
We may be…history.
-ALEX
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