Columbus Statue

Peshewegunzh (mamia.uucp!peshe@mthvax.cs.miami.edu)
Thu, 6 Jun 91 12:20:31 EDT

It's disturbing how every form of protest is OK, save spilling washable
red dye on an inanimate stone statue. One picture is worth a
thousand words of a political statement in an illiterate age: the
sense conveyed, whether Columbus himself was a moral or immoral man,
is one of disturbing truth - that the westward development of this
continent by America was no act of innocence.

What hypocrisy that red dye on a statue of a man dead for centuries
prompts more outrage than the hundreds of thousands of gallons of
human blood spilt to ensure European continental hegemony.

I would suggest that an indelible dye, not so easily washed, be used
in future events. The result is an icon equally as valid as the
original one. If statues are to be in remembrance, they need to provoke
remembrance of the truth. If this produces anger, that's good. It means
false sensibilities are losing their footing.

Defacing a statue of Columbus by anyone else might be an act of
vandalism; by an American Indian it becomes a courageous, iconoclastic
act of conscience. God knows American consciences need to hurt about
this.

I believe that Christopher Columbus, from his present vantage point,
would not disagree.

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Peshewegunzh

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